Whalefall - An Interesting Survival Thriller Movie in Unexpected Location

For our second movie marathon, we saw this one that was released on Wednesday. It was something that interest me due to its premise. It was playing in the cinema very near our home so even though we chose the 5 PM show, it was not inconvenient to return home after it was finished. All right then, let's just get on with it.

Brief Story Line

A year after the death of his father Mitt (Josh Brolin - Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Sicario: Day of the Soldado etc), Jay (Austin Abrams - Resident Evil 2026, Do Revenge etc) returned to his home town. He was reunited with his mother Zara (Elisabeth Shue - The Boys TV series, Leaving Las Vegas etc) and his two older sisters Eva (Jane Levy - Castle Rock TV series, Monster Trucks etc) and Nan (Emily Rudd - One Piece live action series, Fear Street Part 2: 1978 etc).

Apparently Jay had a personal mission of searching for his father's remains in the sea. While doing so, he was somehow gotten swallowed by a sperm whale and with less than an hour of oxygen, Jay had to find way to save himself.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As you can see from the brief story line which was roughly what the synopsis of the film was about, it had a very interesting premise. Granted survival thriller genre is quite common but I don't believe I have seen the one where the person was trapped inside the stomach of a whale. Anyway the early part of the movie was pretty standard with introduction of the characters. The first few minutes were intelligently done with no dialogues but clearly shown the very important stuff.

Subsequently the film gotten really intense once Jay began his personal mission, although in the beginning it felt that the intensity was disrupted with flashback scenes. However as the movie progressed, it was obvious that the flashback were important for the story development. During this moment, my wife and I felt the suspense and thought of how it would conclude. Although towards the end the story seemed to shift to a more spiritual feel, it had a beautiful conclusion. Only thing that felt a bit incomplete was the missing part on that letter as I think it would have given a more powerful end and left a stronger impression.

This movie would not have been interesting without the great performance by its lead star Austin Abrams. He was so convincing and gave audience a strong attachment to him with the worry of whether he could make it or not. And btw what is it with him this year? As my wife rightfully mentioned he already had to face deadly zombies a month back and now had to survive in the stomach of a whale. Oh another thing, he looked so young in here despite only few months separated from the two movies. Josh Brolin was also pretty convincing in his role as the father who only wanted to pass all his knowledge to his son. Fun fact: this marks the reunion of Austin Abrams and Josh Brolin after they both played in Weapons. Aside from the above names, there was only one more person in minor role, i.e. John Ortiz (Nobody 2, Peppermint etc) as family friend Hewey. 

The film itself was based on a 2023 novel of the same title by Daniel Kraus (writer of Angel Down which won Pullitzer Prize for Fiction in 2026). Amazingly I read that even before Whalefall was published, it already got pre-emptive deal for film adaptation. The movie was directed by Brian Duffield who was known for directing the positively reviewed No One Will Save You. He was also credited as the writer together with Kraus. It has duration of 106 minutes including closing credits without any mid or post end credit scene.

Overall this was an interesting survival thriller drama in a location that I had not seen before. It was great with strong performance from Austin Abrams supported by some good special effects and sound effects. There were obviously few emotional scenes combined with strong spiritual moments towards the end. It was quite well received by critics and audience were quite receptive as well. It did surprise me with its quite big budget of USD 60 million which would require plenty of Box Office number to turn into profit. Overall if you are fan of survival thriller drama, then likely you would enjoy this one with its unique location. My wife and I were satisfied with this movie, but the strong spiritual moment and that missing part I mentioned above did make it feel less powerful for me.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars