Could a whale swallow a human, 'Whalefall' style?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Flora Lichtman (0:33)

Hey, it's Flora, and you're listening to Science Friday. If you've been scrolling or been to the movies lately, you may have seen the absolutely nutso trailer, and I mean that in the most loving way, for the movie Whalefall, which is about a guy who gets swallowed by a sperm whale.

SPEAKER_1 (0:55)

I'm in the whale, help me!

Flora Lichtman (0:59)

It may sound far-fetched, but the film and the book it's based on really takes on the ins and outs, but especially the ins of sperm whale biology. We're here today with Whalefall director Brian Duffield. Hey, Brian.

Shane Gero (1:13)

Hello.

Flora Lichtman (1:14)

And Shane Gero, sperm whale expert. Hey, Shane.

Shane Gero (1:17)

Hello.

Flora Lichtman (1:18)

And a heads up, we reserve the right to give some minor spoilers, but we will not ruin the movie for you. Okay.

Brian, what do you think a whale would think of this movie?

Brian Duffield (1:31)

We talk about that a lot because, you know, they're getting closer and closer to decoding the sperm whale language. And I'm really nervous about what that review will do to like our tomato score.

Flora Lichtman (1:46)

Because there's a lot of clicks and sounds.

Shane Gero (1:48)

Well, I have to say, like, I was exceptionally happy how the whales looked and how they sounded in particular.

Flora Lichtman (1:55)

Yeah.

Shane Gero (1:55)

Like that the sound wasn't using elephants or other animals.

Flora Lichtman (2:00)

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.

SPEAKER_2 (2:01)

You know, they look great.

Brian Duffield (2:02)

Except we don't know what they're saying. And so it's like, hopefully they're saying like somewhat appropriate stuff in the movie. And so, but yeah, hopefully they would dig it. I mean, we're very fond of our whale, and we definitely made the movie out of a love for these animals.

So if anything, I think they would probably just be annoyed that this guy got in the way of lunch.

Flora Lichtman (2:27)

I mean, Brian, do you have a relationship with whales that preceded this movie? Are you like someone who's been on 50 whale watching trips?

Brian Duffield (2:34)

I've been on a bunch. Yeah. I always loved them. I grew up as a big dinosaur kid, and I think that's kind of the closest thing you can really get to it. And then also, I grew up in a very conservative Christian household. And so Jonah was always like my go-to Bible story. And I remember getting like a very Christian, I guess just a comic book about Jonah, where it talked about a guy who had been swallowed, in quotes, in reality, like in the 1800s. And they had gotten him out and he was all burned up by his stomach acid and everything. And like a lot of the content I was growing up with, there was a lot of it was like proving the Bible is true kind of stuff.

And I just remember just being like there's acid in there and this guy's like walking around burned all up. And so that was always just in my DNA. And then yeah, and then as I got older, getting the chance to go on whale watching trips. And and then I swam with whale sharks, like probably a decade ago, which aren't technically whales, but that was like a real moment of like, they're so immense and they're so beautiful. And I kind of had a reborn fascination of them through that.

Flora Lichtman (3:47)

Shane, so the the main storyline here is that a guy gets swallowed by a whale.

Is that possible? Could a sperm whale swallow a human being?

Shane Gero (3:58)

I mean, you're talking about the world's largest tooth predator, right? And this is something that eats giant squid. That's sort of this amazing battle between a giant squid and a school bus sized whale that happens every day somewhere. It's happening right now somewhere out in the oceans.

And it turns out that actually, yes, sperm whales have probably the largest esophagus. So if you get a really, really big sperm whale, you know, it's technically possible to be swallowed. Yeah.

Brian Duffield (4:27)

And a smaller person. Yeah. Yeah. Like Jacob Elordi is not fitting down the throat. Yeah.

Flora Lichtman (4:34)