A film that hits cinemas on October 15, and which many, including the writer here, have found irresistible since its announcement, propelled by a logline that can be summarized as: A man is swallowed by a whale, let’s see if and how he can escape and save himself. The movie is titled Whalefall: Into the Whale, and the logline proved to be irresistible even for its director, who goes by the name Brian Duffield, whom we spoke to via Zoom. “I thought it was a fantastic idea for a film,” he told us. But, of course, he explained that there were other reasons that drew him to the project as well: one of them being the Daniel Kraus novel from which it was adapted. “The book is amazing not only for the whale’s story, but also for the bond between the protagonist Jay and his father Mitt, for how this relationship wears down and remakes itself, and for the path Jay must undertake to understand his father but also himself.”
Whalefall is therefore both an adventure film about the unfortunate Jay who is swallowed by a sperm whale and the story of processing the grief of a father’s death with whom he had major conflicts while he was alive. To understand it better, here is the plot and trailer of the film.
Whalefall: Into the Whale — Plot and Trailer of the Film
Following the death of his father (Josh Brolin), Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) dives off the central California coast in search of his remains but is swallowed by a gigantic whale. While trapped in its belly with only an hour of oxygen left, Jay realizes that the lessons hard-won from his father could be the key to his escape.
As noted, the dual spirit of the story comes from the novel, which Duffield wanted to adapt as faithfully as possible, so much so that he co-wrote the screenplay with its author, “to do our best in finding the right balance between these two stories. The only thing that changes is that in the book Jay has flashbacks that last two or three sentences, and there are a lot of them: in the film, of course, we couldn’t do the same thing,” he explains, “and so we condensed them, placing them where we thought the audience would need a breath or a moment to reconnect with Mitt, and to keep the emotional side of the story alive.” And while the whale and the swallowed diver intrigued the director from a certain angle, the father‑son arc drew him in because the project was pitched to him while he found himself “somewhere between these two characters. My son was a newborn when I read the book the first time, and it was impossible to read it without thinking of me and him,” Duffield says, “and my second son was born four days after finishing the film, so it was somehow framed by my children.”
Visually, Duffield tells us, “it was important for us to make the audience feel the ocean as infinite, to heighten the claustrophobic sensation of that enclosed space—the whale’s stomach.” The director and his team sought to be very precise from a scientific standpoint, because the closer we adhered to science, the more unsettling the thing became. It wasn’t easy, because no one has ever truly seen the stomach of a living sperm whale, their anatomy having been studied only on stranded and often decomposed specimens. We began by hypothesizing, from a scientific perspective, what those spaces might look like, and then worked out how to reproduce them with artificial materials to make them as natural-looking as possible.” Like many, Duffield says his relationship with the ocean is “a mix of respect and fear. I don’t think I’m cut out for the sea, even though I enjoy boating and swimming, because there’s always that kind of terror you feel, especially when you dive, coming from not being able to turn around quickly, and from knowing that everything down there is where it should be and you are not; you’re an intruder in a foreign realm. In any case, we worked very hard to be mindful of our impact and to be as non-invasive as possible. We behaved as if we were guests of the ocean and made sure not to do anything that could cause harm.”
The film’s lead, playing Jay, is Austin Abrams, who has recently earned praise in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil project. Duffield spoke highly of him: “When Austin auditioned, he blew us all away. I think there’s something in him that makes him truly irresistible to watch. He’s an incredibly interesting actor who always strives to be authentic and give his best, and he’s also very selfless. His performance, to me, is truly credible and very vulnerable.” The gruff father Mitt is played by Josh Brolin, who on screen shares a strong chemistry with the young co-star: “Josh and Austin have known each other for more than 15 years; I think they first worked together on Gangster Squad,” Duffield explains, noting that they spent a lot of time talking about family and the relationships with their children and parents. “Then, when you have two extraordinary actors, among the best of their generation, as a director you don’t have to do much: all you need to do is choose the right take instead of thinking, ‘Oh, I only have one good one.’”
What the director hopes will emerge in viewers of Whalefall is a reflection on one’s own family bonds: “I hope it’s seen with an open heart, because while shooting it we let the emotions guide us; I believe that for those who, like me, struggle to suppress their feelings, it could be a challenge.” The gauntlet, then, is now in your hands to take up Duffield’s challenge.
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