The adaptation of Daniel Kraus’ Whalefall is almost here! Today, 20th Century Studios and Imagine Entertainment released the first trailer for the film, which gives us the whole sequence where a young man is swallowed by a sperm whale who is just trying to live its best life and munch on a giant squid for lunch.
The story is more than a survival thriller; it’s also a meditation on grief and complicated father-son relationships.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Following the death of his father (Josh 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.
To put it another way, the whale is Jay’s dad, something made literal in the book by the whale “talking” to Jay as his dad as he tries to survive. I’ve been curious to see how they’d represent that on-screen, and while today’s trailer doesn’t delve into that part of the story, it was cool to see Brolin’s representation of the dad (human version), which matches up perfectly with how the character looked in my brain while reading Kraus’ book.
The film is directed by Brian Duffield (No One Will Save You), who co-wrote the script with Kraus. At a screening of the trailer (via Variety), Duffield made clear that the whale wasn’t an antagonist. “The whale is not a bad guy,” he said, later adding, “We wanted it to not feel like a monster movie, but to feel like Austin is inside a living animal. There’s something horrifying about that, but also something beautiful too.”
Whalefall premieres in theaters on October 16, 2026. Check out the trailer below to bear witness to Brolin, Abrams, and the whale.
