Whalefall follows Jay Gardiner, a scuba diver trapped inside a sperm whale after a giant squid attack. Like The Martian, the story places one man in an extreme environment and asks him to survive through knowledge, improvisation and persistence. However, Brian Duffield’s film struggles to make either its physical danger or its emotional conflict feel convincing.
The comparison is understandable. Andy Weir’s 2011 novel, and Ridley Scott and Drew Goddard’s film adaptation, turned an astronaut growing potatoes on Mars into a gripping blend of optimism, humour and practical problem-solving. Daniel Kraus’ 2023 novel is often presented as a similar survival adventure, but Whalefall cannot reproduce that balance.
A reckless dive begins Jay’s ordeal
Jay’s predicament starts with a decision that is difficult to accept. His father, Mitt, was an experienced scuba professional who repeatedly taught him the importance of diving safely. Yet Jay ignores those lessons, warnings from Mitt’s friend Hewey and advice from the Coast Guard when he sets out alone before dawn. No one knows he is missing when he encounters a giant squid, which is then swallowed by a whale.
His recklessness is connected to unresolved grief. The film opens with Mitt, played by Josh Brolin, jumping from his tour boat while carrying weights. Rather than die in hospital from mesothelioma, he chooses to end his life in the ocean he loved. Brolin’s strained breathing gives this opening scene genuine force, while John Ortiz’s Hewey initially pretends not to understand what he is helping Mitt do before breaking down at the sound of the splash.
A year later, Jay has not read the note his father left behind. He also avoids the cemetery where his family buried an empty casket. Mitt had clearly expressed a wish to nourish the sea through his death, like a whale carcass falling into the ocean, but Jay believes recovering his father’s remains will somehow repair what has been lost.
The film repeatedly turns that father-son history into a survival manual. When Jay panics and burns through his oxygen, a flashback shows Mitt teaching him how to make a tank last. When Jay searches for materials inside the whale, memories of Mitt discussing the ocean and whale behaviour provide another convenient lesson. As the escape attempts become more elaborate, these carefully timed recollections begin to feel less like character development and more like instructions inserted to solve each new problem.
Whalefall is not based on a true story
Kraus’ novel is often described as The Martian crossed with 127 Hours. The film also draws on Danny Boyle’s 2010 survival drama, particularly through flashbacks and hallucinations that keep Jay connected to the world outside his confinement. The difference is that 127 Hours is based on a real ordeal, while Whalefall asks the audience to accept an intentionally extraordinary premise.
The production makes a serious effort to give Jay’s surroundings a physical presence. The visual-effects team constructed large practical sets for the wet, claustrophobic interior of the whale. Even so, the danger rarely feels credible. In one especially strange sequence, Jay uses a bioluminescent jellyfish for light while trying to climb from the whale’s throat, apologising to the creature as he mishandles it. That manic tone might suit a playful video game adaptation, but it clashes with the film’s attempt to tell a solemn story about bereavement.
Austin Abrams plays Jay as a young man making increasingly poor decisions, while Brolin brings familiar authority to Mitt’s stern presence. Unfortunately, the family history around them remains thin. Mitt pushed Jay to absorb his seafaring knowledge, apparently driving him away, yet the film gives little sense of him sharing that world with Jay’s mother or two daughters. The women retain a warmly idealised view of Mitt, and the story does not seriously address the resentment or sexism that could have shaped this family dynamic.
Whalefall is detailed when explaining how not to die while scuba diving, but much less interested in showing why its characters choose the ocean in the first place. Its quieter images are more effective: a whale moving through dark water and Jay drifting among vivid fish in a California kelp forest. A scene showing Mitt and Jay enjoying a dive together could have made their bond, and Mitt’s love of the sea, far more persuasive.
A survival metaphor that never gains weight
The central metaphor is clear. Mitt is the whale that has swallowed Jay: his son escaped the pressure of home, only to find himself trapped beneath the weight of grief and guilt. The concept might have worked as an abstract coming-of-age fable, with Jay discovering the value and limits of his father’s wisdom after Mitt’s death.
Instead, repetitive flashbacks keep supplying information at the exact moment Jay needs it, while the increasingly improbable escape mechanics undermine the emotional stakes. The film borrows the structure of a resourceful survival story without matching its warmth or precision. Strong performances and impressive underwater imagery cannot overcome a formula that feels more mechanical than moving.
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Whalefall releases in cinemas on 16 October.
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