Whalefall, the film that sees Austin Abrams try to combat his manner out of the stomach of a sperm whale, has a fan in Hideo Kojima. The Metallic Gear Stable creator and critical film buff shared his ideas on the movie over the weekend, revealing a love for whales that has been with him since college — however says Whalefall has, in consequence, put him off snacking on squid.
“It was a literary movie that explored, in a considerably metafictional manner, the Steinbeck-like relationship between whales and people as a part of an ecosystem, alongside the familial bond between father and son. The visible results have been additionally excellent. Nevertheless, I don’t assume I’ll be consuming squid for some time,” he wrote on Twitter/X.
I watched “Whalefall.” I had acquired a duplicate of Daniel Kraus’s novel, on which the movie is predicated, fairly a while in the past, however hadn’t had the prospect to learn it but. Kraus was additionally concerned in writing the screenplay. It was a literary movie that explored, in a considerably metafictional manner, the Steinbeck-like relationship between whales and people as a part of an ecosystem, alongside the familial bond between father and son. The visible results have been additionally excellent. Nevertheless, I don’t assume I’ll be consuming squid for some time 🦑. I really like whales. They seem incessantly in my video games. After I was within the early years of elementary college, I researched whale ecology for a college challenge. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by their huge dimension as mammals and their symbolic presence within the marine ecosystem. In MGS2, Raiden is swallowed, digested, and excreted by the big Arsenal Gear, a whale that swallows digital info. Whales additionally function in MGSV and DEATH STRANDING. There are references to Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” as nicely. It’s a disgrace they didn’t make a program for the movie 🐳.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) October 18, 2026
Director and author Brian Duffield spoke to IGN for Fall Fan Fest 2026 concerning the making of the film and revealed the bizarre analysis he needed to undertake when it got here to whale guts.
“We might watch autopsies of beached sperm whales, and there is a bunch of endoscopies of beluga whales and dolphins that we might watch after which speak to the consultants and see how a lot of that we may use and the way a lot can be totally different with a sperm whale,” he mentioned.
“However yeah, it was an actual bizarre time in my life the place most the whole lot I used to be watching was very graphic endoscopies and autopsies. My spouse would stroll into the room and I would shut my laptop computer lid, and he or she was identical to – she knew I wasn’t watching porn – she was identical to, ‘Simply one other post-mortem?’ I used to be like, ‘Sure, it is my job.'”
Whalefall is in film theaters now, and our evaluate mentioned it “pulls the viewer into an unthinkably scary, extremely gross, and panic-inducing atmosphere that performs on primal human fears about being predator or prey.” You may learn extra of that evaluate right here.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Growth at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been an expert nerd since 2006 when she obtained her begin on Official PlayStation Journal within the UK, and has since labored for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror films, horror video games, Purple Useless Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.