Orca The Killer Whale

Year releasted: 1977

by Nathan Rabin
November 27th, 2002

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration implemented a color-coded warning system to let Americans know just how freaked out they should be at any given moment. During the '70s, however, safety-minded Americans were forced to rely on super-producers Irwin Allen and Dino De Laurentiis, whose films warned of the grave dangers posed by towering infernos, giant apes, and vengeance-minded killer whales. As Orca begins, a family of lovable Shamus is frolicking in the open water. But all is not well under the waves, for crusty old sea dog Richard Harris is intent on capturing a living, breathing killer whale. In a classroom, meanwhile, killer-whale-loving professor Charlotte Rampling discusses the salient characteristics of killer whales for the benefit of the audience—and, to a lesser extent, her students. As Rampling teaches her Exposition 101 students, killer whales are not only huge and dangerous, but also extremely intelligent. How intelligent are they? Perhaps smarter than humans, Rampling suggests, adding, "What we call language, they might call unnecessary or redundant or even retarded." Harris bristles at the suggestion that he can be outsmarted by a whale, particularly after he captures a pregnant female orca whose giant dead fetus drops out of her maimed body, proving conclusively that whale-slaughter stops a beating heart. Angered by Harris' actions, as well as the crew's seemingly retarded need to communicate via language, the orca's enraged mate takes out a member of Harris' crew. Back on land, Harris figures his long nautical nightmare is over, until exposition-happy Native American Will Sampson informs him that killer whales have memories to match their superhuman intelligence. Riddled with guilt, Harris ponders seeking absolution, then decides that he will apologize profusely to the whale, explaining calmly and rationally that the death of its mate and child was a horrible accident. For the sake of symmetry, Harris then confides to Rampling that he too once lost a mate and a babe to a freak accident, but the killer whale seems unconcerned with Harris' contrition or his tale of woe. The enraged creature continues to menace the seaside, at one point helping knock over a gas lamp, triggering a chain reaction that turns a seaside town into a giant ball of flames. Pushed to the breaking point, Harris, Rampling, Sampson, and what's left of Harris' crew follow the whale into glacial waters, where the vicious sea-beast climactically kills Harris, leaving his watery corpse behind as a reminder of the steep cost of provoking nature's fury.