Orca is the retelling of Frankenstein

Orca: The Killer Whale as a modern day retelling of Frankenstein


Let me share with you my secret pain. I think Orca: The Killer Whale, directed by Michael (Logan’s Run, Millennium, Around the World in 80 Days) Anderson, released in the summer of 1977 and staring the great Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling and Bo Derek (in a rare fully clothed role), is a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Yes, that Frankenstein.

Frankenstein was released in 1818 and is the story of Victor Frankenstein and his created monster. It touched on the idea that with technology, man could play God but that nature will not lie down without a fight and that there are consequences for messing around with the natural order of creation. The monster created by Victor played the role of the consequence of his dabbling, and the novel was a sort of revenge story of the monster against his creator, Victor. The tale written by an incredibly young Shelley has been told and retold hundreds of times, but few of the retellings are very accurate in regards to what she actually wrote.

Orca: The Killer Whale, produced by the great Dino De Laurentiis, was instantly regarded as a Jaws rip-off. Jaws came out in the summer of 1975 and was an immediate smash hit; it terrified audiences and created the summer blockbuster. It was only a matter of time until the copycats would be all over the formula used by Jaws, and Orca was easy to dismiss as a knock off. After all, Jaws featured a large bloodthirsty great white shark, while Orca featured a bloodthirsty killer whale. It probably didn’t help Orca’s case that the first scene has Captain Nolan and his crew hunting a great white shark.

But is the formula of Jaws actually used for Orca? A quick glance at the plot of Jaws will dismiss the myth. A death happens off the coast of Amity Island but no one sees it as a shark attack, merely as an accident. Chief Brody is the only one to realize that it was the work of a shark, and brings in an expert to back up his theory. Soon, everyone knows that Brody’s theory is correct and they hunt the shark. Brody, and old seaman and his expert go shark hunting and it ends with the shark dead. Of course, this is an incredible over simplification of one of cinemas great movies, but the meat of the movie is there.

Orca, started out as a hunt for the whale by Captain Nolan and his crew. He wanted it for the cash he could sell it for. That’s all the whale was to him; a means to an end. He knew nothing about his prey and thought, since he was a human and a fisherman; that the whale was fair game to him to do what he pleased with it. In his ignorance, folly and pride, he killed the whale’s female mate (whales are erroneously listed in the film as monogamous when they are in fact polygamous) and the male wants to take his revenge on Captain Nolan. The whale is portrayed as having a very high degree of intelligence and problem solving abilities, as well as being extremely vengeful. He severely damages Nolan’s boat and terrorizes the town where Nolan and his crew stay while needing repairs. The whale causes untold damage to the livelihood of the community and their fishing boats. Eventually with the insistence of the locals, Nolan decides that he must face the whale. He heads out to sea to confront the whale and the whale in turn leads Nolan and his small crew out into the artic for their final confrontation.

That brief description may not sound overly Frankenstein like, but once the whale sees the dying female at the 25 minute mark of the movie, the Frankenstein similarities kick into full gear. Here’s just a few of the many eerie similarities between Orca and Frankenstein.

* Victor is haunted by his knowledge of what he created. He becomes psychically sick and horrified that he created the hideous monster and wants nothing but to forget his creation. Upon injuring the female whale, Nolan makes the comment the whale sounds almost human. The screams of the dying whale haunt and horrify him, and he insists on cutting the dying whale free. When he goes to the fishing community, he tries to forget his experiences at sea. He tries to believe that the whale is long gone, but is constantly reminded that the whale is still close by. Victor Frankenstein flees from his creation and creates a distance between them. He wants no part of his monster and even after the monster learns speech, Victor can’t acknowledge his monster was a living being worthy of a life.



* Victor Frankenstein creates his monster by design. He thought he could channel new life into the remains of the dead, to defy the order of life and to act as God. Captain Nolan creates his enemy in the whale. He thinks he is greater than the whale, and that the whale is merely a means to wealth.



* The monster tracks Victor all over Europe and terrorizes those close to him. The monster actually kills Victor’s brother, yet Victor’s maid takes the blame and is executed. The whale hunts Nolan down and terrorizes the fishing community and Nolan’s crew.



* Victor Frankenstein is haunted by his monster and actually informed that he will kill Victor’s bride on their wedding night. Nolan is haunted by the knowledge of what he created and knows that the whale wants nothing but revenge. Both realize that their only escape is to confront their monster.



* Everyone close to Victor dies at the hand of the monster. Everyone in contact, with the exception of Rachel (who acts as narrator in Orca, much in the same way as Captain Walton in Frankenstein) either dies or is maimed by the whale.



* Rachel compares the whale to man: it breaths, it has warm blood and it communicates. At the time, of course Nolan laughs it off as rubbish, but believes it in time. Victor eventually learns that his creation, while of course living and breathing, is also highly adept at learning. By the end of the novel, the monster has a university level intellect.



* Before heading out for the final battle, Nolan calls Rachel and informs her on what the whale wants. Rachel tries to explain that man can’t know what the whale wants, and even if we did understand the whale’s wishes, whatever the whale wants isn’t necessarily what the whale should have. This parallels precisely what happens to Victor. He is informed by the creature that it wants a mate. Victor begrudgingly accepts the creature’s wishes, but does not follow through with the plan, deeming it a travesty.



* The final battle in both the novel and the movie takes place up north, on the ice. Nolan dies in the final battle with the whale. He gets trapped on a sheet of ice away from Rachel. Rachel throws him his gun but before he can kill the whale, it throws him up in the air and kills him. In the novel, while hunting the monster, Victor gets trapped on a sheet of ice that breaks away from an iceberg and is saved by Captain Walton. He eventually dies before confronting the creature, missing him by mere moments.



* In the novel, the monster laments his fate and takes off from the ship, onto the ice and sets off to end his existence. We can infer that that the last lines of the novel foretell the monsters suicide. In the movie, after allowing Rachel to live, the whale takes off, not into the open waters to freedom, but further inland, under the ice. This can be seen as a suicide attempt since whales need air to breath; they are not fish.



* In the movie, Rachel is used as a narrator. She was the last one to see Nolan alive and was spared by the whale. In the novel, much of the action is told to us through the words of Captain Walton, the last man to see Victor alive. The monster could have killed Walton, but instead allowed him to live to tell the tale of Victor and his creation.



* While Shelley’s novel can be seen a criticism of technology and of scientists with their God complexes, Orca can be viewed as the hubris of man towards nature. In both cases nature wins. Victor loses everything dear to him and dies, while Captain Nolan dies and loses almost everything. In fact, in the novel, Victor and the creature have a confrontation and the monster informs Victor that he and not Victor is the master. Victor, the slave will do as he commands.



As you can see from the above mentioned examples (of which you will find many others if you compare them yourself), Orca is clearly a retelling of the time tested story Frankenstein. Orca is not a rip off of Jaws anymore then Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a rip off of Psycho. Jaws and Orca feature two water dwelling creatures, but the similarities almost end there. Nolan’s whale is Victor’s monster.

So sit back in your favorite chair, light some candles and spend a few nights reading Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Afterwards, pop Orca in your dvd player, sit back with some popcorn and your favorite drink and spend the next hour and a half revisiting this much maligned flick in a new light.


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To die, to be really dead...that must be glorious.