“Yay! We’re done! All done, Ja-in!”

Genre: Repetition Sci-fi
Release Date: 2025
Where I Watched: Netflix

Gist: Um. Okay. So there’s an asteroid that does something to the water tables of the world, causing Noah-level floods and the extinction of the all life. (Except maybe water life? I don’t know. Nobody cares in this story.) So a scientist and her son live in a high rise that helps them survive the initial wave, but then things keep repeating. Because the scientist is an AI developer, and the space mission that needs to save humanity has to make sure…something? Got all that? Me neither.

Gotta say: This wants to be a mashup of Interstellar, Arrival, and Triangle so desperately. It does not succeed.

Flood isn’t the kind of story you can pop on and watch while folding laundry. It requires you to pay close attention, and care about these characters. I was in on that first bit, but not the second. While Kim Da-mi is amazing as beleaguered scientist/mom Dr. Gu An-na, Kwon Eun-seong is the poster child for annoying kids as An-na’s son Ja-in. That’s not the kid’s fault. This one’s on the adults in charge.

Writer/director Byung-woo Kim has a great idea, and mixing elements of earlier films (see above, I’m too exhausted from trying to make heads or tails of this mess of a story to cut and paste) had my attention. Well, at least at first. But Flood‘s needlessly convoluted story spins it’s wheels, repeating moments over and over again with very little plot or character development. An-na doesn’t seem to be a character who needs too much convincing to become a true mom to Ja-in. So the bulk of this film feels unnecessary and pointless. 

Things end because the powers that be in the story decide they should. Sure, An-na does make a decision at the end, but it’s a decision anyone who’s been paying even the slightest bit of attention could see she’d have made much earlier, if they’d simply laid out what needed to happen.

Instead, we get seemingly endless didactic bullshit the film wants to believe is intriguing storytelling. It’s not. It’s boring. That’s an insult to the performers, and to the cool premise – what if apocalyptic flood in Very Tall Apartment Complex – and to viewer’s intelligence.

The final scenes are sweet, with An-na a serene mom, and Ja-in being his typical annoyingly pushy self. But perhaps I found these final moments bearable simply because I knew the film was coming to a close.

Don’t bother with Flood. Just rewatch your favorite disaster film instead. And maybe pour one out for the time (and brain cells) I wasted checking this one out.


Come for: An interesting idea
Stay for: Netflix Nyquil