Move over, Jonah and Pinocchio, there’s a whole new “whale eats guy story.” And that’s exactly what we get in the the trailer for Whalefall. This teaser gives us the whole thing. We see the entire “whale eats guy” scene… in the trailer for a movie about a whale eating a guy. He just….the whale swims up and eats him. And that’s the trailer. It’s so exactly what the movie is about that the Whalefall trailer is nearly entirely just that. Nearly two minutes of a whale eating a guy. Swallows him whole. Have I lost my mind? Yes, absolutely, but it will make sense when you see the trailer for this film, which somehow includes Josh Brolin. And now… here’s the Whalefall trailer.
That’s the most “whale eats guy” trailer possible for a story about a whale eating a guy. (It’s called “truth in advertising,” people. Look it up!) But it turns out there’s other stuff, too. There’s a reason that guy is scuba diving. There’s also gonna be stuff post “whale eats guy.” Here’s Whalefall‘s official synopsis from 20th Century Studios and Imagine Entertainment to go along with its trailer:
Following the death of his father (Brolin), Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) goes diving off the central Coast of California in search of his remains, but is swallowed by a massive sperm whale. While trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left, Jay comes to realize that the hard-earned lessons his father imparted may be the key to his escape.
Isn’t that always the way? We can only appreciate the hard-earned lessons of our fathers inside a whale’s belly….after we go scuba diving to find his remains.
For the record, I lost my mind before I saw that synopsis. Reading it only made things worse.
I can only imagine what will happen when I see this “survivor thriller” from director Brian Duffield. He co-wrote it with Daniel Kraus and it’s based on Kraus’ book by the same. It also stars Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, and Emily Rudd.
Presumably, the whale won’t eat any of them when the film debuts on October 16, 2026. If it did, they probably would have put it in the Whalefall trailer. The trailer that is mostly just a whale eating the guy.