Following the death of his father, Jay Gardiner dives off California’s Central Coast in search of his remains, only to be swallowed by a massive sperm whale. Trapped inside with one hour of oxygen, Jay must draw on the lessons his father taught him to escape.
Director: Brian Duffield
Cast: Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, Emily Rudd
Release Date: October 16, 2026
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Rated PG-13 for peril, violent content, bloody images, some strong language, and thematic content.
Runtime: 1h 46m
Review:
Whalefall’s modern day Jonah story takes a decidedly claustrophobic and gooey approach to the story that works fairly well in the first half of the film before things take a more abstract turn in the back half of the film. Brian Duffield has delivered some well-made thrillers such as 2023’s No One Will Save You and 2020’s Underwater which makes him perfectly suited for this adaptation of the book of the same name. Once he sets up the basics of the family dynamics he quickly moves to the action to the ocean which makes for some beautifully shot sequences in the ocean before he moves the actions inside of the whale. When the action moves inside it turns into something closer to 127 hours except the walls and fluids are actively trying to digest the main character. Austin Abrams is tasked with carrying the film on his own for large portion of the film, which he does so impressively by putting the audience in his shoes in spite of how outlandish the situation is. His sole costars, in the whale, are a rather nasty CGI squid that’s ingested with him and a helpful bioluminescent jellyfish he uses as a flashlight at one point which leaves him having to generate every shred of emotions that he can pull out of the character. It’s an impressive performance, it’s tangibly different than his snarkier but equally hapless courier in this year’s Resident Evil, that lets you feel every moment of guilt and unresolved daddy issues particularly in the flashback and real-world scenes. He and Josh Brolin work off each other incredibly well together which leaves you wishing Brolin’s character had been given a bit more depth since we never get a clear idea as to why he treats his son so harshly. Lacking any sort of context, Brolin’s character’s sole motivation for treating his son like crap is to prepare him for the inevitable moment he’s shallowed by a whale. It saps those moments of authentic emotionality since they amount to little more than 2002’s Signs infamous "tell Merrill, swing away" moment. It doesn’t help that the flashbacks are so heavy handed and self-serious that you’re left with the impression that they read better on the page vs onscreen. It’s a similar situation to the final act which moves into a much more hallucinatory and abstract approach which makes for a strange tonal shift that’s sure to turn off a portion of the audience. Elisabeth Shue and Jane Levy have small supporting roles, but the film and story doesn’t give them anything worthwhile to do, which is a waste of their talents. Sadly, it leaves Whalefall being a bit of mixed bag since it doesn’t take advantage of Austin Abrams performance and the visceral sense of claustrophobia from the first half of the film.
C+
