In the Belly of the Whale: New Movie Trailer Puts Austin Abrams Deep Inside a Hungry Cetacean in ‘Whalefall’
Like something out of the Bible (or Pinocchio), Austin Abrams gets swallowed whole in the tense trailer for Whalefall.
The movie has a pretty straightforward logline that doesn’t quite convey the intensity of the trailer. “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.”
In the trailer, we see Jay, after diving deep into the ocean, listening to the eerie calls of the whales. Then he gets stuck in traffic as a whale pod swims past him. One whale sends him spinning and he ends up too close to the mouth of another whale who is trying to make a meal of a passing octopus.
After that, Jay must fight the current and the swallowing power of the whale, who apparently isn’t too picky when it comes to its midday meals, because next we see Jay going down the whale’s gullet. Uh oh!
Brian Duffield, who directed No One Will Save You (2023) and Spontaneous (2020) is helming Whalefall. He also produced another killer animal film, 2023’s Cocaine Bear. Duffield also co-wrote the screenplay with author Daniel Kraus, author of the book upon which Whalefall is based.
20th Century’s YouTube post of the trailer warns us that “the odds of being swallowed alive by a whale are not zero,” which is of course true. And even if you know you’ll never be in Jay’s flippers, the way the camera allows us to see through his eyes and hear the sounds of him struggling, making it hard not to also feel his fear and panic. And according to a Variety interview with Duffield, that scene happens in the first 15 minutes of the film, so apparently most of the film takes place in the literal belly of the whale.
In addition to Abrams and Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd also star.
Whalefall swims into theaters beginning on October 16th, 2026.
