‘Whalefall’ Director Brian Duffield and Star Austin Abrams Resisted the New Ending Before Embracing It

The coda was added after test screenings, though both the filmmaker and star were initially hesitant about it.

The Whalefall ending was added after test screenings, and the filmmaker and star were hesitant at first. Some of the most rewarding cinematic experiences leave questions unanswered. It’s better that we don’t know what Bill Murray whispered to Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation or what’s inside the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Whatever conclusion you draw in your own mind will likely be more satisfying than anything Sofia Coppola or Quentin Tarantino could spell out. Whalefall writer-director Brian Duffield and his collaborators are now taking the same approach to the ending of their well-received survival tale. Co-written with Whalefall author Daniel Kraus, Duffield’s adaptation reframes Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) as an Iowa college student returning home to the Central Coast a year after his estranged, terminally ill father, Mitt (Josh Brolin), died by suicide at sea.

When Jay catches up with his older sisters, Eva and Nan (Jane Levy and Emily Rudd), it’s established that he still hasn’t opened the letter his father left behind for him. The last time father and son Gardiner saw each other was aboard Mitt’s whale-watching vessel, where Mitt’s drinking and subsequent erratic behavior led Jay to openly reject the waterman way of life his father had instilled in him since birth. Jay then jumped off the boat and swam home, despite Mitt’s warning