A Definitive Ranking of the Most Iconic Whales of All Time

Our product picks are editor-tested, expert-approved. We may earn a commission through links on our site. Why Trust Us?20th Century Studios; Getty Images; Men's Health Illustration//Hearst OwnedTHE GLOBAL BOX office is on pace for its best year since the pandemic, buoyed by low-budget breakouts from Gen Z auteurs (Obsession, Backrooms) and the all-powerful Zendaya Cinematic Universe (The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Drama). But I’d argue the best is yet to come. No, I’m not referring to Avengers: Doomsday, which feels like it might be spiritually AI slop; nor Dune: Part Three, which, in a just timeline, will prevail on Dunesday. There is another studio release that should be treated as an essential piece of monoculture. May I interest you in the movie where the homeless dude from Weapons gets swallowed by a sperm whale?This is Whalefall, which dares to ask, “What if 127 Hours covered a much shorter span of time with someone escaping the digestive process of one of the largest species on Earth?” While Whalefall is based on Daniel Kraus’s novel of the same name, this inexplicably happened to someone in real life. In 2021, a lobster diver on Cape Cod was swallowed by a humpback whale and—even more incredibly—lived to tell the tale.Based on the trailers, Whalefall takes things to a more extreme level: Austin Abrams’s protagonist is swallowed alongside a giant squid, and he has one hour to escape before running out of air. In this race against time, feeble-minded viewers might assume the whale is the villain of this story, but director Brian Duffield has helpfully pointed out that it’s just as much of a victim. “The whale is not a bad guy,” he said in a June interview with Variety. “The whale doesn’t understand that it’s swallowed Austin. It’s trying to swallow its lunch, and Austin is just a byproduct of that.” Noted.This is why we go to the cinemas. AMC should recreate its iconic Nicole Kidman ad, word for word, except she’s delivering it from inside a whale. There’s no question Whalefall is the moviegoing event of the year—if not our lifetime—and to celebrate the occasion, it’s time to take stock of the most memorable whales in pop culture. From the infamous sperm whale that terrorized Captain Ahab to the majestic Tulkuns of Pandora, we’ve ranked the 15 best pop culture whales. Figuratively and literally, it’s time to dive in.15. The Orca from OrcaWhen Jaws pioneered the summer blockbuster in 1975, it was inevitable that knockoffs would follow. And with all due respect to Piranha, the 1977 thriller Orca got one thing right: killer whales are legit scary. They can coordinate attacks on boats. (Clearly, you’re gonna need a bigger boat.) They kill animals—not only for sustenance, but sometimes for the love of the game. Keeping orcas in captivity is a cruel practice, but let’s not act like they’re gentle giants! Anyway, Orca is interesting in theory—the titular animal is seeking revenge for the death of its mate and offspring—but objectively unhinged in its execution.Watch Orca Here14. The Beached Whale Blown Up with Dynamite in Oregon Yes, in 1970, this really happened. Because the whale carcass was so heavy and so smelly, officials in Florence, Oregon came up with the ingenious plan of blowing it up with a half ton of dynamite that, in the words of reporter Paul Linnman, “blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds” and even damaged a nearby car. Thankfully, for the event’s 50th anniversary, the Oregon Historical Society arranged a 4K transfer of the segment so that the whalesplosion could be captured in all its gnarly glory.Local news must be protected at all costs.13. Tobias WhaleThe CWAs played by the rapper Krondon on Black Lightning, Tobias Whale is one of DC’s most striking villains: a hulking albino crime lord who has a longstanding beef with Jefferson Pierce, a.k.a. Black Lightning. Like Marvel’s Wilson Fisk, Whale’s claim to fame isn’t superpowers but being built like an absolute unit. His weapon of choice is, naturally, a harpoon gun, because the most important thing a superhero villain should do is commit to the bit.Watch Black Lightning Here12. Laboon, One Piece NetflixThere are all manner of strange humans and sea creatures—and hybrids—in One Piece, an ongoing manga that will probably outlive all of us. It’s only fitting, then, that the series incorporates a giant whale. Laboon is distinguished by all the scars on his head, the result of repeatedly ramming into a mountain because he misses his pirate friends who ventured across the other side of it. (A heartbreaking detail for anyone who’s ever had to leave their pets to go on a long trip.) In a touching gesture, Monkey D. Luffy paints his pirate crew’s symbol on the whale’s head to deter it from further self-harm, and promises to return to him when they complete their journey—assuming One Piece ever actually comes to an end.Watch One Piece Anime HereWatch One Piece Live-Action Here11. Purrgil, Star WarsDisneyAmong the weirder sights in Star Wars—even more than Coruscant being home to a 1950s-style diner run by an alien who’s pals with Obi-Wan Kenobi—are the Purrgil. They’re basically giant space whales that, in a twist straight from an ayahuasca retreat, possess the biological ability to travel through hyperspace. (It was through studying Purrgil, you see, that scientists in a galaxy far, far away invented mechanical hyperdrives aboard spacecraft.) Somehow, they’re not the only whales from a storied science fiction franchise to appear on this ranking.Watch Star Wars Rebels Here10. The Humpbacks from Star Trek IV: The Voyage HomeIn Star Trek’s long (and mostly revered) history, there might be no premise more goofy than The Voyage Home, in which our intrepid heroes aboard the USS Enterprise must travel back to the year 1986 because an alien probe is disabling power grids around Earth and can only be stopped through [checks notes] whalesong?! You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Spock A) swim with a humpback whale at an aquarium and B) tell the resident cetologist that she is well-liked by them.For all its silliness, though, The Voyage Home has an endearing environmental message. The probe can’t be stopped because whales have gone extinct, and it’s notable that the film was released in the same year that an international whaling ban went into effect. “Save the whales” has never had such cosmic implications.Watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Here9. The Sperm Whale from In the Heart of the SeaFor some reason, one of my college courses in sports media was spent reading In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, which has nothing to do with sports unless you consider surviving a shipwreck an endurance activity. The book is a harrowing account that helped inspire Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick. In 1820, a whaling ship was sunk by an aggressive sperm whale, leaving the crew stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Most of the crew died; the survivors resorted to cannibalism. Moby Dick is still the OG vengeful whale, but we have to give props to the whale that offered some actual, terrifying historical precedent. The 2015 film adaptation from Ron Howard is an underrated Dad Cinema gem, too.Watch In the Heart of the Sea Here8. The Whale from Finding Nemo THAAAANKKK YOUUUUU FOOOOOOOR HEEELLLLPING MARLLIIIIIN FINNND hiIIiiss SONNNNN.Watch Finding Nemo Here7. Monstro, PinocchioThe original #WhalefallChallenge was performed by Geppetto, Pinocchio’s master who was swallowed by the sperm whale Monstro. (Apt name.) Pinocchio risks life and wooden limb to save Geppetto, getting swallowed himself in the process. For proving himself to be brave and unselfish, he’s turned into a real boy. Monstro is all bad vibes, but without him, our little guy wouldn’t have finished his hero’s journey.Watch Pinocchio Here6. James Whale Bettmann//Getty ImagesJames Whale, right, with The Invisible Man star Claude Rains.The man who helped launch the Universal Monster films, James Whale directed Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and Bride of Frankenstein in the 1930s, frequently imbuing villains with an air of tragedy. Whale was also one of the rare openly gay filmmakers of his era, at a time when Hollywood (and society writ large) was considerably less tolerant. Maybe that's why he had such an affinity for outcasts—or maybe he was just preternaturally gifted at making rich, thought-provoking horror films. Either way, his name was James Whale, and he made some all-time classics, so he deserves a high spot on this list.5. The Tulkun, the Avatar FranchiseWhen James Cameron returned to Pandora for an Avatar sequel, it was inevitable that a man who has both made a movie about the Titanic and visited the actual wreck of the RMS Titanic would fixate on the ocean. Your mileage may vary on Avatar: The Way of Water spending half of its runtime as an otherworldly nature documentary, but I was locked in when we were introduced to the Tulkun: pacifist whale-like creatures that, naturally, the evil Sky People are hunting for their special brain goo that stops aging. Is it silly? Yes. Do I wish I could have a best friend like Payakan whose whalesong is conveyed on-screen in the franchise’s beloved Papyrus font? Also yes.Watch Avatar: The Way of Water Here4. Tilikum, BlackfishThe cruel practice of catching orcas in the wild and keeping them in captivity is brought to light by the documentary Blackfish, which centers on one such orca, Tilikum, who was involved in three deaths. It’s a harrowing subject, but the best way to honor the suffering of these animals is to draw attention to it. The aftermath of Blackfish eventually led SeaWorld to end its orca breeding program and phase out live performances from the animals. Sadly, Tilikum died in 2017. Gone, but never forgotten.Watch Blackfish Here3. Willy, Free WillyThis is a complicated whale to rank. On paper, Free Willy should be the wholesome, family-friendly version of Blackfish: a movie about a bond between a boy and an orca at an ailing amusement park. The film delivers a tear-jerker of an ending, culminating in Willy being released back into the ocean. But the real-life orca that played him, Keiko, was in captivity himself, and while he eventually became the first orca to be rereleased into the wild, he died soon after—never managing to integrate with others of his kind. Still, for any ’90s kid, Free Willy was a cultural phenomenon. It’s just a shame that Keiko didn’t get the Hollywood ending his character did.Watch Free Willy Here2. Pearl, SpongeBob SquarePantsI have spent an ungodly amount of time thinking about Pearl Krabs’s parentage. Clearly, her mother was a fellow sperm whale, but that doesn’t account for Mr. Krabs being her dad. If this isn’t an adoptive father situation, why isn’t she a whale-krab hybrid? (In Shrek, Donkey and Dragon birthed donkey-dragon spawns.) Does the world of SpongeBob SquarePants approve of interspecies couples, or is it taboo? Anyway, Pearl is one of the most memorable characters in one of the most iconic animated series of all time, so this was a no-brainer.Watch SpongeBob SquarePants Here1. Moby Dick, Moby-DickBettmann//Getty ImagesWho else could it be? The Michael Jordan of whales (he took Captain Ahab’s vendetta personally), Moby Dick’s reputation precedes him. Herman Melville's 1851 novel delivered the archetypal whale whose imprint is all over this ranking: Orca, Monstro, and even Payakan going Sicko Mode on poachers. He symbolizes the cruel indifference of nature and the futility of humanity’s attempts to conquer it. He’s also just a huge fucking whale that no man should spend their life obsessing over; it’s not gonna end well. Hang his tail fin in the rafters.Miles Surrey is a Brooklyn-based culture writer who covers television, film, and whatever your dad is interested in. His work can also be found at The Ringer, Vox, Vice, and The A.V. Club.