Whalefall Movie Sounded Ridiculous. Then We Looked Into the Science
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Time to read 5 min
A scuba diver gets swallowed by a sperm whale and has to escape before his air runs out. That was roughly where I stopped taking Whalefall seriously. It sounded like someone had watched Pinocchio and decided what it really needed was a dive computer and considerably more suffering. Then I came across a National Geographic conversation with author Daniel Kraus, director Brian Duffield and sperm whale biologist Shane Gero, who leads the field biology work at Project CETI. Hearing the filmmakers discuss the research behind the story made me reconsider. My first question about Whalefall had been whether the premise was completely ridiculous. Now I wanted to know which parts were grounded in reality, where the filmmakers had stretched things, and what an actual sperm whale would be doing while its unexpected passenger tried to work out an exit strategy.
There is quite a lot to unpack. Preferably from outside the whale.
What is Whalefall about?
Adapted from Kraus’s novel, Whalefall follows Jay Gardiner, played by Austin Abrams, as he dives off California’s Monterey coast to search for his late father’s remains. His relationship with his father, played by Josh Brolin, was difficult, and the dive carries rather more emotional baggage than his equipment can accommodate.
Then Jay gets caught up in a sperm whale feeding on a giant squid.
With roughly an hour of air remaining, his problems become considerably more immediate. The survival story in Whalefall unfolds alongside memories of his father and the lessons that might help him stay alive.
That combination divides viewers. Some found the family story unexpectedly moving. Others wanted fewer flashbacks and more desperate attempts to escape a digestive system. Several praised the sound, effects and Abrams’s performance, even when they struggled with the premise.
Those reactions raise a useful question about Whalefall: how much research can sit behind a story that still sounds this improbable?
"Scientific consultation gives a story constraints. It does not make every event in the finished film scientifically established."
A ridiculous premise, taken seriously
Kraus did not simply invent a convenient cavern inside an enormous animal and start writing.
Discussing the development of Whalefall, he describes months of scientific conversations to establish the physical sequence of events before building the emotional story around it. He needed to know what could happen inside a whale and what obstacles the anatomy would create.
Duffield also acknowledges that the film takes liberties with space. The adaptation drew on Kraus’s research and additional expert advice, but the director admits that dimensions sometimes shift to serve the filmmaking.
That makes Whalefall more interesting to me. An author working through an outrageous idea with specialists is worth listening to. It also leaves room for the specialists to say, “Well, up to a point.”
Scientific consultation gives a story constraints. It does not make every event in the finished film scientifically established.
Could a sperm whale actually swallow a person?
This is where Whalefall has an anatomical advantage over familiar stories about people disappearing into whales.
Species matters. A sperm whale is a toothed predator that feeds on animals including squid and fish. It has a very different feeding apparatus from the baleen whales that filter food from seawater.
In an interview about Whalefall, Gero says that an exceptionally large sperm whale could technically swallow a person. That is a narrow statement about physical possibility. It says nothing about the likelihood of encountering those circumstances, let alone surviving them. The distinction matters because it is easy to jump from “large enough” to “so this could happen on my next snorkelling trip”.
Human beings are not normal sperm whale prey. In Whalefall, Jay is swallowed accidentally during a feeding encounter. The animal has its own meal in progress, and the human is an unwelcome complication.
That is an important difference from a predator deliberately pursuing a diver.
Getting swallowed would only be the beginning
Once you accept the initial accident, Whalefall presents a more unpleasant question: what happens next?
A stomach is an exceptionally poor place to wait for rescue. Gero describes the sperm whale’s stomach as having four chambers with different digestive functions, an arrangement he considers well represented in the film. Muscular action and digestion create problems long before anyone can settle into a comfortable position.
For Whalefall, those anatomical details provide obstacles. For a real person, they would make survival desperately uncertain. An air supply would address only one part of the predicament.
Then there is the small matter of the whale continuing to behave like a whale.
Sperm whales routinely hunt on dives reaching around 600 metres and lasting about 45 minutes. Their bodies are adapted to an existence that ours cannot casually follow.
The animal would have no reason to remain near the surface while a passenger consulted an increasingly unhelpful pressure gauge. That is what makes Whalefall an unsettling idea: the whale doesn’t need to attack anyone. Going about its normal day would be quite enough.
Fortunately, sharing the water with one generally involves a much better view.
Swimming with sperm whales, preferably on the outside
An enormous head emerging from the blue. An eye you suddenly realise is looking towards you. A body that keeps going long after you expected the tail to appear.
Being in the water with a sperm whale can be intimidating. Of course it can. You’re wearing a mask and fins; the animal beside you weighs tens of tonnes. It takes a moment for your brain to adjust to the proportions.
But the encounters we seek are a long way from Whalefall. Sperm whales feed mainly on squid and fish. We aren’t on the menu, and sometimes they appear curious about the strange, rather clumsy visitors floating nearby.
They are also deeply social animals. Females and their young live in lasting family groups, and watching them together can be as absorbing as the first glimpse of their size: bodies resting close, gentle contact, a calf alongside an adult. There is a whole life unfolding around you, whether you hold their interest or barely register.
That uncertainty is part of what makes these encounters special. Some whales may investigate; others carry on swimming. You can’t order curiosity with your boat booking.
Our whale trips are built around the opportunity to observe that life in the water, working with local guides who know the animals and the conditions. Patience matters, and so does knowing when to leave them alone. The encounter depends on what the whales choose to do. That is where my interest in Whalefall has taken me: from dismissing an outrageous premise to looking more closely at the animal behind it.
I’m still very happy with our choice of viewing position.
Your own Whalefall adventure. Strictly on the outside.
