60 Minutes Inside a Whale... A Harrowing Survival Experience and a Moving Reconciliation Between Father and Son [This Film]

[Financial News] This is the age of immersive experiences. Even at the movies, audiences are drawn to the chance to step into unfamiliar worlds of imagination they have never seen or heard of before. The survival thriller “Whalefall: The Man Who Was Swallowed by a Whale,” opening on the 14th, piques curiosity with its title alone. If you were swallowed alive by a whale, how could you get out?
The film layers a father-and-son story over this astonishing premise. Jay (Austin Abrams), a college student who ventures into the sea to find the remains of his father, a legendary diver, is swept into the mouth of a giant sperm whale trying to eat a squid. Inside the 60-ton whale, all he can rely on is the little air he has left and the knowledge of the sea his father taught him. But he has only 60 minutes before his air runs out.

The unusual experience begins even before Jay is swallowed by the whale. The moment he puts on a wetsuit and descends underwater, the film takes viewers into the deep sea, whose depths are impossible to gauge. It feels different from the beautiful ocean seen in nature documentaries. Something long and slender suddenly juts up from a dark space untouched by light, and when a giant whale then swims toward the screen, viewers find themselves flinching.
Once inside the whale, the nature of the fear changes, too. The endlessly vast ocean contracts into a cramped chamber where it is hard to keep one's balance. Whenever the whale moves, even the spot where Jay is braced twists and shakes. He has no idea where to get out, and fears he may be digested at any moment.
On the 13th, distributor The Walt Disney Company Korea said the production team built a whale head and mouth about 9 meters long, and recreated its esophagus and larynx as well. The whale-stomach set, built by New Zealand's Weta Workshop, which worked on “The Lord of the Rings” and “King Kong,” featured a mechanism that rotated 360 degrees. That is why scenes of water pouring down and actors being hurled around feel physically weighty.

Another force holding the film together is the father-son relationship. Jay's struggle to survive is intercut with memories of his father, Mitt (Josh Brolin), with whom he never reconciled while his father was alive. His father tried to teach him everything about the sea, but was clumsy at expressing his love. His father's forceful words and manner, which Jay found hard to accept, come back to him in this extreme situation.
As Jay revisits his father's lessons one by one, we also see the son come to understand his father, albeit too late. The story's theme of making peace with someone who is no longer by your side may resonate especially deeply with parents who have children.
Austin Abrams, who plays Jay, carries the screen alone for much of the film and more than holds his own. Having appeared before audiences as one of the leads in “Resident Evil: The 0th Night,” which opened in South Korea last September, he once again draws viewers in with his portrayal of a character in an extreme situation.
Before filming, he earned an advanced scuba-diving certification and visited a sperm whale sanctuary, where he also had the experience of spending time with real whales. Filming continued for about nine weeks on the enclosed set recreating the inside of a whale.
Josh Brolin, familiar as the villain Thanos in “Avengers: Endgame,” shows both the face of a tough diver and that of a father who struggles to express himself. Beneath Mitt's solid, muscular exterior, covered in tattoos, lie complex emotions; he is more than a character who simply passes on the knowledge his son needs to survive. He is someone who hurt his son, yet ultimately keeps him going. Brolin's weighty presence connects the present-day survival drama with the family drama of the past.
The appeal of “Whalefall: The Man Who Was Swallowed by a Whale” lies in experiencing Jay's escape from an extraordinary setting alongside him. And what emerges at the end of that ordeal is a deep paternal love. The film opens on the 14th and will also be shown in 4DX.
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