Whale Fall: Could a Human Survive Inside a Sperm Whale?

The new movie Whale Fall, released on October 16, transports viewers into the belly of the beast. Based on Daniel Krauss’s 2023 novel, the survival thriller follows college student Jay Gardiner, played by Austin Abrams, who is accidentally swallowed by a sperm whale while scuba diving.

As Jay desperately searches for a way out of the whale’s stomach, which is divided into multiple chambers, he is also forced to confront the anniversary of his father’s death.

The novel and film were developed with extensive input from scientific advisers. One of them, comparative anatomist Joy Lydenberg of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, discussed everything from the type of whale best suited to the story of a “Modern Jonah” to the injuries Jay might suffer in the whale’s different stomach chambers.

To separate science from fiction, Nature spoke with Lydenberg and Ilias Foskolos, who studies deep-sea toothed whales at Aarhus University in Denmark and Stanford University in California.

Could a sperm whale accidentally swallow a human?

Foskolos: This scenario has some problems. Sperm whales are usually not found in coastal areas. They are marine predators, and they do not typically eat things found in shallow water.

Most evidence from sperm-whale stomach contents suggests that they eat relatively small prey. Squid commonly have a body length of about 30 to 40 centimetres, so there are no squid close to the size of a human. Sperm whales sometimes pursue large squid, but that is not very common.

Lydenberg: Sperm whales do not have especially large mouths for carrying things. However, their throat passageway is actually quite large. If it were a very large sperm whale, as in the film and book, swallowing a human would be physically possible.

Would it happen behaviourally? The assumption is that the sperm whale accidentally pulls Jay in while feeding on a squid. If you were eating a gummy bear and someone placed a pebble next to it, you might accidentally put both in your mouth—but you would probably spit them out again because the pebble was not what you intended to eat.

So how likely is a sperm whale to swallow a human? It would be about as likely as swallowing a stone.

Could a human survive inside a whale’s stomach?

Lydenberg: I think so, provided the person had enough proper protection.

The first chamber is considered a mechanical mash chamber. Its function is to break food down into smaller, digestible units. If the stomach pressed a person against a wall or tightened around their chest like a boa constrictor, could the pressure stop the person’s heart?

Usually, these muscles are trying to crush something boneless. Humans have bones, so the stomach would encounter a type of resistance that it is not accustomed to. A scuba tank would provide additional protection. The area where the ribs meet the tank would still be present, making it very unlikely that the stomach could squeeze the entire chest.

If a scuba diver wore a dry suit, stomach acid in the second chamber would have little chance of reaching the skin. Only exposed parts of the body would begin to burn. Burns do not necessarily kill a person, but they would not be a pleasant experience.

What is a whale fall?

Foskolos: A whale fall is the remains of a dead whale on the ocean floor. These carcasses can form entire ecosystems because, depending on the whale’s stage of decomposition, they provide fuel for different animal communities.

Lydenberg: There is nothing else growing there that can provide nutrients, so many scavengers gather around, waiting for something to eat. When a whale falls to the seafloor, it is like manna from heaven. Animals can travel from miles around to feed on the carcass, creating communities of their own.