An awe-inspiring disaster epic holds its breath for a perilous ascent up the streaming ranks

Norway might not immediately spring to mind as a hotbed for top-tier cinematic disaster epics, but the nation has quietly been building up a stellar repertoire of effects-driven spectaculars revolving around a single cataclysmic event, with The Burning Sea the latest to make a splash on streaming.

Following in the footsteps of environmentally-tinged spiritual bedfellow The Wave and its sequel The Quake – both of which have proven plenty popular on-demand – FlixPatrol has revealed director John Andreas Andersen’s offshore nightmare scenario as one of the most popular features on the iTunes global charts, and it’s easy to see why.

The subgenre in general is a perennial performer because it balances sweeping set pieces and nail-biting thrills with settings, locations, and forces of nature you don’t see onscreen all that often, with The Burning Sea living up to its title and then some. Opening in 1969, the local government discovers one of the world’s largest oil fields, and the dollar signs immediately flash.

Fast forward 50 years, though, and the consequences begin to manifest through a crack in the ocean floor, which causes a rig to begin collapsing. From there, scientists and experts discover that it could just be the first step towards global devastation, while there’s also a neat little love story thrown in for good measure.

As the evidence has shown, the Norwegian disaster story is on its way to becoming one of the industry’s most reliable-yet-unsung offshoots of storytelling, with The Burning Sea merely the latest example in what’s fast becoming a hot trend.