‘Whalefall’ Builds Existential Suspense Inside the Raging Belly of a Beast

Alci Rengifo

When a thriller like “Whalefall” is done well, you easily forget all of the scientific questions. The joy of creature features is that we know instinctively that a giant ape cannot scale New York skyscrapers or that dinosaurs can be resurrected via mosquitos. Maybe a sperm whale could swallow a person whole, just maybe. Director Brian Duffield, adapting a novel by Daniel Kraus (who co-wrote the screenplay with Duffield), finds real drama in this material, reaching popcorn existential heights with a wonderfully gross premise. He is not making schlock or getting pretentious. In terms of action filmmaking, this is an example of how to pull off a particular genre well.

We open on the high seas, as this film must, watching as talented, yet terminally ill, diver Mitt Gardiner (Josh Brolin) decides to commit suicide by strapping weights to his body and jumping into the Pacific from a boat. It is one final haunting moment for his son, Jay (Austin Abrams), now attending college in Iowa, who had to get away from the domineering Mitt. Jay returns to California to see his sisters and mother (Elisabeth Shue). He feels compelled to put on his diving gear and go into the ocean where his father perished, determined to at least find a bone to bring back. While traversing the dark depths, a squid appears, and then a low rumble means something else is nearby. It turns out to be a massive sperm whale that swallows both squid and Jay. Now entrapped inside the beast, Jay has to survive as his mind wanders back to memories of Mitt.

“Whalefall” is an excellent take on a particular kind of thriller that stays relegated to a specific space, like those movies where the hero is in a car or call center the entire time. It then doubles as a deep survivalist ride. On top of that, you can approach the film as a parable about what a parent passes on to a child during the act of rearing. As an experience, Duffield and his team keep the environment feeling almost entirely practical and organic. Production designer Ramsey Avery turns the interior of the whale into a kind of membrane or slimy chamber, minimalist enough where we can indeed believe this is what it would be like. Jay has to try and make his way through this terrain as if it were its own dangerous world, which in a sense it is, with little space to squeeze through. Inevitably, his oxygen supply also begins to run low and breathing in a toxic environment is no option (just think of what’s inside your system breaking down a meal).

Abrams’ performance turns into something rather heroic, as he struggles with threats inside the entrails, such as sea creatures that can latch on to your body. He then has to evoke the wounded psychological state of the character as well. Flashbacks show us just how tempestuous life with Mitt could become. The older man would drill into his son the ways of diving, which double as techniques to learn basic life skills. Brolin is good as well in the role, not playing the dad as a monster, but as the rough, earthy type who scoffs when Justin’s friends want to go check out an aquatic park instead of the real thing. Deep down, Justin knows he was loved, despite literally swimming away from his father one night to get some freedom. 

The screenplay gets ingenious with the different ways Mitt’s life lessons translate into options for surviving and possibly escaping the whale. Like “127 Hours” or the recent “Heart of a Dog,” physical exhaustion becomes a metaphor for the battles of the soul. Yet, as pure action the film is skillfully done with elegant photography by Aaron Morton and atmospheric score by Joseph Trapanese. Some shots would be silly under lesser talents, like Justin poking his head out above the whale’s massive tongue, screaming for help when he hears a tour boat nearby. It works because the entire time we feel the sheer strain of his plight. We later learn the title refers to the process of a whale’s dead carcass lowering to the ocean floor, where it becomes an ecosystem for other creatures. “Whalefall” borrows from a rich ecosystem of past thrillers, summoning its own original beast of a good time and engaging characters.

“Whalefall” releases Oct. 16 in theaters nationwide.