Is it possible to get eaten by a whale? Inside Whalefall's chilling real-life inspiration
The new survival thriller film Whalefall is terrifying audiences with its first-look trailer, but was it based on a true story?
The spine-chilling trailer has amassed millions of views within a day of its release.
Whalefall is an upcoming survival horror film arriving in cinemas this October that has already left cinema enthusiasts unsettled by its terrifying, confined premise.
The film centres on young man Jay Gardiner (portrayed by Austin Abrams) who, following his father's death (Josh Brolin), ventures to dive off the Californian Coast to search the ocean floor for his remains.
Yet, he somehow ends up consumed by an enormous sperm whale with time quickly running out.
A synopsis reveals: "While trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left, Jay comes to realise that the hard-earned lessons his father imparted may be the key to his escape", reports the Mirror.
With the newly released trailer leaving cinema-goers terrified, many are questioning whether the film draws from a real-life incident.
Is Whalefall based on a true story?
The film isn't directly drawn from a factual event but is instead adapted from the novel of the same title by author Daniel Kraus, published in 2023.
In both the literary work and the film, Jay is a young diver seeking his father's remains who stumbles upon a giant squid being chased by an enormous sperm whale.
When Jay becomes entangled with the squid, he's dragged deeper into the whale's throat until he's consumed and must rely on his ingenuity to break free within an hour. While this particular incident has not occurred, author Kraus drew inspiration from numerous reports of divers encountering whales and nearly being consumed.
He originally conceived the concept from a viral video from 2020, in which a group of kayakers in California were caught in the mouth of a humpback whale.
Kraus subsequently contacted scientists to determine whether it was feasible for a whale to swallow a human and detailed his discoveries in a YouTube video uploaded to publisher Simon and Schuster's account.
"When you read about someone being swallowed, generally they're just being mouthed," he said.
"But, they did say that if it was the right kind of sperm whale in a certain set of circumstances, it was theoretically possible."
Additional reports that may have influenced the thriller include Michael Packard, a lobster diver in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who was operating underwater when everything abruptly went dark.
Packard discovered he was entirely inside the mouth of a humpback whale, staying there for 30-40 seconds before the whale surfaced and ejected him. He fortunately survived with serious bruising but no fractured bones.
Another instance involves South African conservationist and photographer Rainer Schimpf, who was engulfed by a Bryde's whale. Aware that the whale's throat was too narrow to truly consume a person, Schimpf was nevertheless overwhelmed with terror that the creature might pull him to the ocean floor to perish. Fortunately, the ordeal lasted merely a few seconds as the whale swiftly recognised Schimpf was too large to digest and expelled him.
Whalefall releases in UK cinemas on October 16.