The Great Flood continues to captivate global audiences, rising to become the most-watched movie on Netflix worldwide. Blending large-scale disaster imagery with a tightly focused emotional core, the Korean sci-fi thriller has pushed beyond genre boundaries, turning an apocalyptic scenario into something intimate, tense, and deeply human.
The film centers on a mother, her child, and a single apartment building as rising waters collapse the distance between safety and danger. Directed by Kim Byung-woo, the filmmaker behind The Terror Live, The Great Flood builds its impact through mounting pressure and moral uncertainty, a combination that has helped position it as one of Netflix’s defining original releases of the year. Here is everything you need to know about The Great Flood – from the plot and cast to reviews and release date. The trailer is at the bottom of the article.
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The Great Flood: All the key details
- Title: The Great Flood
- Original title: 대홍수
- Format: Movie
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Genre: Korean, Sci-Fi Movies, Action Movies
- Country of production: South Korea
- Original language: Korean
- Release date: December 19, 2025
- Director: Kim Byung-woo
- Lead cast: Kim Da-mi, Park Hae-soo, Kwon Eun-seong
- Produced by: Netflix
What The Great Flood is about
The Great Flood opens on a terrifyingly simple problem: water that will not stop rising. A raging flood traps a researcher and her young son inside an apartment building, cutting off escape routes and shrinking the world to stairwells, sealed doors, and the brutal arithmetic of time.
The film’s tension is built around more than physical survival. A call connected to a crucial mission changes the meaning of rescue, linking one family’s desperate fight to a larger question about what can still be saved when the planet itself feels past the breaking point.
The Great Flood cast: the main characters
Kim Da-mi stars as An-na, the researcher at the center of the crisis. Known internationally for her work in Itaewon Class and The Witch: Part 1 – The Subversion, she brings a controlled intensity that keeps the film grounded, even as the premise escalates.
Park Hae-soo plays Hee-jo, a security officer pulled into the situation as the stakes widen. After breakout global recognition in Squid Game, Park has become one of Korea’s most reliable screen presences for characters who project calm while carrying something unreadable underneath.
Kwon Eun-seong plays An-na’s young son, the emotional anchor of the story and the force that turns survival into something sharper than endurance.
Is The Great Flood based on a true story?
No. The Great Flood is a fictional story. It draws on contemporary anxieties around climate catastrophe and systemic collapse, but it is not presented as a dramatization of a specific real-world event.
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What reviews say about The Great Flood
Reviews of The Great Flood have broadly positioned the film as a genre-blending disaster story that extends firmly into sci-fi territory, placing moral tension and psychological pressure at the center of its narrative. Critical response has frequently highlighted the central performances, with Kim Da-mi’s restrained and emotionally grounded portrayal cited as a key strength. Some assessments also note that the film’s ambitious narrative choices may divide viewers who expect a more conventional, action-driven disaster format.
Why watch The Great Flood
If you enjoyed The Platform or Snowpiercer, this film fits naturally into that space, blending high-concept survival tension with a tighter, more intimate sense of threat. The Great Flood is designed to keep you locked inside its scenario – and then quietly raise the question of what “escape” even means when the world outside is already underwater.
The Great Flood release date on streaming
The Great Flood began streaming on Netflix on December 19, 2025. Watch on Netflix
Watch the trailer
Here’s the trailer to get a first taste.
