Movie Script Summary

Author: Josniel Rodríguez Castiñeiras

Introduction

The actions take place in a whaling ship in the Pacific Ocean. Frank was a young man
that did not like much the job he was doing but needed the money and in his town had
no other job opportunities. He always refused the offers from his partners to kill the
whales with the harpoon cannon, despite of their constant mocking, and limited himself
to clean the deck and other minor tasks.
The ship is hunting whales and was almost completing its goal when they got caught in
a sudden and violent storm which damages all communication devices and the ship’s
motor (or fuel supply), and they are abandoned in the middle of the Pacific. With their
water and food supply shortening and with fuel for just a few hundred miles, they face
starvation and death in the ocean.
Frank comes up with an idea to save them. He proposes they use their harpoon to throw
some sort of lace to a whale and it will take them near the continent, where there are
more possibilities of finding human activity. At first, his partners tell him he is totally
crazy, but as the days go by and no help appears in the horizon, they don’t have any
other option than trying that crazy idea.

Development

Frank tells them that they must aim for a blue whale, the only capable of pulling a ship
so big, and which by that time of the year (September) are migrating to
California/Mexico west coast. So they use their last fuel reserves pursuing a blue whale
and after a few failed attempts, he manages to place the lace around the whale’s head
and inside its mouth (like a horse rein).
Then they realize that if the blue whale dives, it could sink the ship, but when the whale
dives it can’t go too deep because of the weight of the ship, and it surfaces again and
continues to swim and to slowly drag the ship.
When they finally relax and think it might work, they notice something besides the huge
whale, a calf. Nick, a crewmember, which was known for his misbehavior and cruelty to
animals, says they must kill the calf so the mother can only concentrate on the task of
traveling to the continent, but Frank didn’t agree and they almost start fighting, but they
are suddenly stopped by another crewmember that spotted a group of killer whales
swimming in their direction.
They realize that the killer whales can frustrate their plan if they hurt the mother and get
in a small boat to try to stop the group to come near the mother, which was also an easy
target for the killer whales as it was attached to the ship by a rope, they use big sticks to
drive away the killer whales. The crew witnessed how mother and son communicated
between them and was like they were saying goodbye, as the mother could not get loose
of the rope. Despite their efforts the killer whales decided they prefer to hunt the
defenseless calf and before their eyes the killer whales separate it from the mother and
slowly drown it despite Frank efforts to keep the killer whales away. The mother fights
but she couldn’t do much to protect the calf.
The majority of the crew is devastated after the death of the calf, but they don’t have
anything else to do and they go back to the ship. They begin to question their moral
beliefs as they could not protect the family of the creature that was saving their own
lives and they witnessed an almost human mother-son love moment.
Nick was pleased by the fact that the blue whale now would not have any distractions
and would swim faster and Frank could not contain himself and attacked him in a fit of
anger, hitting him several times, the other crew members were almost tempted to let him
kill Nick but ultimately separated them and took Nick to the infirmary.
They established shifts to make sure that the killer whales did not come back and to see
any other danger threatening the blue whale, like sharks, as the blood of the calf could
attract them. Frank was the first in the watch and when Nick came out of the infirmary
with a few bruises in his face, he was consumed by a desire of revenge and attacked him
from behind, throwing him to the sea, but Frank, as he fell, grabbed Nick by the shirt
and pulled him, falling together in the cold water.
Frank grabbed the rope that attached the whale to the ship and started climbing and
screaming for help. The other crew members heard the screams and quickly arrived and
watched all that was happening. He looked back and saw Nick trying to grab the rope
near the whale tail but when he finally grabbed it, the whale raised the tail and slapped
the man, knocking him unconscious into the sea. Despite the effort of Frank to reach
and grab Nick with his hand, his body passed by and disappeared in the dark sea.

End

The travel continues until they arrive to California and they are all happy and thanking
Frank for the idea that saved their lives. They cut the rope to free their savior but the
blue whale was too weak to swim against the waves and return to the ocean, and instead
is dragged by the waves to the beach, where it rests and despite the crew efforts to push
it back into the sea, she finally dies before the eyes of the crew.

The next time we see Frank he is in another ship chasing whales, but this time he is in
the MY Steve Irwin, flagship of Sea Shepherd.

THE END