Hollywood's 'Whalefall' Swallows a Man Whole. Jonah Told That Story First, and Better.
In 'Whalefall,' a diver searching for his late father is swallowed by a sperm whale. Christians know a whale story where the man cries out to God and lives.
Hollywood opens a movie this weekend about a young man swallowed alive by a sperm whale. Christians have heard this story before. It is called Jonah, and it ends better.
"Whalefall," which reaches U.S. theaters Oct. 16, according to The Guardian, is directed by Brian Duffield and adapted from Daniel Kraus's 2023 novel, according to Variety. Austin Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, a diver who goes into the water off Monastery Beach near Monterey, California, to search for the remains of his father, Mitt, played by Josh Brolin. A sperm whale swallows him whole, along with a giant squid. The film is rated PG-13, runs about 105 minutes and comes from 20th Century Studios, with Brian Grazer producing.
What the critics say
Variety's Owen Gleiberman reached for the obvious comparison himself, describing Jay's predicament as "à la Jonah or Geppetto." He was not entirely kind, calling the movie a piece of "thriller kitsch."
The Guardian's Benjamin Lee describes Jay trapped inside the animal, unable to take off his breathing gear because the air around him is toxic, while his air supply runs down. Inside the whale, he relives memories of a hard, demanding father who told him he had "soft lungs" and barked, "Survivors survive!" The film builds toward what Lee calls a hallucinatory final conversation between son and father.
Families should know the story turns on grief and a parent's suicide. Variety reports that the father took his own life after a diagnosis of mesothelioma. That is heavy material for a PG-13 creature feature, and parents should decide for themselves before buying tickets for younger teens.
The whale is not the point
For all the giant-squid spectacle, "Whalefall" appears to be what so many modern stories are: a man in the dark, looking for his father, trying to make peace with what he could not fix. Hollywood keeps telling that story because it is true of every human heart.
The book of Jonah tells it with an answer. Jonah was not a diver searching for his father. He was a prophet running from his Father. God told him to go to Nineveh and preach, and Jonah boarded a ship headed the other way. "But the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" (Jonah 1:17).
The fish was not Jonah's punishment. It was God's rescue. Down in the dark, Jonah prayed: "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice" (Jonah 2:2). He ended that prayer with the line that sums up the whole Bible: "Salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9). Then the fish spat him onto dry land, and he went where God sent him.
Jesus Himself pointed to that story. "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Jonah's survival was a picture of the resurrection. The Father we are all looking for does not stay silent at the bottom of the sea. He sent His Son into death and brought Him back out.
Survivors do not save themselves
The father in "Whalefall" preaches a gospel of grit: survivors survive. There is something admirable in teaching a son to be tough. But it is not enough. Jonah did not get out of the fish by toughness. He got out because he cried to God and God heard him.
A whale fall, as Variety explains, is what happens when a whale dies and its body sinks to the ocean floor, where it feeds a whole ecosystem. Death becomes life for others. Christians know a far greater version of that truth. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24).
Whether "Whalefall" is worth the price of a ticket is a matter of taste, and Christian families should weigh it with the same care they bring to any big-studio release, as Dock Line urged with Greta Gerwig's coming Narnia film. But if it gets people talking about being swallowed by the dark, Christians have a better story to tell. The Bible's whale story ends with a man alive on the shore and a God who answers prayer.
If you or someone you love is struggling with thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. And do not be afraid to cry out to God from the depths. He still hears.
Hero photo: Gabriel Barathieu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped and resized.
