I have been a huge fan of the films that 20th Century Studios has been putting out under president Steve Asbell since Disney’s acquisition of the studio: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was probably my favorite movie of 2024 and both Alien: Romulus and the Avatar sequels have been solid action blockbusters that deliver on their respective genres.
So I was pretty intrigued when CinemaCon rolled around this year and reports started coming in of a wild trailer for a movie called Whalefall, based on the 2023 book by Daniel Kraus (who has a screenplay credit on the film). Turns out Ron Howard’s production company (the guy really seems to like whales and diving) scooped up the rights and got the film made at Disney/20th Century.
The director of the film, Brian Duffield, had previously worked with the studio on a film for Hulu called No One Will Save You, a survival thriller following one character throughout an alien invasion (I am definitely going to be watching it ASAP after this movie), so it’s no surprise that he was Asbell’s top choice to direct a movie that’s mostly a dude trying to not get digested by a whale (Duffield has since been tapped to rewrite the Alien: Romulus sequel).
Starring in this film is none other than Austin Abrams, who recently did another very different survival movie with Resident Evil. Abrams does some impressive heavy lifting in both that movie and this one, and really sells you on both the reality of the respective fantastic situations and the wild mix of emotions of someone who thinks that they might meet their final end being digested by a whale.
Co-starring in the movie is Abrams’ Weapons co-star Josh Brolin, who once again is playing a tough dad who has trouble connecting with his son (mainly seen through flashbacks). Some of the elements surrounding how the memories of his dad interact with his son from inside the whale can be a bit corny but emotionally it worked for me.
The third star of this movie, however, is the team at Weta Workshop: since Avatar: The Way of Water, they are the go-to effects house for anything water related. I will be genuinely shocked if this does not get a Best Visual Effects Oscar nomination. One scene in particular where a pod of orcas attacks the whale that Abrams is inside is one of the coolest VFX scenes I’ve ever seen.
While the film is PG-13, it may still be a tough watch at some points as Abrams struggles to survive: you may not want to see the inner bowel movements of a whale even though a lot of it is obscured by the darkness. Unfortunately this may be part of the reason the film is struggling at the box office, although this probably also was the fault of the marketing deparment.
Ultimately, Whalefall worked for me: a high-concept survival thriller that’s ocean scenes are just as engaging as it’s scenes on land with Abrams and his father. I will say, I did shed a tear during a climactic scene involving a memory of father and son. I’ve seen videos of people watching this in 4DX which seems terrifying and yet also so much fun, but regardless see this one in a movie theater!
Unless you are afraid of whales. I don’t think this will do you any favors in that regard if that’s the case.
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No One Will Save you is a great little B movie! It’s mostly dialogue-less and kinda scared the crap out of me a few times