In 2025, The Great Flood delivers a gripping story that combines disaster, science fiction, and emotional survival. Set in a near-future Seoul devastated by rising waters, the film follows An-na, a brilliant AI researcher, and her young son Ja-in as they struggle to survive a catastrophic flood that engulfs the world. When the film opens, torrential rain has already lasted for weeks, and the city’s defenses collapse under the relentless force of nature. Trapped in their apartment building, An-na and Ja-in cling to each other while power fails, communications go dark, and the water slowly rises toward their floor.
As chaos spreads, a mysterious man named Hee-jo, a member of a private security force, breaks into their building. His mission is unclear—he claims to be there to rescue them, yet he seems to know more about An-na’s research than he admits. The tension between them deepens when An-na realizes her own work, involving artificial intelligence capable of predicting human survival, might hold the key to humanity’s future. What began as an experiment to understand life and emotion has now become the only hope of rebuilding civilization after the flood.
The story grows more intense as the water rises and their safe spaces shrink. Entire floors vanish beneath the surface, forcing them to climb higher through collapsing stairwells and submerged corridors. The world outside is eerily quiet—no rescue teams, no sign of the government, only the endless sea that used to be a city. Hee-jo’s motives begin to unravel when he admits he was ordered to secure An-na’s research, not necessarily to save her. Yet, despite their distrust, they must depend on one another as they navigate through flooded ruins in search of a rescue craft that may never come.
Inside the apartment, memories and confessions surface between moments of peril. An-na tells Ja-in about his father, a man who believed in the beauty of human life even as the world decayed. The film weaves intimate emotion with spectacle—the roar of collapsing buildings contrasts with the fragile silence of a mother comforting her child. When An-na finally discovers that her AI system still functions, she faces a terrible choice: to preserve the data that could restore humanity or to save the last survivors trapped with her.
As the flood reaches its peak, An-na and Hee-jo race against time to reach the roof, carrying Ja-in through storm and debris. A helicopter appears in the distance, but it’s uncertain whether it’s real or a desperate hallucination. In the film’s haunting conclusion, An-na sacrifices her work to protect her son, watching the last traces of her research sink beneath the waves.
The Great Flood ends not with triumph but with reflection. Amid the ruin, there is still hope—a mother’s love, a child’s laughter, and the faint glimmer of dawn over a drowned world. The movie reminds its audience that survival is not only about endurance but also about compassion, and that even when everything is lost, humanity’s heart can still rise above the flood.
