The Impossible was present at the American Film Market in both 2010 and 2011, but we haven't heard much outside of AFM.  Warner Bros. has released the first teaser trailer---it is stylish and striking and accomplishes everything you want from a teaser trailer.  Impressively, the teaser does all this while dubbed in Spanish.  The Impossible is the English-language debut of Juan Antonio Bayona, director of The Orphanage, which was a massive hit in Bayona's homeland Spain.  So it makes sense that the first big promotional push is in Spanish.  Luckily for the rest of us, the disaster genre is a universal language.

Led by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, The Impossible tells the story of a family caught in the tsunami that hit Thailand seven years ago today.  Watch the trailer after the jump.

Twitch kindly translated the intertitles:

On December 26, 2004, a devastating tsunami hit the coast of Southeast Asia.

The lives of thousands of families around the world changed forever.

This is the true story of one of these families.

The AFM synopsis:

MARIA (Naomi Watts), HENRY (Ewan McGregor) and their three sons begin their winter vacation in Thailand, looking forward to a few days in tropical paradise. But on the morning of December 26th, as the family relaxes around the pool after their Christmas festivities the night before, a terrifying roar rises up from the center of the earth. As Maria freezes in fear, a huge wall of black water races across the hotel grounds toward her.

Henry grabs the two youngest boys, SIMON and THOMAS, but it’s too late: the wave smashes into him with incredible force and dislodges his grip. Maria is pushed underwater, where she is crushed and battered by debris to the brink of death. She finally surfaces in a raging black sea, which has completely submerged her three-story hotel and the surrounding landscape. Maria gasps for breath while she tries to understand what has just happened, convinced that her family has been obliterated in the blink of an eye. But then, her eldest son, LUCAS (Tom Holland), surfaces a few meters ahead in the wild flood. Face-to-face with something unexpected and incomprehensible, she must fight against all odds for her child’s survival. And her own.

ewan mcgregor the impossible
ewan mcgregor ewan mcgregor the impossible