Saturday, February 24, 2024

Monster Crap Inductee: Orca (1977)

Monster Crap Inductee: Orca
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.


With that all out of the way, let’s get to the movie.  

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*