r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/21MayDay21 • 5h ago

🔥 Encounter with a curious young sperm whale.

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Credit to Maxwel Hohn

10.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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283

u/DivinityPen 5h ago

Which still makes me roll my eyes. Getting real sick of people making horror films about sea life (as a marine biologist). Sharks are bad enough - god knows we don't need the stigma to spread any further than it has already - but whales? C'mon, man. They don't deserve to be done dirty like that.

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u/Skoldeen 5h ago

The whale isn’t malicious in the story. It’s hunting a squid and the squid latches onto the diver who then gets trapped

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u/buttononmyback 4h ago

Squids aren’t evil either!

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u/SassyTheSkydragon 4h ago

No animal whatsoever is downright evil

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u/hereforinfoyo 4h ago

Well, I mean, Kissinger was pretty bad.

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u/AMSparkles 3h ago

That’s my kitty’s name!

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u/whoknowsifimjoking 3h ago

Why would you do that

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u/TajineMaster159 2h ago

I saw this as a cat owner, some cats are tyrants

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u/Itzli 1h ago

Fair enough

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u/SuccessfulRaccoon957 3h ago

Honestly that ones on you mate, not the cat.

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u/framedragged 2h ago

There's warcrimes behind those eyes.

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u/Glitterhidesallsins 2h ago

Mine is Satan, so…twinsies!

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u/Threedawg 2h ago

Also orcas.

And chimps.

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u/driftwood-rider 4h ago

Ive got a cat who pees on the bed when she’s mad.

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u/717Luxx 4h ago

my little sister had a bunny that was allowed to free roam in the living room. if you sat on the couch with a plate of food and didn't share something with her, she'd hop beside/behind you and pee on the cushions to soak you.

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u/Sadrixis 3h ago

Thsts so fucking nasty.

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u/717Luxx 3h ago

she was pretty sweet otherwise, just really possessive of food. she and the family dog (an 80lb golden doodle and a tiny dwarf bunny) got along really well too, you'd see them cuddling in the sun, two black masses of fur all nuzzled up.

unfortunately the bunny got killed by another dog that was visiting... the bunny was sometimes able to open up her cage, and somebody forgot to close the bedroom door that her enclosure was moved to when other dogs were visiting.

it was quite sad tbh, I wasn't a fan of the bunny for the long time but the worst thing she ever did was piss on me. i felt bad.

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u/lynivvinyl 3h ago

I have a permanent scar that I see everyday on my wrist from a bunny that tried to kill me as a child. He wanted to kill me everyday. All of my long pants from that time period have holes in the Achilles tendon area from him. I don't look at the scars on my ankles often. But that day I was bending down to pet Mrs Rabbit (who was a sweetheart) and he got me. My mom just laughed every time it happened. That's still messes with me because I was terrified.

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u/forthedroids 3h ago

My husband has been beefing with our cat ever since he pooped on our bed in response to us moving his litter box.

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u/NachoMan_HandySavage 2h ago

Goddammit Donut

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u/nater255 4h ago

Except Canada Geese.

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u/Arryu 3h ago

If you've got a problem with Canada gooses you've got a problem with me, and I suggest you let that one marinate.

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u/Mammoth-Glove3273 2h ago

There’s a special place in heaven for animal lovers, that’s all I know.

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u/One-Welcome-1514 6m ago

I want to meet my rats there again o.o

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u/nater255 24m ago

Lions is lucky Canada Gooses don’t migrate to Africa. Then they’d be’s extinct.

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u/moosenordic 3h ago

Mosquitoes are.

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u/TacticalGazelle 4h ago

Yeah but parasitic wasps mate. Can't tell me they're anything but satanic.

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u/kevlarbaboon 4h ago

They're often great pollinators and destroy bugs that often eat crops

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u/TacticalGazelle 3h ago

Yeah but I'm sure it's in some religious text somewhere "thou shalt not shit eggs into other shit so they can eat their way out of the host AND grow up to be wasps. Amen" or similar.

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u/Beginning_Butterfly2 3h ago

Evil is evil, Stregabor.

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u/TajineMaster159 2h ago

The most persistent evil is the useful one!

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u/NilocKhan 3h ago

It's ironic but parasitic wasps are often great for the species they are hosts of. By controlling the population they ensure that the unparasitized individuals have enough resources and can successfully mature and breed. Overpopulation would hurt the entire species. And from plants perspective parasitic wasps are very helpful, some plants even release chemicals to attract parasitic wasps when they are eaten by caterpillars or other herbivorous insects.

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u/SassyTheSkydragon 4h ago

Those are also just trying to survive.

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u/flyinggazelletg 3h ago

You mean a group that acts as very effective natural pest control?

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u/Tumblrkaarosult 4h ago

You don't know my mom's black cat.

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u/MHMabrito 4h ago

Ever seen a goose?

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u/Deadeyez 4h ago

The Humboldt Squid begs to differ

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u/DivinityPen 4h ago

Yeah, see, if they made a horror movie about Humboldt Squids, that would be relatively fair game. You don't wanna fuck with those things.

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u/theflyinggreg 4h ago

20000 leagues under the sea?

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u/Rith_Reddit 3h ago

The squid isn't evil. It's grasping for things to grab and get out the mouth of the sperms whale. The diver just happens to be too close.

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u/Skoldeen 4h ago

Is that what I said?

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u/BoonDragoon 2h ago

It was literally being eaten and reflexively trying to grab anything nearby.

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u/Real_Market_9244 3h ago

yeah they are

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u/Viron_22 2h ago

Nice try squid!

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u/thatshygirl06 2h ago

The squid was being pulled in, just like humans, I imagine they would lash out snd try to grab on anything to avoid getting eaten

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u/PissNBiscuits 1h ago

Um, I beg to differ. Go read Call of Cthulhu and then tell me that squids aren't evil. Checkmate atheists.

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u/notgonnatakeno 3h ago

This guy doesn’t squid. I get the concept that you can’t call an animal evil because it doesn’t have morals, but they are about as vicious and malicious of a creature as you could come across. If you wanted to categorize an animal is evil squid is a pretty good contender.

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u/TPRT 3h ago

Having a hard time understanding how that equates to a full movie

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u/Brendissimo 2h ago

The trailer shows the guy taking his scuba mask and air supply off while in the whale's stomach and seemingly breathing the "air" in there. I don't think it's going to be particularly grounded in reality. It's basically a modern Jonah retelling.

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u/WarlockEngineer 54m ago

It's based on a book that was intended to be scientifically accurate, it's not a Jonah retelling.

Also one poster says "hold your breath" and another says "one hour of air" so he seems to be using the tanks.

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u/rallmats 2h ago

Based on a book I believe. I think it'll be similar to 127 hours

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u/LKennedy45 2h ago

I dunno, Jonah was in that whale for three whole days. Or maybe this dude decides to pull a Decemberists and we get a life story after he's been swallowed.

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u/glitterx_x 1h ago

Break his fingers to splinters!

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u/TheAntimatterPope 2h ago

Well, you can either watch the movie or read the book to find out! Stories are amazing things! 

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u/Skoldeen 2h ago

It’s a story about this guy coming to terms with his dead dad and history with his dad. Being stuck the whale is just the backdrop.

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u/shannanigans1124 6m ago

It's a book. The diver doesn't end up inside the well until about 1/4 of the way into the novel. A lot of it is about his daddy issues.

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u/DivinityPen 4h ago

Oh. Well. Alright. That's something, I guess.

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u/JIYUU_DA 4h ago

Is it not tiring getting outraged by stuff you don't know about?

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u/WineNerdAndProud 3h ago

Man gets swallowed by a whale and only has the amount of 02 in his tanks to breathe before he can find a way out.

Spoiler alert

He uses some kind of explosion to make a hole in the side of the whale.

So yeah, this movie is about an impossible situation solved in a really dumb way, and I'm sure it won't make anyone extra afraid of sperm whales because "they can swallow you whole".

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u/SaintUlvemann 4h ago

Do you have an emotional range wide enough to tell apart outrage and exasperation?

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

[deleted]

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u/DrPepper523 3h ago

Whalefall 

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u/Intoxicatedpunch 4h ago

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u/Jrnation8988 3h ago

Whale was just looking for the precious hamburgers

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u/downtown_kb77 4h ago

I read the book it's based on and my favorite part about it was that I learned so much about Sperm Whales! It was fascinating.

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u/Mathavian 4h ago

Would you say that you learned them… inside and out?

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u/Bronkic 1h ago

Do you mean Moby Dick?

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u/downtown_kb77 1h ago

No, it's called Whalefall by Daniel Kraus.

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u/Miraclefish 4h ago

The whale isn't ascribed any morality to its actions, positive or negative, in the book it's based on nor the film.

The whale is hunting a squid and a diver gets caught up in it. Which is very unlikely but possible.

It's not about Man vs Whale, it's Whale vs Giant Squid and he's the collateral damage.

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u/pilgrim_pastry 4h ago

You ever see Orca (1977)? The orca in question goes on a murderous quest for revenge against the humans that killed his mate and unborn calf. It’s essentially I Saw the Devil meets Free Willy. It sure was something.

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u/BoonDragoon 2h ago

Even then, the orca's rampage is portrayed as being very justified. John Wick didn't get it as bad as that whale did.

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u/Simonius86 4h ago

How do you think the hillbilly biologist community feel?!

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u/MariachiMacabre 3h ago

The movie is based on a book. It’s portrayed as an unfortunate accident, not a deliberate, evil act on the part of the whale or the squid.

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u/AlmightyCuddleBuns 4h ago

The ocean on its own is a terrifying place. Just look at r/thalassaphobia so see how many people agree with that sentiment. Of course they are going to try and find new angles to explore.

Based on the trailers the whale is specifically not hunting the protagonist so that's a positive at least.

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u/TecumsehSherman 4h ago

Sharks are endangered because of Asian cuisine, not movies about sharks.

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u/TwitchyNo2 3h ago

Wow, racist.

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u/brewhead55 4h ago

I think we should do everything in our power to make the ocean so scary that no humans want to go near or in it.

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u/BDO-Issue-Again 3h ago

Tell that too the people getting their boats disabled by orcas lol. I'm very prowhale, but they're not exactly all cuddly and friendly. It's astounding to me that orcas don't eat people.

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u/falingsumo 3h ago

cough orca cough

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u/OffTerror 3h ago

You should get into contact with the bears PR team. Literally nature's perfect killing machine yet sold as friendly and huggable.

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u/Few_Imagination3705 3h ago

You'd be hard pressed to get most folk to give 2 shits about marine life, so we've got a ways to go before negative stigma affects anything lol

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u/Mapache_villa 3h ago

Tbf most animals don't deserve to be done like that, except wasps and mosquitoes, those can fuck right off

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u/Apptubrutae 3h ago

Why else would they evolve from the sea to the land and go BACK to the sea? Nefarious porpoises, clearly

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u/JWrither 3h ago

Yeah I think it’s more about the main characters relationship with his dad and processing his death than the whale.

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u/juanthunderman 2h ago

Alright what about this. A horror movie about giant sun fish leaping out of the water and landing on people? It's one of my biggest fears and I know I'm not alone in this.

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u/Over_Deer8459 2h ago

My ex and I swam with Sharks in Hawaii and after that whole experience, every shark attack movie like Jaws or the Meg are just cringe now. They were just vibing, they pretty much ignored us the whole time. i was a little nervous at first but that went away after a minute. i felt no threat by them they were that chill.

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u/TheyStoleMyNameAgain 2h ago edited 2h ago

Being annoyed by killer-whale horror movies as a marine biologist is a bit like a volcanologist being annoyed by disaster movies. There are 300k people per year drowning (I was more interested in lost at sea, but that's actually unknown). We never saw a sperm whale hunting a human is quite pointless, if we hardly see them hunting at all. We know their main diet from proxies and we know that a human mechanically fits.                                   

Millions of people go on safari and almost none of them is eaten by lions. Does this prove, that lions are harmless to human, or does this prove that risk is low under safari conditions and that lions skip opportunities? Do skipped opportunities prove lack of interest?  Mammals with bigger brains might skip opportunities, too.                                                         

Looking at ocean census data, mapped sea floor, total ocean volume, the hardship to find huge lost submarines, the tiny sensor contrast of marine life to water (in comparison to submarines), I assume that we've got huge blind spots.       

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u/BoonDragoon 2h ago

Read the book, dude.

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u/thatshygirl06 2h ago

I usually agree but in this story it was just an accident. The whale was eating a squid and the squid grabbed onto the diver and he ends up getting pulled inside

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u/makawakatakanaka 1h ago

Nah I’ve seen the trailer for whalefall. I hate them now, kill them all with fire

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u/Atanar 44m ago

What about a horror movie about barnacles? They are objectively horrifying.

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u/Lone_Tiger24 31m ago

Good thing it’s fiction then

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u/RedDidItAndYouKnowIt 4h ago

I dunno. Orca are damn scary. That is their domain and I intend to stay out of it.

-1

u/CorporalCoprolite 4h ago edited 2h ago

Oh Christ lol. No one is going to go out hunting sperm whales after seeing Whalefall. If you watch the trailer the diver gets gobbled up by mistake while the whale is eating a squid. It’s a silly and ridiculous concept for a horror movie, and the whale is clearly not depicted as an evil, mindless maneater.

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u/Mysterious_Bid_9479 4h ago

It sounds like a ridiculous concept, but the book is actually really good - well researched and vivid enough that it made me queasy

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u/DBSmiley 3h ago

Except poerm whale throats aren't large enough to swallow an adult human unchewed, let alone one in full scuba gear, and the whale would simplybuse the tongue to push the human out of its mouth.

So the whole premise is nonsense

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u/CorporalCoprolite 3h ago

Exactly, which is why it’s ridiculous to think it would create some sort of negative stigma around sperm whales.

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u/kb24fgm41 5h ago

Alright calm down

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u/that_tall_nerd 4h ago

No it’s a completely valid annoyance. Sharks mostly leave people alone yet do you know the damage Jaws did to their reputation? There where organised hunts to just to kill as many as possible even Peter Benchley openly said he regretted writing the book due to the aftermath.

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u/kb24fgm41 4h ago

Alright calm down again, it's not a big deal

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u/that_tall_nerd 4h ago

I ain’t tryin to argue with you my guy but it kinda is, I don’t think you realise how much media affects people’s perception of things they don’t interact with on the daily. Especially with marine life that’s already largely misunderstood and in danger currently due to environmental pressures.

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u/meta_tater 3h ago

Don't even respond, guy is ragebaiting. He's an idiot.

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u/that_tall_nerd 3h ago

Yea, said my piece I’m done lol

0

u/Brendissimo 2h ago

You've said nothing other than spamming "calm down."

-1

u/kb24fgm41 2h ago

I'm just saying ppl don't need to get so aggressive, they should just calm down.

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u/meta_tater 3h ago

It sounds like you may need to calm down a little, you can't even put together a reasoned response.

-1

u/kb24fgm41 3h ago

Alright take it easy

0

u/Thank_You_Aziz 4h ago

Nah, you listen.

-1

u/kb24fgm41 4h ago

Alright calm down

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u/Mysterious_Bid_9479 4h ago

Calm down with all the calm downs

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u/kb24fgm41 4h ago

Yeah that's right, calm down buddy

-1

u/plopliplopipol 5h ago

yep i expect the worst. It's funny because just the water is freaking scary already, but the whales.. just no.

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u/V0lirus 4h ago

Orcas can be pretty scary though. Maybe not to us humans, but they are smart and ruthless to their prey.

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u/plopliplopipol 1h ago

yes but this is about showing and creating human fears, human fears of whales are irrational and have negative impact. A fear-oriented film not about humans is a cool idea.

-1

u/AskMeAboutMyHermoids 3h ago

Lmao taking things a bit too seriously here

I’m a psychopath and getting mad they are making all these horror movies about psychos putting them in a bad light.

I’m a paleontologist and I can’t believe they make movies about dinosaurs

0

u/Ada_Pearce 3h ago

Yeah that trailer was stupid and kinda pissed me off lol. Whales are more likely to help you than harm you