It’s been a tough month for Austin Abrams. First he has to nettle a zombie apocalypse in Resident Evil. Now, he gets swallowed by a whale. I’m not sure luck gets any worse than that, huh? Expect next month for him to get hit by lightning and possessed by a demon while taking the Train to Busan. Come to think of it, that still might beat spending an hour in the stomach of a sperm whale.
Actually, sperm whales have four stomachs and while I don’t recommend hanging out in any of them, once you’re in #2, I think it’s game over.
Jay Gardiner (Abrams) has a very love hate relationship with his father. Well … mostly hate. Mitt Gardiner (Josh Brolin) was a sea-faring bully. But don’t be fooled, he could also manipulate passive-aggression. Imagine Popeye beating up Bluto out of spite, then sitting alone in the dark and telling Olive Oyl, “I don’t mind that you went out with Wimpy today.” Jay wasn’t a fan. And, hence, Jay worn when learning his cancer-suffering father committed suicide by drowning.
One year later, Jay decides it’s a good idea to go look for dad. So he takes some scuba equipment, ignores some signs, and searches the shallows where dad might have been. The sea shelf plummets only after a short distance and Jay has the luxury of watching what should have been a deep sea pursuit between giant squid and sperm whale. The whale wins, but in passing, the squid latches onto Jay who gets dragged into the mouth of the whale. And. Pretty soon, he’s sharing stomach chamber with a giant squid. “This stomach ain’t big enough for the both of us.” Awkward.
Ridiculous as this premise is, I’m going to go with it because I see no reason why necessarily this couldn’t happen; it just wouldn’t happen. I mean there are many things that can happen but never do, in fact I’d say such describes the majority of the possible universe, but just because it can yet wouldn’t doesn’t mean it won’t. If that makes any sense. Tell ya what; it probably makes equally as much sense as the plot.
OK, so what do you do? You’re alive with a tank and about 45 minutes of air in sperm whale stomach #1. (Just ignore the squid and its razor-sharp beak for the present.) (And ignore that this stomach is used for crushing and compressing, especially with things a lot more malleable than human bones. Lemme put it this way – who do think lasts longer in a vice, you or a giant squid?) So … if 
you ignore the implausibility, the rival, and the function of the stomach itself, you got a heckuva dilemma. Oh, and don’t advance to stomach #2 or you’re done.
This is about the part of the film where Jay sees the whale as his dead father and starts having conversations with such. They’re hard to hear because he’s constantly pulling on an oxygen tank. Hallucinations? Not sure. It makes sense in movie context. I think. I will leave it at that. To survive this, Jay better remember everything his father taught him about the sea.
So is the lesson here to have a better relationship with your father so he’ll commit suicide on land … or to heed what your bully father tells you even if he’s being a dick? I could go either way here. Anyway, if you buy the premise, Whalefall is an exciting film. It will definitely remind one of a “buried alive” scenario, which tend to be among the most well-considered of film genres. Not sure Whalefall rises to that level, but it was still entertaining.
There was an ingrate named Jay
His father up-and-died one cold day
Seeking some closure
With ill-timed exposure
He got treated as a sperm whale’s prey
Rated PG-13, 105 Minutes
Director: Brian Diffield
Writer: Brian Duffield, Daniel Kraus
Genre: Man v. Fish (“psst, they’re mammals.” “I said what I said”)
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Claustrophilials?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Whales
