{"id":629832,"date":"2026-06-09T20:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/629832\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T20:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:16:15","slug":"whalefall-interview-inside-the-belly-of-2026s-craziest-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/629832\/","title":{"rendered":"Whalefall Interview: Inside The Belly Of 2026’s Craziest Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just when you think Hollywood has run out of ideas (spoiler: it never does), along comes something you\u2019ve really never seen before. Like\u00a0Whalefall, the new survival thriller from\u00a0No One Will Save You<\/a>\u00a0writer-director Brian Duffield, which has a wild premise: a guy is swallowed whole, alive, by a gigantic sperm whale, and has an hour to free himself from its innards. Think\u00a0Jaws<\/a>, meets\u00a0Moby Dick, meets that terrifying Monstro sequence from\u00a0Pinocchio<\/a>. But, like, for real.<\/p>\n

With the first\u00a0Whalefall\u00a0trailer swimming in from the murky depths, Duffield promises\u00a0Empire\u00a0a very different kind of against-the-odds movie. \u201cThe Martian<\/a>\u00a0is never going to happen to me.\u00a0Gravity<\/a>\u00a0is never going to happen to me. I can very easily elect not be put in a situation like that,\u201d he says. \u201cThis, technically, could happen to you.\u201d Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water\u2026<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the full\u00a0Whalefall\u00a0trailer breakdown.<\/p>\n

Brawlin\u2019 Brolin
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

We begin on dry land \u2013 and with something just as terrifying as a marine mega-mammal: Josh Brolin in scary mode. \u201cWe kind of get all the Josh Brolins in this movie,\u201d promises Duffield of Mitt Gardiner, father of protagonist Jay. \u201cThey had a really tense, fraught relationship, which Jay keeps remembering and flashing back to throughout the movie to try to figure out what to do in a very crazy situation.\u201d Expect an intense performance from an actor who never gives anything less. \u201cI\u2019m really excited for people to see what Josh does in the movie, because he\u2019s really special,\u201d promises Duffield.<\/p>\n

Lost in Austin
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Jay, played by\u00a0Weapons<\/a>\u00a0standout Austin Abrams \u2013 who\u2019ll also be menaced later this year in Zach Cregger\u2019s\u00a0Resident Evil<\/a>. Even before any sea creature activity, this shot of him descending into the ocean depths is a real stomach-flipper. \u201cThe nature of how we shot, I think a lot of the terror he has was probably genuine,\u201d laughs Duffield. \u201cAlmost all the stunts in the movie are done by Austin. It’s always nerve-wracking when your actor is scuba diving and doing stunts. There was never a moment where he was remotely phoned-in. He could not have given more to this movie.\u201d Viewers need to bond with Jay for everything that follows. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a weird two-hander with the audience and Austin, as you’re all trying to figure out how to get home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeling brine
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

The trailer now settles into bringing the viewer into one of the film\u2019s most important sequences: the whale attack. (\u201cThat entire sequence in the movie is about three times longer than in the trailer,\u201d says Duffield, noting you haven\u2019t seen it all yet.) It\u2019s important to \u2013 quite literally \u2013 immerse the audience in the deep blue sea. \u201cThere’s not a single moment in this whole movie that’s dry-for-wet, or that isn’t Austin in water. Or, if it’s not Austin, it’s a stunt performer, or a digital replication,\u201d Duffield explains. \u201cEvery shot has Austin Abrams in it, which we’re really proud of. Sometimes there’s stitching going on, but everything that’s happening is happening to Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you click it?
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

Still no whale. But, you can hear it, click-click-clicking away \u2013 a terrifying signal that it\u2019s out there, not far away. \u201cSperm whales are the loudest animal in the world. They can kill you with sound,\u201d says Duffield. \u201cThat just felt like such a great opportunity \u2013 you’re in the murky water in the dark of Monterey, and you would hear them so much sooner than you would see them.\u201d It gives an unearthly vibe to a very earthly experience. \u201cIt’s such an alien language, there’s a real pattern to it,\u201d says the filmmaker, but \u201cfor Austin, there’s no communicating with something that is talking in such an unusual syntax.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hunt is on
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

Whale alert! If Noah Baumbach\u2019s\u00a0The Squid And The Whale<\/a>\u00a0left you underwhelmed at the lack of aquatic action,\u00a0Whalefall\u00a0has you covered. Jay learns the hard way that the ocean is a dangerous place, becoming the unwitting third party in a multi-species hunt with \u2013 yep! \u2013 a squid and a whale. \u201cI think everyone has this psychological wound from centuries ago of being hunted, and not wanting to be consumed by saber-toothed tigers or some shit,\u201d says Duffield. \u201cWe really enjoy playing with that caveman part of your brain. You’re a stranger in a strange land.\u201d Cinema has never seen a sequence quite like this. \u201cMy job as a director was to stay out of the way as much as I could, because it’s such a crazy conceit in general,\u201d Duffield notes. \u201c[The approach] was, let’s just have everything play out as naturally, almost documentary-style, as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whale jaws
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

This whale is, to be clear, massive. 85 ft long, specifically \u2013 that\u2019s roughly three times bigger than Bruce in\u00a0Jaws. \u201cHe’s a big boy,\u201d Duffield laughs. \u201cHe is within the parameters of known whales. He’s probably a little bigger than the average, but they have seen bigger whales. So we made him suitably large.\u201d And he\u2019s pissed off. \u201cHe’s a real grisly old guy,\u201d the director teases. Don\u2019t mess.<\/p>\n

Tongue twister
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still haunted by\u00a0those\u00a0digestion shots in\u00a0Nope<\/a>, be warned:\u00a0Whalefall\u00a0is about to rip open those wounds. Jay is dragged further and further into the whale\u2019s mouth (with some squiddy assistance) and gulped straight down. \u201cHalf of the whale’s head, including its bottom jaw and mouth, was a big animatronic in a tank,\u201d says Duffield of the practical photography. \u201cThere was a tongue puppet of sorts, though it wasn\u2019t necessarily puppeteered, because as you can see, there\u2019s not a lot of space in there.\u201d This is the crux of the movie, and no half-measures were taken. \u201cEvery trick in the book, we had at some point,\u201d Duffield teases. \u201cAustin is physically in a whale mouth, there’s no green screen in the water. He’s really down there in a scuba suit, breathing real air, screaming, struggling, with jets of current shooting at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holy ish-mael
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

Phew. That\u2019s one hell of an intense trailer. While Duffield confirms the final film is \u201cvery scary\u201d, he also promises a whale-sized heart to it. \u201cIt’s very emotional, in a way that will surprise people,\u201d he says. \u201cAt its core, it’s a father-son story about this son who’s lost his dad, who has very conflicted feelings about that, and goes on this bizarre journey.\u201d What shelf would it land on in Blockbuster? \u201cIt’s a\u00a0Whalefall\u00a0genre in and of itself,\u201d promises the director. \u201cThere’s not a lot of romance in it, I guess,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

Buckle up
\n\"Whalefall\"<\/p>\n

These days, premium formats are a big deal. But the trailer doesn\u2019t point audiences towards IMAX \u2013 no, it\u2019s touting a chair-rocking, seat-squirting 4DX experience. \u201cI am really curious about the smell,\u201d Duffield grins. \u201cAnd I’m very curious about the water, because this is a very, very wet movie, so I don’t know how drenched people will or will not be.\u201d Bring a poncho, just in case.<\/p>\n

Whalefall is in cinemas from October 16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just when you think Hollywood has run out of ideas (spoiler: it never does), along comes something you\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-629832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}