Scuba diver Jay Gardiner is swallowed whole by a sperm whale and must use his father's lessons to escape before his oxygen runs out.
Whalefall is showing at Odeon Stoke this Sunday 1 November, with a 10:00 screening in Screen 4. It's a survival thriller directed by Brian Duffield, and the premise is one of those things that sounds like a fever dream until you actually see it play out on screen.
Austin Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, a scuba diver who heads down off the central coast of California to search for his father's remains. While he's down there, he gets swallowed whole by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale. That's the whole setup: he's trapped inside the animal with barely an hour of oxygen left, and the rest of the film is him trying to find a way out before that air runs out. He has to rely on the hard-earned lessons his father taught him to survive, so the family connection that brought him to the water in the first place ends up being the only thing that can get him back to it.
It's a tight, high-tension piece of storytelling that keeps the stakes very simple: a man, a whale, and a ticking clock. The cast around Abrams includes Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz and Jane Levy, and the whole thing runs 98 minutes, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. It carries a 15 certificate, which is something to keep in mind if you're thinking of bringing anyone younger along.
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If you're fancying a trip to the cinema this weekend, you'll find it at Odeon Stoke-on-Trent, on Etruria Road in Etruria, ST1 5SN. The screening is at 10:00 in Screen 4, so it's a morning one — a good way to get your cinema fix and still have the rest of your Sunday ahead of you.
