The ending of “Whalefall” did not exist until test audiences asked for one, and director Brian Duffield and star Austin Abrams both pushed back before accepting it, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Spoilers follow. Duffield’s original cut closed with Jay Gardiner’s rescue from inside a sperm whale. Test screenings persuaded 20th Century Studios to back an epilogue offering family closure, and Duffield, a fan of older films that stop abruptly, resisted. Abrams, who plays Jay, shared his hesitation.
The added scene takes place months later. Jay, who stayed in touch with his mother and sisters while away at college in Iowa but remained emotionally distant from them, struggles to talk about his late father, Mitt, played by Josh Brolin. He finally reads the letter Mitt left him. The film does not reveal its words.
Duffield has told SYFY Wire he knows the answer. “I have an answer for it, but I won’t say,” he said. He hints the message is already woven into the film, adding that the movie plays fair with the audience. Daniel Kraus, the novelist whose 2023 book inspired the film and who co-wrote the script, also knows what the note says. Brolin chose not to ask either man, preferring to imagine his own version of Mitt’s parting words. The decision to hold back fits the movie’s tone. Duffield has called the film something close to the opposite of “Jaws,” and has described the whale as an animal minding its business, not a villain.
Critical response has been mixed. Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus praises the film’s visceral set pieces and its extreme premise but faults the flashbacks. One reviewer called it tense and propulsive while finding it about 20 minutes too long.
Commercially, the picture has struggled. “Whalefall” premiered in London Oct. 5 and opened in the U.S. on Oct. 16, a weekend dominated by “Street Fighter” and by the surprise documentary hit “You Can See Everything,” and AP characterized its opening as a relative failure. Whether the epilogue helps or hurts will remain a point of debate among viewers. For now, the letter stays sealed.
