Whalefall, Daniel Kraus’ 2023 novel about a scuba diver swallowed by a sperm whale, is often compared to Andy Weir’s 2011 book The Martian since both focus on men trapped alone in dire situations using all of their knowledge and skills to survive. Ridley Scott and Drew Goddard’s adaptation of Weir’s story of an astronaut methodically growing potatoes on Mars is a masterpiece, filled with optimism, humor, and thrills. That success feels even more remarkable in hindsight, as Brian Duffield’s Whalefall tries to replicate the formula but never makes the physical or emotional stakes feel real.
It’s pretty bizarre that this month there are two movies where Austin Abrams plays a protagonist who makes a series of terrible decisions that lead to him getting attacked by tentacle monsters — and Resident Evil is in every way the better film. Abrams’ Whalefall character, Jay Gardiner, makes even worse choices than Resident Evil’s hapless organ courier Bryan Hodukavich, who at least had no idea how dangerous a trip to Raccoon City could be. Jay’s scuba pro dad Mitt (Josh Brolin) spent his whole life hammering home the importance of diving safety, yet Jay ignores all those lessons, along with repeated warnings from both his dad’s buddy Hewey (John Ortiz) and the Coast Guard, when he goes on an early morning solo dive.
Nobody even knows Jay is missing when he winds up grappling with a giant squid that then gets eaten by a whale. Jay’s recklessness is a symptom of his grief. The movie opens with Mitt jumping off his tour boat laden with weights so he can die in the ocean he loved rather than succumbing to mesothelioma in a hospital bed.
It’s the most emotionally effective scene in the whole film, anchored by Brolin’s rasping breath as he prepares for his last dive. Hewey studiously ignores the suicide he’s assisting and focuses on fishing off the other side of the boat, before finally breaking down at the sound of the splash. A year later, Jay still hasn’t read the note his dad left for him and can’t bring himself to visit the cemetery plot where his family buried an empty casket.
Even though Mitt was very clear about his desire to nourish the ocean like a whale carcass – the eponymous whalefall – Jay is convinced that bringing back his remains will set things right. The fraught father-son relationship mostly plays out in a series of formulaic flashbacks that perfectly fit each crisis Jay faces. Panic leaves him gasping for air, depleting his oxygen reserves, so Jay remembers that time his father taught him to make a tank last.
Later, Mitt waxes philosophical about how the ocean provides as Jay gathers other items the whale swallowed to MacGyver a means of escape. The situations and highly specific lessons become more absurd as the film goes on. Kraus’ book is often marketed as The Martian meets 127 Hours, and the adaptation he co-wrote with Duffield clearly owes a lot to Danny Boyle’s 2010 drama.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
