Intense New WHALEFALL Trailer Traps Austin Abrams Inside a Whale for a Wild Survival Thriller
After breaking out in Zach Cregger’s Weapons last year, Austin Abrams is heading into an even bigger 2026, and apparently his characters aren’t allowed to have a good time.
He’ll reunite with Cregger for Resident Evil this September, where the undead and Umbrella Corporation’s nightmare creations look ready to spend at least 90 minutes making his life miserable. Then, just one month later, he’s getting swallowed by a whale.
20th Century Studios has released an intense full trailer for Whalefall, and this thing looks awesome. Directed by Brian Duffield, who previously gave us No One Will Save You, the survival thriller is based on Daniel Kraus’ novel and drops Abrams into one of the strangest and most terrifying situations imaginable.
Abrams plays Jay Gardiner, a young man who goes diving off the California coast in search of his father’s remains. His father, played by Josh Brolin, left Jay with plenty of emotional baggage, but also some crucial survival lessons. Those lessons become incredibly important when Jay’s dive takes an insane turn and he’s accidentally swallowed alive by a whale.
Yes, the movie is going full Jonah, but with scuba gear, limited oxygen and family trauma. Jay has roughly an hour of air left and has to figure out how the hell to escape from inside a living whale.
Making matters worse, he isn’t the only thing the massive creature swallowed. A squid is trapped in there with him, adding another wonderfully messed-up complication to an already brutal survival scenario.
As wild as the premise sounds, Whalefall isn’t just built around the spectacle of watching a man fight his way out of a whale. At its core, the story revolves around the fractured relationship between Jay and his father.
While trying to stay alive, Jay has to rely on the very lessons his dad taught him, forcing him to confront their complicated history while trapped in a place where escape seems almost impossible.
Duffield offered some insight into the unusual production and what it took to bring Kraus’ story to the big screen:
“To bring Daniel Kraus’ book to life, our cast and crew spent a summer inside a whale inside a sound stage in Studio City, California. I can’t wait for audiences to see the performances and hard work everyone put in to tell this thrilling and emotional story in a dark, cozy theater this October.”
Whalefall also reunites Abrams and Brolin following their appearances in the horror film Weapons. Their characters didn’t exactly share a warm relationship there, and things won’t be getting much friendlier this time around.
The cast also includes Elisabeth Shue (The Karate Kid, The Boys), John Ortiz (Fast & Furious), Jane Levy (Evil Dead), and Emily Rudd (Fear Street).
Whalefall hits theaters October 16, and judging by this new trailer, Duffield has cooked up a claustrophobic, emotional, and seriously intense survival thriller.
Check out the new Whalefall trailer and tell us what you think.