Orca is a 1977 horror film directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and starring Richard Harris, Will Sampson and Charlotte Rampling. The film was one of a long line of marine-related horror-disaster films that followed the success of 1975's Jaws. In this film, the antagonist is a Killer Whale or Orca.
Robert Towne provided an uncredited script rewrite.
Plot
The movie starts with a crew of people working on a boat named Bumpo. Led by Captain Nolan (Richard Harris), the crew is looking at a great white shark for a local aquarium, but a scientist named Ken (Robert Carradine) is being targeted by the shark. A killer whale comes and kills the shark, subsequently saving Ken. This switches Nolan's target to the killer whale and whilst he is on the journey with his crew, he tries to capture what he believes to be a male whale, but mistakenly harpoons a pregnant female whale. She tries to commit suicide on the propellers, but Nolan and his crew get the orca on board. Due to the extreme stress she is under, she unexpectedly miscarries, which shocks Nolan. The crew hoses the dead baby whale overboard as the male watches on, seemingly anguished and infuriated at the deaths of his mate and baby.
Later that night, seeking revenge for the death of his mate, the male orca tries to sink the ship and with the added weight of the female whale on the boat, the boat is leaning to port. One of Nolan's crew members, Novak (Keenan Wynn), cuts the dead female off the ship, but the male leaps and grabs Novak, devouring him in the water. The following day, the orca pushes his mate onto shore. Alan Swain (Scott Walker) tells Nolan about how silly it is to kill a whale after finding the dead whale on shore. Nolan denies that he did this, but Swain and the villagers eventually find out that he did. The villagers want him to go, but Dr. Rachel Bedford (Charlotte Rampling), colleague of Ken and studier of whales, shows him how similar whales are to humans and tells Nolan that, "If he (the orca) is like a human, what he wants isn't necessarily what he should get."
Nolan promises to Rachel that he won't fight the whale, but after becoming incredibly impatient, the whale attacks the sea-front house, with an injured crew member of Nolan's, Annie (Bo Derek) in it. The house starts slipping into sea, and despite receiving help from Nolan and crew member Paul (Peter Hooten), the whale bites Annie's leg off. Although she is seriously injured, she survives, as explained by Nolan later in the film; "an innocent girl maimed for life." Nolan decides to fight the orca, much to the delight of the villagers, although he and Paul are the only crew members left. Dr. Bedford and Ken go with him, and a native American man, Jacob Umilak (Will Sampson), goes with them as well to share his intelligence.
The crew begins to pursue the whale after the orca signals to Nolan to follow him. Ken is leaning over the side when the whale surfaces and grabs him, killing him in the process. They keep following the whale until they start to reach a cool, icy area. Paul starts to get into a lifeboat, but the maddened orca knocks Paul out of the boat and eats him. The next day, the whale shoves an iceberg into the boat and starts to sink it. Nolan and Dr. Bedford escape from the boat as they chuck their luggage onto another iceberg. Umilak is about to leave, but the boat crashes into another massive iceberg and the ice begins to fall, crushing him. The last thing viewers see of him is his gloved hand sticking out of red, bloodied ice.
Nolan and Dr. Bedford hide in an iceberg, but Nolan slips onto another. The orca separates the icebergs so Nolan is trapped with his rifle. The whale jumps onto the ice, causing it to tilt and send Nolan into the water. The whale lifts Nolan up with his tail and throws him onto another iceberg, killing him. Dr. Bedford looks on in shock as Nolan slips into the water in a cross shape. His revenge complete, the whale swims under the ice, leading some to believe that he committed suicide as the credits roll.
Reception
Orca was poorly received by critics and audiences alike due in part to its similarities to the film Jaws released two years prior. Upon release the film received only minor theatrical success, but in recent years the film has achieved a cult following among fans of the eco-horror sub genre.
Cast
External links
