Orca
Short description
Captain Nolan, a fisherman working the waters off Newfoundland, hunts killer whales. During one expedition he harpoons a pregnant female; she dies, and her unborn calf with her, while the male orca watches. The surviving whale begins attacking the harbor and the people close to Nolan, who comes under pressure from the villagers to put an end to it. He sets out after the animal together with a marine biologist, Rachel Bedford, and an Indigenous man, Umilak. The chase leads them onto the open sea, where the whale has the advantage.
Michael Anderson directed the film, which followed Logan's Run in 1976 and preceded Millennium in 1989. Richard Harris plays Nolan, with Charlotte Rampling as Rachel, Will Sampson as Umilak, Bo Derek as Annie, Keenan Wynn as Novak and Robert Carradine as Ken. The screenplay is credited to Sergio Donati, Luciano Vincenzoni and Robert Towne, and Luciano Vincenzoni produced. Made for about 18 million dollars, it took roughly 15 million worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 5.8 from around 15,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.2 from some 480 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 3.6 from 39 reviews, well below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Animal rights activists blocked trucks delivering animatronic whales to the set, believing they contained real whales.
- The acting debut film of Bo Derek.
- The film featured two film sex symbols – Bo Derek and Charlotte Rampling.
- This was the only film written by Luciano Vincenzoni.
- In 1982, a wide release of the film was organized in the USSR, during which it was viewed by 33 million viewers.
- The original title of the film, “Orca,” is the Latin name for the killer whale (Orcinus orca).
- Trained killer whales from the San Francisco aquarium were used to create the film, which added exceptional spectacle to it. But in addition to this, models of the animals were made from artificial rubber, which looked so natural that animal rights activists initially tried to obstruct the movement of vehicles carrying the dummies. The shark featured at the beginning of the film was caught by renowned fisherman Ron Taylor.
- Filming took place in Newfoundland during the fishing season. Scenes in the northernmost waters of Labrador were filmed on specially constructed sets in Malta.
- Richard Harris, who was forty-six years old at the time of filming, performed the stunts himself.
- The word “Orca” comes from classical Latin, the zoological term “Orca orcinus” (as stated in the film), or, more accurately, it is called “Orcinus orca.” The phrase “Orca orcinus,” according to the film, translates to English as “bringer of death.”
- The film was released in the same year that the novel it was based on was published.
- Towards the end of the film, although not visible, the whale actually dies, swimming under the Arctic ice.
- The literal translation of the original title is 'Killer Whale, Orca'.
- The source material for this story is Arthur Herzog's novel "Death Among the Icebergs" ("Orca"), first published in 1977.
- Richard Harris turned down the opportunity to work with Ingmar Bergman on 'The Serpent's Egg' (1977) to make this film. It was a decision he regretted many years later.
- "Orca" (meaning killer whale, the film's original title) was the name of the schooner that hunted the shark in the 1975 film 'Jaws'.
- One of a cycle of films from the 1970s and 1980s that were made after the box office success of 'Jaws' (1975). The films include three sequels to the film: 'Jaws 2' (1978), 'Jaws 3' (1983), and 'Jaws 4: The Revenge' (1987), as well as 'Death Among Icebergs' (1977), 'Piranha' (1978), 'Tentacles' (1977), 'Fish Killer' (1979), 'Barracuda' (1978), 'Tiger Shark' (1977), 'Blood Beach' (1980), 'Piranha 2: The Spawning' (1981), 'Last Shark' (1981), 'From the Depths' (1979), 'Creatures from the Abyss' (1980), 'Island of Fish-Men' (1979), 'Monster Shark' (1984), and 'Mako: Jaws of Death' (1976).
- Although this was the first film released featuring Bo Derek, her actual debut was in 'Fantasia' (1981), which was filmed in 1973 but not released until 1981.
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