The Big Picture

• The Impossible is a film based on the true story of the Belón-Álvarez family, who survived the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
• The family's harrowing experiences and miraculous reunions serve as a testament to the power of the human spirit in the face of disaster.
• The making of the film was an emotional undertaking for the family, who returned to the real locations and relived their trauma, ultimately hoping to honor those who didn't survive.

At 7:59 A.M. on December 26, 2004, a massive underwater earthquake, registering 9.1 on the Richter scale, struck the Indian Ocean. In the following hours, the coastal areas of numerous nations in the region were bombarded with catastrophic tsunamis, with the devastation ranging from Southeast Asia to as far away as East Africa. An estimated 225,000 people would ultimately lose their lives in one of history's deadliest natural disasters, and many thousands more would be left displaced, injured, and traumatized. Among the seemingly countless victims of the tragedy was a family of five tourists, and their harrowing experiences served as the foundation for 2012's The Impossible. Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, and a 14-year-old Tom Holland, director J.A. Bayona's film recounts the Belón-Álvarez family's struggle to survive when their Christmas holiday takes an unexpectedly horrific turn.

What Happened to the Belón-Álvarez Family?

Though renamed the Bennetts and hailing from the UK in The Impossible, the real-life Belón-Álvarez family is from Spain. Alongside their sons Lucas, Simón, and Tomás, parents María and Enrique traveled from their home in Japan to a Thai resort in Khao Lak for Christmas in 2004. On the third day of their tropical getaway, they were relaxing poolside when a tsunami suddenly swept through the resort and surrounding areas. Of the moment before the tsunami struck, María recalls, "We started to hear a very horrible sound. It felt like the Earth was coming apart but everything looked perfect. I was facing the sea and saw a huge black wall. I didn’t think it was the sea. I thought it was a black wall coming to get us."

María was reportedly underwater for approximately three minutes, and after surfacing and struggling to stay afloat in a maelstrom of water and debris, she miraculously found her eldest son, Lucas. Clinging to a tree as the relentless current surged, María and Lucas struggled to remain above the waterline until it subsided. Meanwhile, Enrique and his two younger sons, Tomás and Simón, were separated by the massive wave. Emerging from the chaos, Enrique found Tomás taking refuge in a tree and, nearly an hour later, located Simón in another tree.

Badly injured but mobile, María and Lucas began the arduous task of finding refuge. After coming upon and rescuing a Swedish boy, they found salvation through the assistance of a Thai man. "The man wouldn’t allow me to die," María remembers. "He dragged me through the mud for a long time until he was sure I was in good hands." After two days of trekking through a devastated Thai landscape that resembled something out of an apocalyptic movie, the Belón-Álvarez family, seemingly against all odds, reunited in a local hospital. Having sustained life-threatening injuries to her chest and thigh, María underwent extensive surgical operations and was taken to a hospital in Singapore, where she would remain for four months.

How Did the Belón-Álvarez Story Get Hollywood's Attention?

According to the LA Times, the Belón-Álvarez family's story attracted attention through sheer chance. Unexpectedly securing a radio interview after calling into a station, María Belón publicly recounted her family's experience as enamored film producer Belén Atienza listened during a commute. Atienza recalls being "obsessed with this mother that was in this situation where she couldn’t afford to die." Though it would be a lengthy process, María Belón and Belén Atienza forged a partnership to bring the gut-wrenching story to the silver screen. "When we first met, I had two objectives," Belón said of her first encounter with the filmmaking team behind The Impossible. "One was trying to scare them and two was to look in their eyes and see if they were the ones who really wanted to swallow this big responsibility."

Over five hours, she relayed her story to a captivated audience that included director J.A. Bayona, who Belón remembers was tearful and "breathing heavy." Despite some hesitancy from Enrique Álvarez, who found the notion of his family's story being adapted to film a puzzling one, work commenced on what would become The Impossible. But the journey to the screen was time-consuming, requiring two years of script development that Belón was closely associated with. Upon completion, Bayona and his international cast and crew traveled to Southeast Asia to begin production on the film. Unsurprisingly, Belón's intimate involvement with recreating and reliving the traumatic events she and her family experienced proved difficult.

Making 'The Impossible' Was an Emotional Undertaking For the Belón-Álvarez Family

Opting to shoot at real locations, including the Orchid Beach resort where the Belón-Álvarez family stayed and the hospital where they reunited, J.A. Bayona sought a level of authenticity that couldn't be replicated on sound stages or with sets. Supportive of the idea, María and her family journeyed back to Thailand for the first time since 2004 to act as consultants on the production. "I could almost feel all the souls there," María told the LA Times. "We had to go back with different feelings than how we left. We left feeling pain, shock."

Months later, the family watched The Impossible for the first time. Though viewing the film was an overall challenging experience that María characterized as a "roller coaster," the full emotional weight of seeing it didn't hit her until it neared its conclusion. Confronted by the unimaginable scale of the loss of human life resulting from the disaster, she was reminded of the harsh reality that thousands of survivors would never see their loved ones again. "It’s for the people who didn’t make it and for the people who are alive," she said of the film's impact. "I think of them every day — those that are suffering, those that miss people. I don’t miss people in my life. And missing people is the worst thing that can happen."

What Happened to the Belón-Álvarez Family After 'The Impossible'?

In recent years, each member of the Belón-Álvarez continues to thrive and spread goodwill to others. María Belón lives in Barcelona, working as a doctor, a motivational speaker, and an advocate for victims of natural disasters. In a similarly charitable vein, Enrique Álvarez has put his own experience with survival to use by volunteering for a non-profit organization aiding refugees traveling through the Mediterranean Sea. "Having lived through certain situations in the past doesn't desensitize you," he told The Huffington Post. "Instead, you empathize more with others. Things feel closer." Following in their parents' altruistic footsteps, María and Enrique's three sons pursued a desire to help others. Lucas studied medicine at the University of College in London, and according to the BBC, Tomás attended a lifeguard program at the University of Wales. Simón, the youngest, also trained as a lifeguard and has occasionally worked alongside his father in the Mediterranean.

"I do not deserve to be alive, but life is not fair," María Belón told People in 2020. "I feel pain and compassion for so many others who didn’t come back up or lost the ones they love." Though The Impossible presents a firsthand recreation of the events experienced by only one family, its account of suffering and survival against overwhelming odds serves as a microcosm for thousands of people from around the globe, filtering their collective suffering and endurance through an intimate yet universal lens of the human spirit.