Josh Brolin's New Survival Thriller Offers Fans a Free Reason to Return to Theaters [Exclusive]

Being swallowed by a sperm whale is a fairly convincing argument for never diving again. Persuading audiences to willingly climb back inside that stomach takes a different kind of persuasion. For Whalefall, the promise of learning how the filmmakers brought that particular nightmare to the big screen might do the trick.

The survival thriller stars Austin Abrams as Jay Gardiner, a college student whose attempt to recover his late father's remains off the California coast becomes a desperate fight to survive. His father, Mitt, played by Josh Brolin, was a local diving legend whose lessons suddenly become considerably more useful. With roughly an hour of air remaining after he's swallowed whole, Jay has a very narrow window to figure out how to escape. Today, Collider is thrilled to exclusively reveal that, beginning October 23, moviegoers can watch Whalefall with a newly recorded, synchronized commentary through TheaterEars' Director's Experience.

The free English-language track features director, co-writer, and producer Brian Duffield, source novelist and co-writer Daniel Kraus, and editor Pietro Scalia. It will be available at participating showtimes in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, bringing the filmmakers' discussion directly to viewers' headphones while the movie plays. The conversation covers some of the adaptation's biggest challenges, including translating Kraus' largely internal novel into a movie and working with whale anatomist Dr. Joy Reidenberg to ground the story in science. Duffield also discusses the practical stomach sets built with Wētā Workshop, which were kept as cramped as they look on screen and filmed in story order. Scalia, whose editing Oscars include JFK and Black Hawk Down, explains how the cutting keeps Jay's dwindling air supply hanging over the action.

How Can You Hear the 'Whalefall' Commentary in Theaters?

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Accessing the commentary requires the free TheaterEars app for iOS or Android, available through the company's download page. After selecting Whalefall at a participating showtime, viewers should put on headphones before the feature begins. The app then synchronizes the commentary with the movie playing on screen. “We made Whalefall to be seen big and heard loud, with the audience trapped inside that whale right alongside Jay,” Duffield said in a statement. He described recording the track with Kraus and Scalia as an opportunity to revisit the science, sets, and editing decisions behind the movie. “If you've already seen it once, this is the best excuse I can think of to go back in.”

The movie joins a growing lineup for the Director's Experience, which launched earlier this year with theatrical commentaries for Project Hail Mary, The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Toy Story 5. The program also added James Cameron's original commentary for Terminator 2: Judgment Day in August. For Whalefall audiences, the latest addition offers a chance to spend another screening picking apart the filmmaking behind an especially claustrophobic predicament.

Whalefall is now playing in theaters.