Force Majeure Avalanche — Diners at a snowy mountain restaurant terrace with an avalanche visible on the slope behind them.

Force Majeure Avalanche

2019viral videoclassic

Published November 11, 2026

Force Majeure Avalanche is a clip from Ruben Östlund's 2014 film, in which a father calls the oncoming avalanche safe seconds before fog engulfs the restaurant and diners panic. It went viral on Twitter in June 2019 after user @zama_mdluli paired it with a procrastination caption, and within a week posters were using the format for climate denial jokes and Brexit takes.

movie quote memes reaction memes delayed virality memes twitter memes denial memes

Overview

Posts in this format pair the clip with a caption naming a looming disaster the poster is ignoring or downplaying, with the father's unruffled 'controlled avalanche' line standing in for denial or procrastination2. Captions include personal takes like a tweet about putting off assignments6 and political ones like Ziwe Fumudoh's line about American climate response3. The humor sits in the beat between the father's confident posture and the fog that erases everyone two seconds later.

Film fans noted the meme crops out the scene's point: the fog is harmless aerosol in the movie, and the father's instinct to flee before his family drives the plot8.

Origin & Background

Platform
Film (2014) / Twitter (viral spread 2019)
Date
2019

Force Majeure premiered at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard on May 18, 2014, directed by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund1. In the avalanche sequence, a family eating on the deck of an Alpine restaurant watches a wall of snow approach while the father tells them it is a controlled slide. Fog then engulfs the restaurant and the diners scramble. A YouTube upload of the scene7 circulated in film circles for years before Twitter users turned it into a reaction clip in 2019.

How It Spread

On June 4, 2019, Twitter user @zama_mdluli posted the clip with the caption 'Me watching a bad situation and doing nothing till the final hour,' passing 34,000 retweets and 97,000 likes2. The next day, comedian Ziwe Fumudoh (@ziwe) ran it with 'this is exactly how america reacts to global warming,' topping 51,000 retweets and 140,000 likes3.

Over the following week, political and workplace riffs followed. User @GreekAnalyst used the clip for a Brexit joke on June 6, 20194, while others posted versions about work5 and last-minute assignments6.

Among viewers who knew Östlund's film, users like @HOLLYWOODRUFF and @Jer_Diamond joked that the memes were doing more promotion for the movie than its original marketing had8.

Timeline

2014-05-18

Force Majeure premieres at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard.

2019-06-04

Twitter user @zama_mdluli posts the clip with a procrastination caption, hitting 34,000 retweets and 97,000 likes.

2019-06-05

Comedian Ziwe Fumudoh (@ziwe) posts a global warming version that passes 140,000 likes.

2019-06-06

User @GreekAnalyst posts a Brexit version as the format picks up political riffs.

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How to Use This Meme

Posters typically caption the clip with a line that names a looming disaster they are dismissing, ignoring, or putting off. Common uses include climate change takes, political crises like Brexit, and workplace or deadline anxiety.

Frequently Asked Questions