Whale swallows man: Here comes the trailer for "Whalefall"
11.6.2026
Translation: machine translated
A good trailer makes you want to see the film. The one for "Whalefall" fulfils this requirement ... somehow. Because although it fascinates me and arouses my interest, it also triggers a primal fear in me.
Pot whale swallows diver. This is probably the shortest possible summary of «Whalefall». You don't get to see much more in the first trailer. Two and a half intense minutes that leave me breathless and shocked. What the rotten wooden leg of Captain Ahab have I just seen?
The film
Jay dives for the remains of his father on the Californian coast. During a dive, he gets caught in the tentacles of a giant squid that has just become lunch for a sperm whale. It comes as it must: The whale swallows the giant squid along with Jay. A desperate fight for survival begins.
At first glance, «Whalefall» may seem like just another representative of the animal horror genre. But it is already clear that there is more to it than that. A (difficult?) father-son relationship, for example. At an early stage of the film project, there was already talk of a survival thriller à la «The Martian meets 127 Hours».
The cast is certainly impressive: Austin Abrams («Weapons», «Euphoria») plays the lead role - Jay, not the whale! Josh Brolin («No Country for Old Men») will probably appear in flashbacks as the deceased father. And Elizabeth Shue («Leaving Las Vegas») is also in the film; I'm just guessing that she's playing Jay's mother.
Source: 20th Century Studios
The book
Is this the reinterpretation of «Jonah and the whale» from the Old Testament? Does Jay possibly meet Pinocchio in the sperm whale? Probably not. «Whalefall» is a film adaptation of a book. The novel by Daniel Kraus is, according to publisher «, a scientifically accurate thriller set in an absurdly improbable environment».
Daniel Kraus has also written the screenplay for the film adaptation of «Whalefall» together with director Brian Duffield («No One Will Save You»). The film world is nothing new to him anyway: he has already worked with Guillermo del Toro («The Shape of Water», «Trollhunters») and George A. Romero («The Living Dead»).
The Fear
«Whalefall» is like Schrödinger's trailer for me. On the one hand, I'm fascinated by this short film snippet (pun intended). It's dense and realistically staged, at least for me as a layman. On the other hand, it triggers fear and horror in me. The thought that it could happen to me is something I can no longer shake off. I'm already afraid, or at least have a lot of respect for deep waters. I don't know if that's enough to make me phobic. But I do know who I can thank. Speaking of you, Mr Spielberg!
The facts
I will probably never be nibbled on by a shark or swallowed by a whale. The latter almost happened in Chile in 2025 - and there is even video footage of the incident: A humpback whale briefly takes a kayak and rider into its mouth and spits both out again. Swallowing would not be possible, humpback whales have too small mouths for that. Was the kayaker aware of this at the time?
The sperm whale is a different story. Of the approximately 90 known whale species, it is the only one that is anatomically capable of swallowing a human, as «National Geographic» explains. However, the chances of this happening are lower than winning the lottery - simply because humans and sperm whales rarely meet.
The fact is that we humans are threatening the sperm whale and all other sea creatures through overfishing and marine pollution. But that's another story.
«Whalefall» is expected to be released in cinemas in German-speaking Switzerland on 15 October 2026.
Header image: 20th Century Studios
I'm a full-blooded dad and husband, part-time nerd and chicken farmer, cat tamer and animal lover. I would like to know everything and yet I know nothing. I know even less, but I learn something new every day. What I am good at is dealing with words, spoken and written. And I get to prove that here.
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