Whalefall, the movie plot

Whalefall (Whalefall: Nella Balena) is the thriller and survival movie coming out. The plot focuses on a diver, Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams), who sets out in search of the remains of his deceased father, Mitt Gardiner (Josh Brolin). But he is swallowed by a 24-meter, 60-ton sperm whale, and has only one hour to escape before the oxygen runs out. In the novel from which it is adapted, the protagonist - trapped in the sperm whale's stomach - attempts various strategies to escape, including crawling deeper into the whale's digestive tract, using a squid's beak to cut through the stomach and climbing out to the throat using a jellyfish's bioluminescence to illuminate the handholds. Then he causes an explosion in the whale's stomach with steel wool and batteries and is rescued.

Whalefall, the movie trailer

"I'll teach you everything. I'll give you all the tools. You can become whatever you want," says Mitt to newborn Jay, in the released trailer. When Jay grows up, he dives to search for his father's remains: he encounters a 24-meter sperm whale weighing 60 tons. The fish first stalks him, and then swallows him.

Whalefall, the movie cast

Josh Brolin acted in Weapons, in the role he plays Mr. Graph: he recently worked on the TV series Outer Range, and in the movies Dune and Avengers: Endgame, in the role of Thanos. Austin Abrams worked in Wolfs and The Starling Girl.

In the cast there are Elisabeth Shue, actress of the TV series On the Verge and The Boys; Emily Rudd, already seen in episodes of Hunters. The direction is by Brian Duffield, who already directed No One Will Save You and Spontaneous. The movie is adapted from the novel by Daniel Kraus.

"Even though it will be a very claustrophobic movie, it will also be quite imposing - states Duffield, as reported by Variety - there will be a lot of spectacle, sometimes in surprising ways, and it seemed to us that we had never seen a movie set in a place like the one where most of the story takes place." Duffield continues saying that the whale doesn't understand it has swallowed Austin, because it is "trying to swallow its lunch, and Austin is just a byproduct of this process. We wanted it not to seem like a monster movie, but to give the impression that Austin was inside a living animal. There's something terrifying about this, but also something wonderful."

Whalefall, the movie production and filming

The production is by Imagine Entertainment and 3 Arts Entertainment. Filming began on June 9, 2025 in Los Angeles, with scenes shot on the Monterey Peninsula, in California. The movie releases in U.S. theaters on October 16, 2026.