The Whalefall Trailer Reveals How The Unadaptable Book Becomes A Movie

With all due respect to Ryan Gosling's Ryland Grace and his best buddy Rocky, "Project Hail Mary" was never going to be the most ambitious literary adaptation of the year. No, that title instead goes to the aptly-named "Whalefall," the big screen take on the 2023 book by author Daniel Kraus, a novel that's certain to go down as one of your most memorable reading experiences ever. Even "Dune: Part 3" may struggle to match up to the images and downright unadaptable ideas at play here, as any reader worth their salt can probably confirm. Indeed, up to this point, we've been at a loss as to how anyone could actually pull a cinematic treatment of "Whalefall" off.

Well, wonder no more. Writer/director Brian Duffield ("Spontaneous," "No One Will Save You") is the man in charge of visualizing this story about a deep-sea diver who ends up swallowed whole by a whale (one of two upcoming movies with this exact premise, in fact) and only has an hour to escape. The novel — which isn't quite as far-fetched as you might be thinking — quickly made a name for itself for its heady concept, highly-emotional undercurrent, and some seriously trippy visuals as it follows its protagonist Jay Gardiner (played by Austin Abrams in Duffield's movie) in a literal fight with nature to survive his Jonah-like ordeal.

This film has remained a fixture as one of our most anticipated 2026 movies that most people haven't even heard of yet, but that's finally about to change. 20th Century Studios has released a new trailer for "Whalefall," and, well, it practically sells itself. Check out the footage above.

20th Century Studios

Yeah, I think I'm fine never stepping foot in a large body of water ever again. Those with even a slight phobia of the ocean depths and the creepy animals lurking below might want to turn away now. For everyone else? "Whalefall" looks like it's set to deliver on the most spectacular (and terrifying) moment that kicks off the story in the original book. If nothing else, at least you now know exactly how a sperm whale sounds.

"Whalefall" was always going to be a tough movie to market (to say nothing of actually adapting a story mostly involving one lone character and his inner thoughts while trapped in a dark, confined setting with no real light), but this trailer certainly does the trick. In essentially one entire sequence playing out in full, we see "Weapons" breakout star Austin Abrams caught in a horrifying encounter between a sperm whale and a squid ... before getting sucked in and inadvertently swallowed whole by what's supposed to be a gentle giant.

Still, if anyone has earned our trust in telling a unique story like this, it would have to be the filmmaker behind the almost completely dialogue-less "No One Will Save You." "Whalefall" comes from Brian Duffield and stars Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, and Emily Rudd. The film will swim into theaters October 16, 2026, and the synopsis reads as follows:

Following the death of his father (Josh Brolin), Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) goes diving off the central Coast of California in search of his remains, but is swallowed by a massive sperm whale. While trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left, Jay comes to realize that the hard-earned lessons his father imparted may be the key to his escape.