Four months ago, 20th Century Studios released a teaser trailer for the movie Whalefall with an instantly iconic tagline: “The odds of being swallowed alive by a whale are not zero.” What a terrifying fact, especially after seeing the film. Not zero. Of course, the odds of it happening are still astronomically small, but that doesn’t do Austin Abrams any favors as the poor bastard who falls prey to statistics — and a sperm whale.
Based on the novel by Daniel Klaus, Whalefall is a story of a fractured father/son relationship tangled up in a tale of survival. The first portion of the movie plays out its character story with some efficiency, opening with a brief prelude depicting the final moments of Mitt (Josh Brolin), a tough-as-nails diver beloved by everyone except his son Jay (Abrams). One year after Mitt’s death, Jay returns from college to visit his mother and sisters and honor the anniversary. His actual reason for coming home, though, becomes clear when he sneaks out early in the morning for a surreptitious dive off the coast of Monterey, hoping that he might be able to find some remnant of his father’s remains out in the ocean.
The curse of a memorable premise like Whalefall’s is that it’s impossible to forget what’s about to happen as soon as Jay starts his dive, amping up the tension the moment his feet get wet — a tension that explodes when a sperm whale hunts a squid for breakfast, and thanks to the squid’s tentacles, Jay gets dragged down into its mouth.
Then Jay’s stuck inside a whale, which to be clear is unpleasant. Who knew that body horror could encompass the idea of being inside an actual body? I don’t think I’ve ever before squirmed in a movie theater the way I did watching Jay confront the very visceral nature of his new surroundings; even with the knowledge that those whale interiors were filmed on a soundstage, the very tactile sets covered in goo certainly sell the real terror of the situation. (For the record, the documentary Musk is still the scariest horror movie of the year… but only because it’s longer.)
From there, the movie focuses on Jay’s quest for survival. This proves captivating in part because, well, it’s certainly a unique situation — but Austin Abrams’ performance is also a huge factor in how engaging this is. It’s more than a little funny that Whalefall arrives just one month after Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, another movie in which Abrams has some bad tentacle-related luck. (Hopefully, this won’t lead to him getting typecast, especially considering the lack of hentai adaptations on the horizon.) But what stands out is that Abrams really has proven his ability to serve as the emotional anchor of a story, eliciting the audience’s sympathy even when his character is making arguably unwise decisions.
Josh Brolin, meanwhile, shows up in enough flashbacks to earn him his second billing, though he’s not there to win over the audience: Most of said flashbacks feature him belittling Jay to the point of abuse. Enough glimpses of charisma do come out to confirm that Mitt’s the kind of guy everyone loves — as long as you’re not his son, burdened by impossible expectations.
Whalefall (20th Century Studios)
The good news for Jay is that buried in those memories are the things he needs to remember in order to survive, something that only occasionally feels overplayed. As unique a story as this might be, the biggest challenge Whalefall faces is pretty common — finding fresh ways to keep escalating the plot of a single-character, single-location story. It’s unfortunately not as successful as that as it could be, with a middle section that drags somewhat as Jay’s survival efforts lose focus and flounder. (Apologies for the fish pun.)
This is then followed by a final act that takes a big, impressionistic swing that pushes the movie out of its otherwise grounded nature, and into overtly sentimental territory that feels at odds with the survival story in play. Some of the emotional grenades launched do make an impact, though, as Jay’s need to process his father’s death becomes deeply linked with his desire to live through this.
Overall, Whalefall is without question the best movie I’ve ever seen about someone being swallowed by a whale. (I was never a Pinocchio fan.) And beyond its achievements within that very specific subgenre, it manages to deliver a cathartic experience that’s very human, even relatable. It’s still statistically unlikely that anyone reading this will ever experience Jay’s dilemma. Yet we all face grief in our lives. Grief that can consume us whole.
Whalefall dives into theaters on Friday, October 16th. Check out the latest trailer below.