The title Whalefall comes from the decaying carcass of a whale that sinks to the ocean floor, where it ironically becomes a source of life that feeds the entire ecosystem. The more spiritually inclined have variations of this for humankind as well, as a way of giving meaning to a person’s death, comforting us with the thought that they are still here, nurturing us and the planet. Brian Duffield’s film, adapted from the book by Daniel Krauss, reimagines this concept as a deft, heart-pumping survival thriller and a bittersweet father/son drama. It’s also another chance for us to hear the screams and squeals of star Austin Abrams, who is put through even more of a nightmare than he was in Resident Evil.
Undoubtedly, you have heard of the absurd premise behind Whalefall, that it basically takes place inside of a sperm whale’s gut after a scuba diver has been swallowed up Pinocchio-style. That diver is Jay, played by Abrams, and he’s an emotional wreck. Josh Brolin plays his father, Mitt, a legendary diver and an ornery drunk who rode Jay pretty hard growing up. Mitt was constantly going on about the ocean, what it provides to humanity, and humanity’s culpability in disrupting the ecosystem. But Mitt also had terminal cancer, and rather than spend his time wasting away in a hospital, he offs himself in the place he loves most: the ocean. Jay, who was estranged from his father at the time, returns home with the goal of finding his father’s remains at the bottom of the sea. It’s a foolish quest, one borne of extreme guilt, and Jay soon discovers just how foolish it was.
Before long, Jay gets gulped down into the gullet of a gigantic whale, along with the giant squid it was attempting to feast on. The cinematography by Aaron Morton and the visual effects are astonishingly good here, capturing Jay as he gets washed down like a Slurpee, kicking and screaming the entire way. It’s an intense, claustrophobic experience, with all sorts of disgustingly squishy sounds echoing around Jay at all times. Whalefall is one of those movies you watch with clenched buttcheeks through partially-covered eyes.
If you thought Abrams went through a lot facing mutated creatures in Resident Evil, it’s got nothing compared to what he experiences in Whalefall. Imagine being trapped inside of a rapidly flooding cave where the walls are constantly closing in on you. That squid meant to be the whale’s appetizer becomes an immediate threat, but so too is Jay’s rapidly depleting oxygen. With only about 60 minutes of air, he’s got to do everything possible to escape as quickly as possible. That becomes more difficult when he’s sucked further in and faces corrosive stomach acid, which burns his skin, and the constant threat of methane gas, making it nearly impossible to breathe. There’s also the danger of the whale diving so deep that it will burst his eardrums and knock him into unconsciousness, leaving him to be slowly digested as fish food.
While the physical toll is exhausting, Jay also faces just as much psychological pain. The film is divided into two narrative beats, one where Jay fights for his life, and the other in which he experiences flashbacks of his father, trying to come to grips with who Mitt was and why he treated his son so harshly. Of course, this is also where Jay begins to take some of Mitt’s life lessons to heart. And this is where Whalefall really surprises, in that it plays out a lot like an Andy Weir novel, in the vein of The Martian and Project Hail Mary. The shockingly resourceful Jay uses every tool at his disposal, and every scientific experiment he can muster up, like if MacGyver somehow stumbled into Moby Dick.
Imagined conversations between father and son, and a lot of quasi-spiritual mumbo jumbo muck up a schmaltzy, heavy-handed final act. The whale, a truly majestic creature, becomes a stand-in for all of Jay’s issues with Mitt. Like the old man, the whale is dying, angry, alone, and unable or unwilling to ask for help. You probably don’t go into Whalefall expecting anything more than cinematic chum, but beneath the spectacle’s surface is a powerful, riveting film about mortality and legacy.
Whalefall opens in theaters October 16th.
