‘Whalefall’: So WTF, this review is all questions, answered

Sometimes a movie comes along that is so bizarre that a traditional review of it seems beside the point. Will audiences go to see Whalefall because they expect masterful cinema? Or will they go because the premise is so batshit nuts that you need to see it for yourself? Or maybe people will go because they’ve developed a crush on Austin Abrams or Josh Brolin?

Whatever your totally valid reason for being interested in Whalefall, here’s what you need to know with only minor spoilers.

What is Whalefall about?

It’s a tale as old as the Bible, sort of: man gets eaten by a whale.

Specifically, college student Jay Gardiner (Abrams) is grappling with the suicide by drowning of his gruff scuba-diving father on the one-year anniversary of the tragic event. The body of Mitt Gardiner (Brolin, brawny, tan, and covered in nautical tattoos) has never been recovered. So, to bring some solace to his sisters (Jane Levy and Emily Rudd) and widowed mother (Elisabeth Shue), Jay decides to go on a secret dive to reclaim at least some of his dad’s remains from the ocean. (“Just one bone!” he says to psych himself up before taking the plunge.)

With one hour of oxygen in his tank and a lot of hard-won lessons from the bellowing, abusive Mitt, Jay sees this as an opportunity to prove his manhood to his deceased dad. However, his quest becomes a self-rescue mission when he gets snagged in a battle between a giant squid and a sperm whale.

Like the squid, he’s swallowed by the whale. And now, he has under an hour to get out before he’ll suffocate. Of course, a whale’s innards are not hospitable to humans, which Jay learns the hard way as he falls from its mouth to its stomach and beyond.

Is Whalefall based on a true story?

No. It’s based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Kraus.

The author collaborated on the adapted screenplay with writer/director Brian Duffield, who’s previously helmed the dark comedy Spontaneous and sci-fi horror movie No One Will Save You. The former is a teen-centered movie about what happens when high school students begin to spontaneously combust. The latter is about a lonely woman who seeks escape when she learns her small town has been invaded by aliens.

Does Whalefall explain its title?

It does.

Does Whalefall explain its title by having Josh Brolin saying “whalefall” to direct to camera?

Josh Brolin plays Mitt Gardiner in “Whalefall.”
Credit: Jennifer Clasen / 20th Century Studios

You betcha.

Some context: While the story of Whalefall mostly takes place inside a whale, Jay’s hour of oxygen allows him time to reflect on his relationship with his departed dad. Every time he takes a particularly gnarly blow, Whalefall knocks the audience back to a relevant memory through flashbacks. Sometimes, this is Mitt drunkenly screaming betrayal at Jay for leaving their coastal California town for college in Iowa (a word that Brolin manages to snarl as if it’s a slur).

In another instance, Mitt is marveling about how the death of a whale can have an incredibly positive impact on the ocean. When a whale dies, its carcass sinks to the ocean floor, where it becomes food for many other creatures, from sharks to clams. In this way, it becomes an ecosystem of its own, its bones creating a reef-like structure for more life.

Mitt explains this occurrence, telling Jay in the memory that it’s called “whalefall.”

Is Whalefall a good father-son drama?

Well, it’s certainly a father-son drama.

Jay’s battle to survive becomes a metaphorical battle to understand his father, and let go of his anger toward him. Flashbacks reveal both the highs and lows of their relationship, but also set up accidental lessons on how to survive this particular outlandish scenario.

As Jay’s time is running out along with his oxygen, he begins to address the whale and hears his dad’s voice. Think Star Wars and the “use the Force” of it all. In voiceover, Mitt begins to refer to “we” — seemingly meaning Mitt and the whale.

Did the whale eat Mitt?

Unclear.

Is Jay hallucinating, or is he talking to his ghost dad in the belly of a whale?

It’s certainly open to interpretation. You say tomato, I say Jay’s having a psychological breakdown because men would rather get eaten by a whale than go to therapy.

Austin Abrams being eaten by a whale.
Credit: 20th Century Studios

Is Whalefall funny?

Yes. Sometimes intentionally!

As fans have noted from Abrams’ recent turn in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, this affable leading man has a great skill for physical comedy amid body horror. Whalefall puts his character into a literally tight space (whale innards), subjecting him to violence that is new nightmare fuel. But in that, Abrams plays Jay not like the rugged seaman his father was, but as a scrawny kid who’s trying his best while freaking out regularly. And yeah, that’s often pretty damn funny.

Jay talks to a bioluminescent jellyfish that he names “Glowy.” He takes blows hard, with a sharp comedic timing that makes Whalefall fun rather than simply harrowing. But also, the earnestness of the father-son story is awkwardly stuffed amid these moments, making some of them laugh out loud silly. Like when Mitt says somberly, “The whale is forever.”

What does ‘The whale is forever mean’?

I don’t know. The whale is the friends we made along the way?

Wait, is Whalefall gross?

Oh absolutely.

As teased in the trailers, there’s solid action in this movie, including the battle of the squid and the whale, and Jay’s determined efforts to climb his way out of the mighty marine mammal’s open maw one tooth at a time. But for much of the movie, he’s in the whales guts. It’s basically spelunking in innards.

This means Jay’s often surrounded by organ folds and sphincters, which — despite the pretty flecks of blue bioluminescent plankton — are pretty repulsive!

Things only get grosser as he battles stomach juices, saliva, and flesh-eating stomach bile as he navigates his escape. So, those crushing on Abrams may have a tough watch ahead of them, as he takes on some brutal physical abuse in the movie that results in gnarly prosthetic work.

Jay and Glowy in “Whalefall.”
Credit: 20th Century Studios

Is Whalefall fun?

No question. It’s like The Shallows, if The Shallows were way more ridiculous.

Pitched into this life-or-death sea creature situation, an average nautical sportsperson is challenged to survive with whatever they have handy — while battling their own grief and parental issues.

Whalefall has several exciting sequences, that are jaw-droppingly intense. Like, I’ve never thought about how it’d feel to climb up a whale’s esophagus. Abrams makes it seem very exciting and terrifying. Props to him!

This journey is enhanced by Joseph Trapanese’s score of screeching strings, along with cinematography by Aaron Morton that stays suffocatingly tight on Abrams’ panicked face. His eyes bulge, his teeth are covered with spittle, and his face is pinched, communicating the pressure in that belly. Then, a sound effects team weaves together truly unnerving sounds to express the violence of this scenario, from the snapping beak of a furious squid to the booming explosion of a ruptured eardrum.

Editor Pietro Scalia smartly accentuates such moments by creating intervals of blackness and silence, allowing the audience to take a breath and let the horrors they’ve witnessed sink in (or to get our giggles out of the bonkers action onscreen).

Is Whalefall a good movie?

Let’s not get carried away.

To Duffield’s credit, he’s made a movie that is exciting, funny, and gross in a thrilling way that makes Whalefall a fun film to see in theaters with a crowd. But the sentimentality of the father-son stuff becomes a drag, forcing Brolin into a caricature of an abusive, drunken working-class dad.

To Brolin’s credit, he’s never boring, and commits even when the dialogue gets treacly or confounding. But the emotional beats of the movie feel shallow in the midst of so many gross-out, goofy scenes about a dude trapped IN a whale.

Duffield does attempt to balance such spectacle with scenes of oceanic wonder outside the whale. The sperm whale plunging into the depths of the Pacific or pursued by a pod of orcas is gorgeously rendered. The sheer vastness of the sea making it seems as if Jay and the whale are swimming through deepest space. It’s awe-inspiring, even when violent.

But the balance is off in terms of dialogue, where the living Mitt (in flashbacks) is incapable of spitting anything but insults and sharp-tongued advice, and the Mitt in Jay’s mind is soft-spoken, encouraging, and spewing self-help book poetry.

Still, overall, Whalefall is a wild ride worth taking.

Whalefall opens in theaters Oct. 16.