Monster
Crap Inductee: Orca
Prologue To The Orca Revolution
Prologue To The Orca Revolution
1977
Last
year, you may have all heard the news about Orcas (killer whales) attacking and
sinking ships in the Strait Of Gibraltar after one of the Orcas got injured by
a boat’s motor. Since 2020, there had been 500 encounters between Orcas and
humans that have left scientists baffled. I made a joke on a message board that
the Orca Revolution had begun and given our history of mistreating Orca whales
(watch Blackfish (2013)), it would be understandable if the whales have finally
had enough of our shit.
But
let’s go back to 1911 when the first orca was ever captured and used as an
attraction for only a day before they either escaped or died. This act that we
would find out to be terrible would continue and become popular after the
capture of Namu and Shamu (with Shamu being given to Sea World San Diego (which
created that franchise of water parks)) in the 1960s. Now we head to the 1975
and the release of Jaws, which was a huge hit and mainly the reason for the
idea of the summer being the time for blockbusters (before that, summer was
considered the dead zone for movies being released). With that, other studios
and filmmakers wanted their own piece of the killer animals market so enter
Dino DeLaurentis, who was a prominent filmmaker in the world of exploitation
filmmaking. After watching Jaws, Dino wanted a fish that was tougher and more
terrifying than the great white shark and there is only one bigger animal that
would be known to kill great whites and that is the Orca.
So
with that out of the way, let’s get to putting pieces into this movie. For
director, let’s hire Michael Anderson, who was just fresh off directing a
modest hit in Logan’s Run.
If
You Were A Fan Of Marathons Of Sci-Fi/Horror Films, Chances Are You’ve Seen
This Film At Least Once
Now
onto the cast and first we need our male lead so let’s get Richard Harris who
rose to fame 1967 as King Arthur in the hit musical Camelot.
A
Musical That Has Been Praised For Its Leads And Criticized For Its Length
Of Run Time
For
the female lead, let’s hire Charlotte Rampling who was a model and actress
(known for being in The Night Porter and Zardoz at this point). We can also
hire Will Sampson who was in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest opposite of Jack
Nicholson and The Outlaw Josey Wales opposite of Clint Eastwood. And for the
killer orca, let’s rent two Orcas from Sea World in Nepo and Yaka.
And
we have a person who are Monster Crap alum. Keenan Wynn would be in Laserblast.
We
begin this film with…
The
Opening Title
After
that, we get footage of Orcas swimming about and we see two that are very much
in love.
It
Should Be Noted That For The Two Orcas In This Film Were From Sea World And
While You Could Rent Them For Your Movie, They Were Still Doing Shows So The
Film Had To Shoot Orca Footage Around Sea World’s Schedule With The Two And You
Especially Weren’t Taking Them Out Of Their Tanks.
You
especially may note that they both have curled dorsal fins and that will be
very important between when you can tell it is a live orca doing the shot or
some animatronic that has to do stuff that might get the Orcas in real life
killed. Now for years, people did not know what the curved dorsal fin means,
but now more than 40 years after this movie, we know it means that they are
stressed and are not fans of being in a small space.
Meanwhile
in South Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada, scientist Rachel Bedford is scuba diving
and trying to lure some Orca to where she is so she can study them. Also, there
is a man on the boat named Ken who is making sure everything goes fine.
He
probably should have paid more attention because as Rachel is getting ready to
see some orcas, something else appears that she has to hide from.
A
Great White Shark
The
Great White then gets distracted by the sounds of motor and it is a fishing
boat called the Bumpo.
It
has its Captain in Captain Nolan, its first mate in Novak, and two young
assistants in Paul and Annie.
Is
That A 10 I See On The Crow’s Nest???
Yes,
that is indeed Bo Derek in her first movie role (that was released as she did
an earlier film with later husband John Derek that wouldn’t be released until
1981).
No,
I Will Not Talk About The Formation Of The Relationship Between John And Bo
Derek. Look That Up For Yourself And You May Tug Your Own Collar Because Of How
Creepy It Was As John Is 30 Years Older Than Bo And When They Started Dating,
Bo Was Underage And John Was Still Married.
Anyway,
Ken stops them from harpooning the shark for now because there is a woman in
the water and we really don’t want her to be hit. Nolan is at first mad that
there was a diver where he was trying to get a great white, but calms down when
he finds out the diver is a woman.
We
also find out that Captain Nolan and crew are trying to capture a Great White
Shark alive as an aquarium is offering $250,000 for the capture of a Great
White because you know, aquariums would want to rake in the money by having a
Great White for show. Unfortunately, that Great White will always die because
they can’t live long in enclosed environments (the longest lived to 198 days)
so they will of course be giving that much money at the time for just a few
months of publicity.
Anyway,
Ken falls in the water and is almost eaten when the shark gets killed by an
Orca.
Ah
An Old Trick Of Killer Animal Movies In Having Your Animal Kill The More Well
Known Killer Animal To Show That Your Animal Means Business.
Rachel
says that only a killer whale could do that to a Great White Shark (bottlenose
dolphins can kill them too, but not with that much blood). Then we have a very
awkward scene of Rachel telling some Orca facts.
She
also says the ancient Romans called them Orca Orcinus (actually Orcinus Orca)
which means The Bringer Of Death. She says they are the fastest moving whales
(which is also incorrect as the Fin Whale is faster). They at least are able to
get right how huge an Orca’s brain is as only a Sperm Whale has a bigger brain.
She also shows a Orca fetus.
Important
For Later
So
we go back to the crew of the Bumpo as Captain Nolan has now decided that he
wants to catch an Orca for the aquarium instead of a Great White. Considering
that there are aquariums and theme parks at the time that had killer whales as
attractions, I think Nolan might get less money for capturing an Orca. Rachel
is definitely not happy about this arrangement. She says he won’t catch one,
but he will kill a couple in the attempt. But Nolan is in it for the money so
he won’t quit trying.
We
get scenes with a pod of orcas and then see Annie preparing a tranquilizer for
the orca they plan to capture. Annie then tells Nolan that Orcas are monogamous
and mate for life, which for the most part is not true. Orcas are actually
polygamous and while there have been orcas who stay together (until one of them
dies and they find a new mate), most of them just mate and then the father
leaves the mother to take care of the baby. Anyway, Annie says that they could
be ruining a happy family, but Nolan doesn’t give a damn and tells her to
continue what she is doing.
Novak
shouts that there are killer whales ahead and Nolan gets ready to catch one. Nolan
shoots his spear going for the male, but the spear goes through the male’s fin
and into the female.
The
female screams and feeling that it is suffering, tries to kill itself with the
boat’s motor. Nolan and the crew are horrified by what they are seeing and
hearing.
To
hopefully save the whale, they stop the engines and bring it up.
Things
get even worse as that female whale turned out to be pregnant and has a
miscarriage so a fetus just pops out.
Yeah,
That Whale In The Sea Screaming Is The Male Who Just Lost Out On Being A Father
Nolan
is frantic in not wanting to see the fetus and in his state, he makes a very
terrible and cruel decision to hose the fetus off the boat.
The
male is so unhappy about this development and we even see tears coming down his
eyes.
Nolan
is very saddened by what he has done and Novak tries to console him that the
whale is gone. Unfortunately for them, that is sort of correct as instead of
the whale being gone, the whale has gone from sadness to fury as he attacks the
boat.
Annie
falls over and breaks her foot and Novak is sent to check the engine room,
where he has to seal up some leaks. Nolan’s first instinct upon seeing the male
orca is to shoot it, but the male bumps the boat again so Nolan does not get a
good shot off and loses the gun. Nolan’s next plan is to give the male back his
female. So he has Novak go up and cut the rope holding the female.
Unfortunately, the rope is on the bowsprit so after Novak frees the female and
heading back, the male comes out of the water and kills Novak.
We
also see this brilliant shot too knowing that male orca wants total revenge.
He’s
Burning Nolan’s Image Into His Mind
After
what he did, the male orca sends his dying female orca to shore as the rest of
the orcas leave him as this is a revenge and burial he has to do alone.
I
Really Should Give Props To The Beautiful Score Given To Us By The Late Great
Ennio Morricone.
After
Nolan parks his ship for repairs, he sees the beached orca that he killed and
Rachel is looking over. As he talks to her, Rachel tells him the male orca
pushed her to the beach and that he followed Nolan to this area. Then another
gentlemen comes in and says that what she said is true.
Meet
Jacob Umilak
He
introduces himself as a teacher at a travel school in the north. Jacob warns
him that he knows from the tales of old that a orca who was hunted destroyed
the boat and killed the hunters for the sin of wounding it. The orcas have
great memory and even after many years, always remember the human being that
tried to harm them. Jacob also warns him that he should probably stay far from
the whale’s territory or the whale might want to exact revenge on him. Nolan
says he just may stay away from the whale and give up the idea of capturing
one.
Nolan
then goes to Novak’s very small funeral.
Nolan
gives the priest an envelope of money that he hope goes to the seaman’s fund
since Novak had no family. Novak explains his backstory in that he was from
Ireland, came to North America, and started on this boat as a first mate to
another captain, who died and left him the boat. Nolan then asks the priest if
you can commit a sin against an animal and the priest says you can commit a sin
against anything. After he leaves the church, Nolan meets Al Swain, who is head
of the fisherman’s union in this town of South Harbor.
He
knows that Nolan was trying to catch a killer whale and Nolan says he was, but
no longer as he is done with that business. Al says a few people around the
area are superstitious about that sort of thing and if an orca stays around
here for too long, it drives away the fish that they need to catch which is
their livelihood and that’s just not good.
Then
we cut to seeing that the vengeful orca is also in town. The orca immediately
makes its presence known by sinking other ships in the harbor.
I
Would Like You To Know That Is A Fake Orca Ramming Those Boats As A Real Orca
Would Get Themselves A Concussion And Maybe Die Doing What This Orca Does. In
Fact, Some Captured Orcas Have Been Known To Kill Themselves Via Ramming Their
Heads Against The Wall Of Their Pool Because They Hate The Conditions.
That
night, Rachel gives Nolan a book on killer whales as they are burying the whale
that was beached. Nolan finds some of the stuff in the book a bit laughable,
but thanks her for the book all the same. He offers Rachel a drink at the place
he has rented and Al shows up to tell him that they are making the fixing of
his boat their number one priority so he can then leave town or at least kill
the whale that has done harm to the boats around the town. Nolan plans on doing
neither as he has a month’s rent all paid up for the place and he will only
leave after that is done and when Annie gets healed from her hurt foot. Al is
pissed at this news, but Nolan says the whale will probably never be seen. Al
then breaks the news that a kid saw a whale fin off the north point of town so
that whale is not going anywhere. Rachel warns him not to go after the whale
and refuses his offer on drinks. Nolan then goes to the north and the whale
shows himself to taunt the fisherman.
We
Even See More Of The Whale’s Eye
In
a meeting, Al tells the fellow fisherman that they have called the coast guard,
the Canadian Fish And Wildlife Board, and even the Marine Mammal Commission in
the US and they all say they have no authority to do anything about the killer
whale that is attacking this town. Jacob shows up to Nolan’s house to tell him
all about this anger in the town. Jacob says the town thinks Nolan is a coward
and Nolan says he has his reasons for not doing it, which Jacob believes is
true as he has seen fear in Nolan’s face. Jacob then warns him that perhaps he
should still hunt the whale despite the fear and Nolan is still hesitant to do
this.
Nolan
then goes inside and reads the book given to him by Rachel. He is about to talk
to Paul, but sees that Paul is busy.
Yeah,
You Might Want To Come Back Later
That
night while the whale is planning something, Nolan makes a dummy of himself
near the water and has a rifle in his hand. Rachel laughs at this attempt by
Nolan to kill the whale and says the whale is never going to fall for that. She
explains to him that he wants to fight him on the sea, which is why he sank the
other boats and not his. Nolan says he will not do that because while he may be
sorrowful for what he did, he really doesn’t want to get killed so he
definitely is not going to fight by the orca’s terms. He then says that yeah,
he originally was going to shoot the whale, but he realizes that he can’t do
it. So instead, his plan is to look the whale in the eye and apologize for
killing his mate and kid. He then leaves the gun behind as he wants to wait for
the whale to come. Nolan says he understands what the orca is going through
because the same thing happened to him as his pregnant wife was going to the
hospital and a drunk driver crashed into them and the mother and child died as
a result.
Unfortunately
for Nolan, the whale has other plans as he jumps up and destroys some pipes.
Those
pipes it turns out are carrying gasoline and the whale then knocks hits a pier
so a lantern falls over and starts a fire.
This
fire goes back to the pipes that are leaking gasoline and causes explosions.
Yippee…..I
Started A Fire
The
fire goes up the pipes and straight to the power plant, which blows up.
Yes….Yes….Burn,
Baby, Burn
And
Not The Disco Inferno Kind
Nolan
and Rachel hear this and see the whale celebrating what he did. The whale then
adds further insult by splashing water into Nolan.
So
there is more anger from the fisherman’s union and more fixing of Nolan’s boat
so he can get the hell out of here. And as soon as that is done, we go to back
to night where Peter and Anne are hanging out while Nolan gets a phone call to
leave the place by 6:15 am. The person on the phone even threatens Anne by
saying if they are not gone, her injured leg will seem like nothing. Nolan
calls for Paul and tells him that Paul and Anne are leaving as he will take
care of the boat and the fishermen. Nolan then calls Rachel and tells her about
the threatening call and that the whale may be getting what he wants. Rachel
tries to tell him that much like a human being, what the whale wants and what
it should have are not the same thing, so she doesn’t want him to go out there.
She talks him out of not going, but he still wants to get Paul and Anne out of
danger.
Anne
wants to go with Nolan on his hunt for the whale, but Nolan says he wants her
and Paul to be safe and he isn’t going after the whale. Nolan goes to get stuff
out of the garage and at the same time as that, Paul goes to a gas station, but
the gas people refuse to give him gas, saying they have no gas despite just
giving someone else gas when he got there. Paul goes to confront the gas guy,
but Jacob stops him and says they cant get any bus tickets either as the entire
town has decided that the only way anyone on the Bumpo is getting out of this
town is via boat. Paul tells him that this whole town is looney and drives away,
but not before Jacob says he is not the enemy and he volunteers himself to go
with Nolan to deal with the orca.
Bad
news for Nolan and friends is Nolan’s rented house is partially over the water,
held there by wooden pillars. The orca decides to attack Nolan’s house pillars.
The house starts to fall into the sea as Nolan tries to save Anne from falling
via a net that she tries to climb to safety from. Unfortunately for Anne, her
legs are easily available for attack and if you don’t like Bo Derek for
whatever reason, you’ll be sickeningly happy to know that Bo Derek’s first
movie role is going to end with her injured leg getting bitten off by the orca.
Well
it turns out that whole thing about the only way they are leaving town is via
boat is sort of false as an ambulance arrives and takes Anne to the hospital
that is out of town. Nolan sees the orca celebrating and says that the orca
wins as he is going to fight him on his terms.
That
Is A Man Who Is Angry, Tired, And Willing To Give The Beast What It Wants
By
daytime, the Bumpo heads out to see with the crew being Nolan and Paul, as well
as Rachel, Jacob, and Ken joining them. As they leave the town, all the
fishermen watch as they head out to deal with this killer whale. Nolan is at
the front of the boat to let the people know he is leaving.
Can
I Once Again Say How Beautiful The Score Is Again, Because It Is
We
hear Rachel’s narration that her best efforts to prevent this fight had proven
a failure as the orca and the town had seen to that. She says she came aboard
for this journey as she partially blamed herself for Nolan’s state of mind. She
hopes that this voyage will give her another way to interpret the animal as she
still can’t believe the vindictiveness of this animal. She says she also
believes that she has an obligation to protect the orca and Nolan from the
orca’s vengeful insanity, although she thinks Nolan knows what is going to
happen and that frightens him the most. The course is set for the same place
that Nolan accidentally killed the orca’s mate as the captain was sure that is
where the orca would want this final duel.
Nolan
gives Rachel a gun. She doesn’t want to, but Nolan says that she will need it
for self defense in case the whale kills Nolan and wants further vengeance. The
orca bumps the boat to let them know he is nearby and Paul wants to go with the
rifle, but Nolan tells him to not bring it as it is only Nolan the killer whale
wants. Nolan tries to throw some dynamite over and Rachel tries to stop him,
but all this does is cause Nolan to accidentally throw the lit dynamite on the
ship.
Uh
Oh….
Rachel
ends up having to throw the dynamite over into the sea despite not wanting to. The
killer whale puts its tail up and tells Nolan to follow it.
Nolan
checks on Rachel as Ken decides to look out to see and regretfully for him, the
orca decides to jump up and kill him.
Sunset
leads to night and Rachel tells Nolan that the rest of the crew is probably
going to want to turn back now, but Nolan says that it is too late for him and
he will go to fight the whale in their duel no matter what. Rachel goes to take
over steering the boat from Peter and says Rachel is starting to get as crazy
as Nolan is about this whole thing. Nolan turns in for some rest and the sun
rises to tell us it is a new day.
Not
That New Day
They
look at the maps and Nolan realizes that the killer whale is taking them to the
coast of Labrador and right now, they are on the Strait of Belle Island. During
this time, Peter is going a bit crazy and Jacob comes by to tell them that they
do not have enough fuel to head home so this final battle is a one way trip. Nolan
says there is a station nearby so soon, they can shoot a flare into the sky and
a helicopter will get them away from the boat, although Nolan is resigned to
his fate and says he will stay behind for the final battle with the orca.
That
night, Peter has had enough and tries to make an escape for it on a lifeboat. Nolan
warns him against this, but Jacob tells Nolan he needs to get some sleep as he
has not slept for longer than a day and his eyes are showing the strain. Nolan
agrees to sleep and Jacob tries to talk Peter out of his escape plan, but
before they can get anywhere, the orca hits the boat and knocks Peter
overboard.
Peter
is then immediately killed.
No
More Sleeping With Bo Derek For You
Completely
broken and barely able to stay awake, Nolan finally reveals to Rachel that all
he planned to do with the money the aquarium would give him is to pay off the
mortgage for the boat. He had no real plans to get rich or anything, he just
wanted this boat so he can go back to Ireland and have a life there. He is
upset by what he has done to the female orca and blames himself for three
people being dead and an innocent girl being maimed for life. He spoons with
Rachel to keep himself warm and says that tomorrow will be the day of the final
battle.
In
the day, the orca pushes an iceberg towards the boat as its cue that it is
time. Nolan thinks about bringing a gun to the final battle, but decides he is
going to be honorable and only bring a harpoon. As Rachel shows up, Nolan says
that the killer whale loved his family more than he loved his own. Jacob for
some reason decides that he is going to take over the boat and that they are
heading back.
Really???
Now You Want To Get Out, Jacob??? After All That Talk, You Want To Tuck Tail
And Run??? Disappointing….
Of
course that doesn’t matter as that iceberg the whale is pushing finally comes
at them. Nolan gets his harpoon ready for the final battle as Jacob calls for
an SOS and leaves the signal on automatic so they can be found. As the killer
whale comes up for air, Nolan hits it with the harpoon.
The
iceberg hits the Bumpo and much like the Titanic, scrapes enough of a hole in
the boat to cause it to be leaking. An avalanche from a bigger iceberg is
created, that avalanche kills Jacob.
With
the Bumpo obviously sinking, Nolan and Rachel get on the bigger iceberg as it
has actual ground that they can stand on. Nolan now has his gun and decides he
is going to try and shoot the killer whale. As the head for higher ground, the
orca decides that he is going to break the ice to separate Nolan and Rachel and
pushing the ice carrying Nolan away.
The
whale taunts Nolan and we once again go to the eye to get this great shot as
Nolan prepares to shoot it.
But
Nolan doesn’t shoot, wondering instead what the hell this orca is. The orca
then leaps up and causes the ice Nolan is standing on to lean.
You
Know For The Longest Time, Other Than A Killer Sea Animal And The Fact The
Protagonists Go Out On A Boat To Deal With The Animal, This Had Very Little To
Do With Jaws. However, This Is Almost A Shot For Shot Copy, Just Replace The Boat
In Jaws (Known Ironically As The Orca) With This Slab Of Ice.
Nolan
slides down to the orca, but unlike Jaws, the orca doesn’t eat Nolan and lets
him fall to sea as he has a different plan. That plan is to use his tail and
flip Nolan, into the bigger iceberg.
Yeah,
Nolan Is Dead.
I
guess now is good as time as any to tell you about Richard Harris during the
making of this movie. You see, Richard Harris was on his second marriage (this
time to Ann Turkel) and the marriage was not going well at this stage. While
filming, Richard Harris read a tabloid magazine and saw a picture of Ann at the
beach with a younger man. Originally, Harris had considered quitting the movie
so he could go down and kill the two, but was stopped in a brawl that led to
the producer getting a black eye. So instead, Harris started drinking heavily
in hopes to dull the heartache and when you drink heavily, it doesn’t just dull
heartache as it also dulls your senses to know what is smart and what is stupid
and dangerous. So because of this, Richard Harris decided that during these
scenes in this iceberg, he was going to do his own stunts. Maybe hoping he
would get killed here, he almost did on several occasions. A few years after
the movie was over, Richard and Ann decided to get a divorce and ironically
enough, remained good friends since both of them realized that they were never
meant to be married.
Back
to the movie, Nolan’s body falls back into the sea and sinks to the bottom. The
orca comes back and Rachel is worried she will be killed, but the orca just
looks at her and decides his vengeance has been fulfilled. And as the orca
leaves, a helicopter arrives to pick Rachel up.
The
movie ends with the whale swimming away, all set to the beautiful score of this
movie.
So
while we do not have the exact numbers on the budget, the box office for this
movie nearly did double the budget or barely less than the budget. This film
was then savagely reviewed by critics who said the movie was a rip-off
combination of Jaws and Death Wish. And of course, the makes me wonder if these
critics really know what Death Wish was about because other than someone losing
his wife and deciding to kill, those two movies are not the same because with
Death Wish, the main character NEVER actually got his revenge on the guys who
killed his wife and raped his daughter to the point of shock. The orca in this
movie went straight for the man responsible for the deaths of his mate and
unborn child and anyone else (who was not on the ship) was mere collateral that
he didn’t kill. In fact, Richard Harris found it insulting to compare this film
to Jaws because yeah, this was more of a tale of revenge than a tale of a
killer sea creature.
Now
the biggest insult to me is that this film has a Rotten Tomatoes score of NINE
PERCENT!!!!! Really??? That Bad??? I find that insulting and instead, let me
list some bad movies that these dumbass critics who couldn’t find their way
through movie comparisons if their life depended on it, thought were better
than this movie.
·
Robot
Monster
·
Super
Mario Bros. (the 1993 one)
·
Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles III
·
The
Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf
·
Texas
Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation
·
Double
Dragon
·
Halloween:
Resurrection
·
Day
Of The Dead (the 2008 remake)
·
The
Twilight Saga: New Moon
·
DragonBall:
Evolution
·
Lawnmower
Man 2
·
The
Thing (prequel)
·
Clash
of the Titans (remake)
·
Oogieloves
In The Big Balloon Adventure
·
Land
Of The Lost (yeah, the one with Will Ferrell)
·
Nightmare
On Elm Street (remake)
·
After
Earth
·
Plan
9 From Outer Space
·
The
Happening
·
Birdemic
·
Alien
vs. Predator: Requiem
·
The
Cat In The Hat
·
New
Mutants
·
Bride
Of The Monster
·
Leprechaun:
Back 2 Tha Hood
·
Seed
Of Chucky
·
Mafia!
·
Doom
And
think this movie is as good of a movie as:
·
See
No Evil
·
10,000
B.C.
·
Fantastic
Four (2015 one)
So
you can see my feeling of insult here.
After
this movie, Bo Derek (who played Anne) would be in the movie 10 and that would
spark her whole career before a number of terrible movies (directed by her
older pedophilic husband) took that career down. Richard Harris (who played
Nolan) would continue to be in good films (the biggest being Unforgiven and
Gladiator). Charlotte Rampling (who played Rachel) is still doing good films as
she is Reverend Mother Mohiam in Dune and will be the same character in Dune:
Part 2.
She’s
The One Who Made Timothy Chalamet Take The Gom Jabbar Test (It’s The Torture
Box)
Will
Sampson (who was Jacob) went on to be in Poltergeist II: The Other Side. Robert
Carradine (who played Ken) found his big break 7 years later as Lewis in
Revenge Of The Nerds.
Peter
Hooten (who played Paul) might be remembered by most nerds as Dr. Strange in
that 70s made for TV movie that came out a year after this film.
That
Was A Thing That Happened
Unfortunately,
there are deaths that have happened after this movie. Don “Red” Berry (who
played a dock worker) sadly shot himself 3 years after this movie in 1980 at
the age of 66. Keenan Wynn (who played
Novak) died in 1986 at the age of 70 due to pancreatic cancer. Will Sampson
(who played Jacob) would leave this mortal coil 10 years later in 1987 at the
age of 53 from kidney failure and malnutrition during heart and kidney
transplant surgery. Scott Walker (who played Al Swain) would pass away in 1988
at the age of 62. Richard Harris (who played Nolan) passed away in 2002 at the
age of 72 from Hodgkin’s Disease. Wayne Heffley (who played the priest) left
this mortal coil in 2008 at the age of 81 from kidney failure. Michael Anderson
(the director) died in 2018 at the age of 98 from heart disease.
But
sadly the worst is what happened with the orcas Nepo and Yaka. As we have seen
from documentaries like Blackfish, orcas did not live good lives in the Sea
World pens. Nepo would sadly be the first to die 3 years after this movie in
1980 from pneumonia at the age of 15. Yaka stayed by his side till he took his
final breaths. It took trainers a while to take Nepo away as Yaka did not want
to leave him. Yaka would then get a female tank mate in Vigga and would
actually live to 31 years old before passing away also from pneumonia. Vigga
would then die 3 years afterwards due to an infection in one of her lungs.
My
final thoughts on this movie are thus: I really like this movie (with the beautiful score, great effects, and endearing acting) and find
troubling the idea that people would say this is a rip-off combination of Jaws
and Death Wish as it’s almost like those critics didn’t remember what happened
in Jaws and Death Wish. In this movie, we see an orca lose its mate and
offspring right before its eyes and have personal vengeance against the guy who
did it. The guy who did it (unlike in Death Wish or any of the sequels) is
completely remorseful about what happened throughout the film and in many
scenes leading to the final battle, has accepted the fact that the only way to
make things right is to die at the orca’s fins and yet still doesn’t want to
die. This is a film that unlike Death Wish shows that sometimes, killing
mentally tortures the killer as much as the person who needs to get revenge
over it. Even a creature as smart as a killer whale (as we have learned more
now than back then) is just as susceptible to the same traumatic things that
turn us into monsters. I would definitely give this film a watch, but know that
you are not going to get a simple killer animal movie because someone actually
tried to do things differently and despite that, some dumbasses can’t even see
that.
So….
I’M
BACK!!!!!
Crap…
Oh
you should be unhappy to see me because unlike past inductions, I have a new
way to torture you with the next induction.
You
truly can’t torture me any more than you already h...
THREE
HOURS!!!!
What?
You’re
next induction is going to be three hours long because you are doing a
miniseries. Enjoy…
*Sigh*