Whalefall Opens in U.S. Theaters With a Survival Story

Whalefall, a survival thriller about a diver trapped inside a sperm whale, opened in U.S. theaters on October 16, bringing Daniel Kraus’s fictional novel to the screen in a story that combines a desperate escape with a strained father-son relationship. Austin Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, who dives off the California coast to search for the remains of his late father, Mitt, played by Josh Brolin. A squid draws Jay into the path of a feeding sperm whale, which swallows him. With about an hour of oxygen left, he must navigate the animal’s interior and find a way out. Directed by Brian Duffield, the film adapts Kraus’s 2023 novel. Its survival sequences follow Jay as he attempts to use his diving knowledge and the objects around him to stay alive. The film alternates that ordeal with memories of Mitt, a seasoned diver whose lessons shaped Jay even as their relationship became strained. The cast also includes Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd. The family story gives Jay’s predicament an emotional dimension: as he struggles to escape, he revisits grief and unresolved feelings about his father. That structure also shapes the film’s central tension between physical...