The film spans from March 11, 2001 to September 19, 2011, starting with Noland's own experience in the Tōhoku Earthquake and tsunami, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster followed by volunteer activities in Ofunato
In 1918, the young Jiro Horikoshi longs to become a pilot, but his nearsightedness prevents it. He reads about the famous Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, and dreams about him that night. In the dream, Caproni tells him that building planes is better than flying them.
Henry Bennett (Ewan McGregor), his physician wife Maria (Naomi Watts), and their three sons Lucas (Tom Holland), Tomas (Samuel Joslin), and Simon (Oaklee Pendergrast) go on a Christmas holiday in 2004 to Khao Lak, Thailand. Arriving on Christmas Eve, they settle in and begin to enjoy the brand new Orchid Beach Resort. Two days later the massive 2004 tsunami inundates the area.
The opening shot is a panorama of Los Angeles, revealing a city where all of the buildings and inhabitants are some form of commercial branding: birds in the form of Bentley logos, Microsoft's butterfly, pedestrians in the shape of the AIM icon, overhead highway signs mounted on Atlantic Records logos, etc. The major characters are revealed in an Altman-esque tableau. The Pringles mascot (voiced by David Fincher) pulls into a restaurant's parking lot and propositions an Esso Girl waitress (voiced by Aja Evans) who is on a smoking break. Two Michelin Man cops in a parked cruiser (voiced by Bob Stephenson and Sherman Augustus) are introduced as they debate the morality of keeping animals in zoos. Across town, Bob's Big Boy (voiced by Joel Michaely) and Haribo (voiced by Matt Winston) are on a tour at the zoo led by a flamboyant Mr. Clean (voiced by Michaely). The two boys hate the tour and hop off the tour train. They soon begin to harass the MGM lion by mooning it and throwing a Coca Cola bottle at it, but they are scolded by the zoo security, the Green Giant.
"Blackie" Norton (Clark Gable), a saloonkeeper and gambler in the notorious Barbary Coast, owns the Paradise Club on Pacific Street. He hires a promising, but impoverished, classically trained singer from Benson, Colorado named Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald), who becomes a star attraction at the Paradise. The piano player at the club, dubbed "The Professor" (Al Shean), can tell Mary has a professionally trained voice. Mat (Ted Healy), Blackie's good friend at the Paradise, wisely predicts that Mary is not going to stay on the "Coast".
Après le tremblement de terre et le tsunami de mai 2011 la vie de Yuichi Sumida est bouleversée, n'ayant aucun rêve dans la vie il souhaite mener une vie normale et tranquille cependant son environnement le traîne à plusieurs reprises dans la boue. Il doit gérer la boutique de location de bateau de ses parents. Sa mère alcoolique vient fréquemment à la maison avec différents hommes puis l'abandonne. Son père, lui, vient seulement lui réclamer de l'argent lui répétant sans cesse "J'aurais aimé que tu n'existes pas."
Surviving the Tsunami brings together social, environmental, and personal perspectives of the national catastrophe of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. In the documentary, Kyoko Miyake travels back to her hometown in Namie, Fukushima, to revisit her old life and assess the trauma still lingering from the disaster. She revisits Namie, her mother's hometown and meets the people who depended on the success of the nuclear plant for their livelihood. The film also follows Bunsei Watanabe and Kyoko Miyake's Aunt Kuniko, two people who hope for the rejuvenation of Namie, despite the disaster that has occurred. Despite having lost family, friends, and jobs due to the meltdown and subsequent fear of the contamination zone, these two individuals are determined to rebuild their towns and neighborhoods and bring back the sense of community they once had. The film follows the residents of Namie, with emphasis on the experiences of Aunt Kuniko, as they come to terms with the reality of living in or near the "radiation zone" left in the wake the plant's nuclear meltdown. Surviving the Tsunami offers a different perspective on Japanese culture, national identity, human adaption, and global nuclear energy and proliferation.
In 1906 San Francisco, Frisco Jenny Sandoval (Ruth Chatterton), a denizen of the notorious Tenderloin district, wants to marry piano player Dan McAllister (James Murray), but her saloonkeeper father Jim (Robert Emmett O'Connor) is adamantly opposed to it. An earthquake kills both men and devastates the city. In the aftermath, Jenny gives birth to a son, whom she names Dan.
At a ball held on the night of the 1904 presidential election, serious Louise, frivolous Helen, and stolid Grace, daughters of Silver Bow, Montana pharmacist Ned Elliott and his wife Rose, find themselves dealing with romantic prospects. Tom Knivel is about to propose to Louise when Frank Medlin, a San Francisco sports reporter, asks her to dance. Infatuated with the young woman, Frank extends his stay, and at Sunday dinner in the Elliott home he announces he and Louise plan to wed. Although her parents disapprove of the union, Louise leaves for San Francisco with Frank that night. Grace eventually marries the jilted Tom and Helen weds wealthy Sam Johnson, who promises her freedom and asks for nothing in return.
Un séisme affecte le Japon entraînant l'explosion d'une centrale nucléaire. Dans un petit village appelé de façon fictive Nagashima, un couple de fermiers mène une existence des plus paisibles et s'accroche à sa propriété malgré les consignes des autorités qui définissent un périmètre de sécurité coupant en deux la localité. Fils et belle-fille partent, quant à eux, vers un autre village, où, Izumi, la jeune épouse, découvre qu'elle va mettre au monde un enfant. Un film évoquant la catastrophe du 11 mars 2011 à Fukushima.
À la suite du terrible tremblement de terre de 1988 en Arménie, un père de famille russe et un jeune arménien décident de porter secours aux survivants et de retrouver leurs proches.
Chris Buckwell, cruel and greedy czar of San Francisco's tenderloin, is heartless in his persecution of the Chinese, though he himself is secretly a half-caste. Buckwell, eager to possess the land of Don Hernández Vásquez, sends Michael Brandon, an unscrupulous attorney, to make an offer. Brandon's nephew, Terrence, meets the grandee's beautiful daughter, Dolores, while Vásquez refuses the offer. Terry tries to save the Vásquez land grants, but when Chris causes the grandee's death, Dolores takes an oath to avenge her father. Learning that Chris is a half-caste, Dolores induces his feeble-minded dwarf brother to denounce him; he captures her and Terry, but they are saved from torture and death by the great earthquake of 1906 that kills the villain.