I didn’t believe the hype nonsense about Whalefall, but I’m not a marine biologist. Maybe a marine biologist would see a way that a whale could swallow a man who would survive for an hour? I’m willing to be persuaded.
This sane, sober, well-informed video doesn’t do it for me.
I am interested in the tactics the defenders of the movie take. One event is improbable, unlikely but well, maybe possible; another event could only happen under rare circumstances; yet another event could happen if a confluence of different conditions occurs; add them all up, and presto, declare it could happen. That’s not how things work.
I learned something I hadn’t really thought through. Whales have a complex ruminant stomach that is muscular and crushes and tears food before passing it on to an acid-filled forestomach. I don’t care how many faint “maybes” you stack up, once you hit a single “impossible,” you’re done.
Sounds almost like a kaiju film.
Was this film made by a ‘reputable’ studio as distinct from those who made Sharknado et al? I thought mainstream companies at least need to protect their reputations to attract talent.
Since it was at the end of the previous thread I’ll repost this comment here.
There have actually been two historically attested accounts of men who survived being in the mouth of a sperm whale, although the whales didn’t swallow them. (The headline is misleading): https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2021/06/16/man-swallowed-whale-cape-cod-provincetown-harbor-peleg-nye-new-bedford-whaling-museum-log/7704006002/
Captain Peleg was one of the owners of the Pequod so apparently this story inspired Melville. It seems plausible.
This is a fictional story not a wildlife documentary, so I make no presumption of scientific accuracy. If you are gripped by the storytelling then it has succeeded.
I’ve never been comfortable with the idea that if a story is entertaining it doesn’t matter if part of the story is a claim that it is true when it definitely is not true. Fiction presented as fiction is fine, but once a ‘patina of truth’ is painted on the fiction it gets problematic.
There suspension of disbelief and then there’s hanging it by the neck until dead.
I have not wasted my time watching this particular movie and generally do not watch these type of fantasy’s very often. The ancients told stories with similar events but they always acknowledged the source in magic and the gods. Even Dracula is full of christianity, Tolkien’s world has its roots in gods.
I hate this modern take that tries to make the fantasy aspects fit some kind of actual reality when they all depend on some kind of divine intervention and magic.
Noah’s flood shares the same magic as “The Tinderbox” and “Puss in boots” which are not scientific reality.
Well, there was the time a whale “ate” a kyaker albeit breifly as noted here :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/02/14/a-whale-puked-him-up/
Different branch of whales mind you – Baleen rather than toothed side of the Cetcean family.
I don’t think humans can taste that good somehow!
(Yeah, I know, that wasn’t why it spat him out again boat and all.)
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx. Applies to filming inside a whale.