A Diver Is Swallowed by a Sperm Whale in the New Thriller Whalefall

Whalefall, a 20th Century Studios thriller about a young scuba diver swallowed whole by a sperm whale, opens in US theatres on 16 October. Brian Duffield directs, and Ron Howard and Brian Grazer produce.

The film is based on Daniel Kraus’s 2023 novel Whalefall. Kraus co-wrote the screenplay with Duffield, so the book was adapted by its own author.

What the film is about

Jay Gardiner, the youngest of the family, dives off the California coast to recover the remains of his father, who died at sea. Underwater he is swallowed by a sperm whale. He has roughly an hour of air in his tanks, and in that time he has to find a way out of the giant animal’s stomach. Along the way the film returns to Jay’s relationship with his father, which never worked out while Mitt was alive.

Who is in it

• Austin Abrams as Jay Gardiner;
• Josh Brolin as Mitt Gardiner, his father;
• Elisabeth Shue as Zara Gardiner, his mother;
• Jane Levy and Emily Rudd as his older sisters Eva and Nan;
• John Ortiz as Hewey.

Behind the camera

Brian Duffield is known as the writer of Underwater and the adventure comedy Love and Monsters, and as the director of the almost wordless horror film No One Will Save You. Daniel Kraus co-wrote the novel The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro.

Filming began on 9 June 2025 in Los Angeles, with location work on the Monterey Peninsula. The cinematographer is Aaron Morton, the music is by Joseph Trapanese and the editor is Pietro Scalia, a two-time Oscar winner for JFK and Black Hawk Down. The film was produced by Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Studios and runs 106 minutes.

When to watch

Whalefall opens in US cinemas on 16 October. There are no reviews yet at the time of publication. Cast and stills are on the film’s page in our AMDB database.