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Brian Duffield’s Whalefall arrived at April’s CinemaCon with a modicum of buzz compared to heavy hitters such as Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three. But all of that changed when the Las Vegas-based convention debuted a show-stopping six-minute sequence in which Austin Abrams’ Jay Gardiner is swallowed alive by a sperm whale. The footage brought the house down, turning 20th Century’s survival thriller into the biggest surprise of the entire event, and forcing film outlets to revise their lists of 2026’s most anticipated films.
“I loved that no one knew we existed. When the movies-to-look-forward-to lists came out [ahead of 2026], we were not on them, and I just liked lurking in the shadowy depths,” Duffield tells The Hollywood Report in support of Whalefall’s first teaser trailer. “When CinemaCon came up, we had already been showing the clip to people for a while. So the studio was like, ‘We should just show the clip instead of a trailer and really spook people.’ And it seems like it did the trick.”
Based on co-writer Daniel Kraus’ book of the same name, Whalefall sends Jay (Abrams) on a diving expedition to recover his deceased father’s remains (Josh Brolin’s Mitt Gardiner). That’s when he’s consumed by the colossal 60-foot, 45-ton creature and stored in its multi-chambered stomach for eventual digestion. Jay has just one hour of oxygen left to escape, applying the knowledge and skill set his late father passed on to him, while also reconciling their strained relationship.
