the whale movie essay quote

The Whale (2022) | Transcript

• February 25, 2023

Charlie is an Idaho-based English teacher who never leaves his apartment and spends his time hosting online writing courses for college students via video conference, but keeps his webcam switched off; at almost 600 lb, he is ashamed of being morbidly obese and is afraid to show the students his appearance…

(Hydraulic brakes hiss)

(Somber music playing)

(Music continues)

Man: Like we discussed yesterday, I really want you all to focus on topic sentences more.

Too many of you are rushing into examples in your body paragraphs.

It’d be good for everyone to review the paragraph structure pdf I sent you a few weeks ago.

I know these rules can feel constraining.

But remember, the point of this course is to learn how to write clearly and persuasively.

That’s how you can effectively communicate your ideas.

(Message alert pings)

(Man chuckles)

Chris, I imagine that was supposed to be a private chat that you sent to the whole class. Well done.

And, yes, the camera on my laptop still doesn’t work.

Believe me, you’re not missing much.

Oh, and for those of you who still haven’t given me paper three, I need it by Wednesday, no exceptions.

And remember, the more you revise these essays, the better.

(Waves crashing)

The more you change, chances are you’ll express your thoughts and ideas more clearly and persuasively.

(Wave crashed loudly)

(Man grunts)

(Rain pattering)

(Heavy breathing) (Continues grunting)

(Men on video breathing heavily)

(Man grunts) (Stroking rapidly)

(Grunting in pain)

(Grunting laboriously)

(Coughs, breathes heavily)

(Gasping and coughing)

“Moby dick… (Wheezes) In the amazing book, Moby…” (Groans)

(Knock at door) Liz?

(Pants) (Knocking continues)

Just use your key, (Wheezes) Open the door!

(Gasps) Oh, my god.

Who are you? (Groans in pain)

Gosh, are you okay? Should I call an ambulance? I should call an am…

(Men panting) (Continues groaning)

Read this to me. Do you have a phone?

My phone’s dead, I need to…

Please just read it! Okay!

(Grunts) Okay.

“In the amazing book, Moby dick, by the author, Herman Melville, the author recounts his story of being at sea.

“In the first part of his book, the author, calling himself Ishmael, is in a small seaside town, and he is sharing a bed with a man named Queequeg.”

What is this? Why am I reading this?

I need to… Just read any of it!

“And I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales, because I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story…”

(Gasping) Sad story. “Just for a little while.”

Just for a little while.

“This book made me think about my own life… (Wheezes) And then it made me feel glad for my…”

Did that help? (Sighs)

Look, do you have a phone? My phone is dead.

I need to call an ambulance.

You need help. I don’t go to hospitals.

I can’t help you, I don’t… I don’t go to hospitals.

I am sorry, um… You can go.

Thank you for reading that to me.

Are you sure you’re okay?

I’m sorry, who are you?

Are you acquainted with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

What? I’m sharing Christ’s message of love, and I’m showing people… (Sighing) Oh.

Think I should call my friend.

She’s a nurse, she takes care of me.

Yeah. Yeah, I’ll go. Sorry to bother you. Wait.

My phone fell under there, can you…

Yeah, sure.

(Sighs) Here it is.

(Groans in pain)

Hey, listen, I don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next few minutes.

If you don’t mind, could you… (Grunts)

Yeah. Yeah, of course. Thank you.

(Phone line ringing)

(Automated voice speaking) It’s Liz. I’m not around. Leave a message.

What was that thing that you had me read to you?

It’s an essay.

It’s my job.

I teach online college courses.

But why did you have me read it to you?

Because I thought I was dying.

And I wanted to hear it one last time.

(Velcro rips)

You should have called an ambulance.

With no health insurance?

Being in debt is better than being dead.

What’s wrong with you?

Why is there a missionary here?

Someone left the door unlocked.

I left after you fell asleep earlier, I must’ve forgotten.

Good thing, too. If I hadn’t, you might have…

Liz, I don’t like it when you…

Okay, okay. I just hate the thought of you being sealed up in this place when I’m not here.

(Pumping sphygmomanometer bulb) Now shut up, I’m trying to…

(Releases pressure) (Air hissing)

What? Hush.

Tell me what you felt.

Pain, in my chest.

Hard to breathe.

I couldn’t intake air.

(Rips velcro)

How are you sleeping? I’m not, really.

Lean forward.

(Man wheezes)

You’re wheezing.

I always wheeze, Liz.

You’re wheezing more.

Deep breath.

(Breathes deeply with difficulty)

What was my blood pressure?

Two-hundred and thirty-eight over 134.

(Chuckling) Oh.

Yeah. “Oh.”

Hey, could you…

I haven’t been to the bathroom all day, I’m ready to explode.

(Exhales deeply)

(Draws curtain) (Light switch clicks)

(Trash can lid closes)

(Man grunts) Liz: You need help in there?

Man: No, I’m fine. Sorry.

What are you sorry about?

I’m sorry. I don’t know. Just sorry.

Missionary: I should go. Liz: Thank you.

You must be from new life.

You know Doug, from the church council?

Yeah, I think so?

I’m not entirely sure.

I’m sort of new here, so…

He’s my dad.

Doug and Cindy adopted me when I was a baby.

Oh, that’s great.

I’ve never seen you there before, but, again I’m sort of new, so…

(Sighs) Fucking hate new life. Oh.

My dad forced me to go when I was a kid.

It was awful, growing up with all that “end times” bullshit.

(Sighs) You’re young.

Why the hell would you want to believe that the world is about to end?

I believe that when Christ returns, it’s gonna be beautiful.

Look, you can go.

I know Charlie appreciates the help, but if you’re here to convert him…

Oh, we don’t convert, our message is a message of hope for people of all… Liz: People of all faiths.

I know. You’re sweet. (Clicks lighter) But…

Believe me, he doesn’t want to hear about new life.

Because it’s caused him a lot of pain.

It killed his boyfriend.

(Toilet flushes)

You’re saying the church… (Sighs)

Killed Charlie’s boyfriend, yes.

And I should add that new life has caused me a lot of pain in my life.

So, we don’t need you coming over here, especially not now, not this week.

Because he probably won’t be here next week.

Where’s he going?

I’m sorry you had to come over, Liz.

No, it’s okay.

I’m sorry that I always think I’m dying.

Charlie, your blood pressure is 238 over 134.

I’m sorry. Go to the hospital.

I’m sorry. Stop saying you’re sorry.

Go to the hospital.

You have congestive heart failure.

If you don’t go to the hospital, you’ll be dead by the weekend.

(Sternly) You will die.

Charlie: Well, then, I better get to work because I have a lot of essays this week.

God damn it!

I know. I’m sorry, I’m an awful person. I know.

I’m sorry.

(Grunts, pants)

Did you still want to hear about Christ’s message of love and salvation?

No, he does not!

Missionary: Okay. Okay.

I’ll go.

I still don’t understand why you had me read that essay to you.

It’s a really good essay.

Liz: Goodbye. (Closes door)

Charlie, you have to go to the hospital. This has gone way too far.

And rack up tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills I’ll never be able to pay back, ever.

This affects me too, you know?

You’re my friend.

You say you’re sorry one more time, I will shove a knife right into you, I swear to god!

Go ahead, what’s it gonna do?

My internal organs are two feet in, at least.

(Whimpers playfully)

I’ve been telling you this would happen.

(Sighs) I know.

Haven’t I been telling you? You have.

Newscaster 1: A new gop presidential primary.

However, they say absentee ballots are the lowest they’ve seen in recent history.

Newscaster 2: That’s not good.

Newscaster 3: No, it’s not. Get out and vote tomorrow.

If you want to vote in the republican primary.

Our current polls do show, among Republicans, , 30% favor Trump… Liz.

Newscaster 3: Senator Ted Cruz, 17% would vote for Florida senator Marco Rubio, and 5% for Ohio governor John Kasich.

Newscaster 3: For someone else, if they could.

Below a percent that just don’t know.

Newscaster 1: Meanwhile, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is expected to win the gem state on the Democratic side…

(Newscaster 1 continues indistinctly)

(Crunching)

(Laughter on TV)

Oh, I’ve seen this one, it’s good.

(Indistinct TV chatter)

(Charlie chokes, coughs)

(Remote clicks) (Tv switches off)

(Breathes deeply)

(Soft music playing)

Charlie: In the first part of his book, the author, calling himself Ishmael, is in a small seaside town and he is sharing a bed with a man named Queequeg.

The author and queequeg go to church, and later, they set out on a ship captained by the pirate named Ahab, who is missing a leg, and very much wants to kill the whale which is named Moby Dick, and which is white.

In the course of the book, the pirate Ahab encounters many hardships.

His entire life is set around trying to kill a certain whale.

I think this is sad…

…because the whale doesn’t have any emotions.

He’s just a poor, big animal.

And I feel bad for Ahab as well…

…because he thinks that his life will be better if he can just kill this whale.

But in reality…

…it won’t help him at all.

This book made me think about my own life.

(Ocean waves crashing)

(Softly) This book made me think about my own life.

(Wrapper crinkling)

(Bird chirps)

(Sighs heavily)

(Line rings)

(Clears throat)

(Line connects)

(Knock at door)

(Chuckles quietly)

Does this mean now I’m gonna get fat?

(Grunts) No, it doesn’t.

I was always big.

I just…

I let it get out of control.

(Charlie exhales)

So, was your mom okay with you coming over here?

I didn’t tell her.

Charlie: It’s really good to see you.

You look beautiful.

So, how’s school?

You’re a senior, right?

You actually care?

Well, of course I care.

I pester your mom for information as often as she’ll give it to me.

So… (Grunts)

Why are you… I mean, don’t you have school?

Got suspended this morning.

I posted something about my stupid bitch lab partner that the vice principal said was “vaguely threatening.”

You don’t like school?

Only idiots like high school.

But you’re on track to graduate, right?

Counselor says I might not.

I’m not worried.

I’m a smart person.

I never forget anything.

High school is just bullshit.

But, Ellie, it’s important.

If you don’t graduate, then…

Are you actually trying to parent me right now?

No, I’m… sorry.

I just… I just thought that maybe we could spend some time with each other.

I’m not spending time with you.

You’re disgusting.

Well, I’m a lot bigger than I was since last time you saw me.

Ellie: No, I’m not talking about what you look like.

You’d be disgusting even if you weren’t this fat.

You’d still be that piece-of-shit dad who walked out on me when I was eight.

All because he wanted to fuck one of his students.

Can I have one of these?

Look, it’s… It’s been a long time.

I just thought that maybe we can get to know each other.

I don’t even know why I’m here.

I can pay you.

You want to pay me to spend time with you?

And I can help you with your work.

It’s what I do for my job.

I can help you pass your classes.

You teach online? Yes.

Your students know what you look like?

I keep the camera shut off.

Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.

My counselor says that if I show a lot of improvement in one subject, I might be able to graduate.

You can rewrite these essays for English.

They have to be really good, though.

Well, look, um… I don’t know if I should write them for you, but I can work with you on them.

How much can you pay me?

Everything I have.

All the money I have in the bank. How much?

$120,000? Something like that. I’d have to check.

I never go out.

All I pay for is food, rent, Internet.

And I work all the time.

And you’d give all of it to me?

Not to my mom, to me?

Yes. Just…

Don’t tell your mom, all right?

And maybe you could do some writing just for me.

Because you’re a smart person.

And I bet you’d make a strong writer.

Plus, I’m a teacher. I want to make sure you’re getting something out of this.

(Zips bag) I don’t even understand you.

Stand up and walk over to me.

Come over here. Walk toward me.

No. No. Without this thing.

Stand up and walk over here.

Ellie, I can’t really… Shut up!

Come over here.

(Charlie sighs)

(Exhales heavily)

(Grunts with exertion)

(Grunts, groans)

(Charlie yells)

(Groaning loudly)

(Groaning in pain)

(Dog barks outside)

(Whispering) “Celebrate my soul.

“Sell my soul.”

Man: Gambino’s!

Yeah, you can, um…

I put a $20 in the mailbox.

You can just leave it on the…

Man: Yeah, I, uh… I remember.

Everything okay in there?

Man: You sure?

I’m fine.

(Metal clacks)

(Footsteps)

(Chuckles lightly)

(Car engine starts)

Breathe slowly.

(Device beeps)

It measures perspiration. It’s an indicator of stress.

It’s about establishing a relationship between your brain and your body.

If you know how to make yourself calm, then your blood pressure will…

(Device beeps) Here.

I don’t need a little machine to tell me to take a few deep breaths and stop sweating.

Well, apparently, you fucking do.

(Device beeps) Take another deep breath.

(Charlie exhales deeply)

(Liz sighs)

We’re just gonna try some different methods, or whatever.

If you refuse to go to the hospital, then you’ll…

I don’t know.

Where’d this come from?

(Device continues beeping)

Was she here?

No, I don’t like this.

This isn’t a good idea.

You know you’re not supposed to be around her.

Does her mom know about this?

I just wanted to see her.

Mary has kept her from me all this time.

Why do you suddenly need to see her so bad, why now?

Why the hell do you have her homework, anyway?

Look, I didn’t plan for this.

She needs some help at school, so I’m gonna help her with a few essays.

(Liz scoffs)

You haven’t seen her since she was eight years old, and you’re gonna reconnect with her by doing her homework for her?

It’s fine. It’s not fine.

She shouldn’t be around you when you’re like this.

What if something happens, what if you need help?

(Device beeping rapidly)

Charlie, calm down.

Hey. No. (Beeping stops)

Okay. Forget it, then.

I’m worried about her. Why?

Oh, you’re spying on her now?

It doesn’t look like she has any friends.

I don’t think this is…

(Charlie scoffs) Come on, a dead dog?

I’m worried that she’s forgotten what an amazing person she is.

She’s just a teenager.

Everyone is insane when they’re a teenager.

When I was her age, when my dad would really piss me off…

I’m just lucky I didn’t get arrested, that’s all I’ll say.

Point is, bringing her over here is a bad idea.

You have enough to deal with right now, you hear me?

Do not bring her over here again.

It’s not like she’s alone, you know. She has her mom.

Liz: Ugh, shit. I have to go soon.

I hate these night shifts. (Utensils clacking)

It’s just a steady parade of dumb, drunk college kids.

(Faucet runs)

(Laughing) Did I tell you about this girl from a few nights ago? (Gags)

The puke was bright purple, I swear.

(Choking) (Liz laughing)

I mean, what is that?

Why can’t these kids just drink beer? You know.

Are you choking? (Continues choking)

Oh, god! Okay, lean on that arm.

Lean on that arm!

Okay, I need you to rock with me.

(Grunts) (Chokes)

(Grunts) (Charlie gasps)

(Liz yells)

(Coughs, wheezes)

(Coughing, wheezing)

I’m okay. (Gasps)

(Shouts) God damn it, Charlie, what is wrong with you?

Chew your food like a normal human being!

You could have just died right in front of me!

(Charlie whimpers and sobs)

I’m sorry, Liz.

(Object clacks)

(Liz exhales)

It’s okay.

Charlie: I read through some of the posts in the class discussion forum this morning.

In particular, a post about crafting a good thesis, and I quote, “just pick a sentence from the reading and say, ‘it’s good, ‘ or some shit.”

Listen, at this point in the course, I have given you all that I can, in terms of structure, building a thesis, paragraph organization.

But if all of that isn’t built on your own original ideas and truthful analysis, it doesn’t mean anything.

Think about that as you write and revise.

Think about the truth of your argument.

I know this may sound silly, but it’s important.

Promise, it’s important.

(Bird chirping)

(Breathing heavily)

(Straining)

(Key clatters)

(Grunting softly)

(Key clacks)

(Claw clicks)

(Muttering indistinctly)

This is… (Exhales)

You say that Walt Whitman wrote song for myself.

It’s called song of myself.

My title’s better.

Well…

Okay, I’ll just change it.

“The poem ‘Song of Myself’ is in a book called Leaves of Grass . It was written by Walt Whitman and was published in 1855. He paid for the first publication himself.”

You don’t have to read it out loud. Just rewrite it.

You’re supposed to analyze the poem.

This is just a list of facts.

Yup. Thank you, Wikipedia.

(Smacks lips)

You know, it’s really an amazing poem.

Whitman uses the metaphor of “I” not to refer to himself, but to explode the very definition of self in favor of a more all-encompassing…

I really, really don’t care.

You know, I think you might like it if you actually read it.

You’re just like my teachers. You think just because I’m not losing my shit over the poem, it’s because I didn’t read it. I did read it. It’s overwritten, and dumb, and repetitive. And even though he thinks his metaphor of “I” is deep, it’s actually just a bunch of bullshit. And, in reality, he’s just some worthless 19th century faggot.

That’s an interesting perspective. It would make for an interesting essay. Just write that thing about exploding the definition of self.

My English teacher will love it.

So, how’s your mom doing? Oh, my god.

Look, if you’re not gonna write these essays for me, then…

Charlie: Ellie, I don’t need you here to write these essays for you.

If you want to go, you can go.

You can still have the money.

I thought you wanted to get to know me. I do, but I don’t want to force you to be here.

It’s up to you.

(Puts bag down)

She’s fine.

Mom. I guess.

She happy? When she drinks.

You guys still live in that duplex over on orchard?

You don’t even know where we live?

You don’t stay in touch with mom?

Yeah, I check in with her as often as she lets me.

She really only tells me things about you.

Because that’s all I want to know about.

When I was 11, we moved to the other side of town, near the Walmart.

Is your mother with anyone right now? No.

Why, you interested?

(Chuckles) No, of course not.

Why’d you gain all that weight?

(Inhales deeply) I don’t…

If you’re gonna interrogate me, I’m gonna do the same thing.

Someone close to me passed away, and it…

It had an effect on me.

Your boyfriend.

My partner. Your student.

He wasn’t that young. It was a night school course.

Ellie: Oh, I remember him.

You had him over for dinner once when mom was in Montana, visiting grandma.

You made steaks.

The good kind.

Better meal than you ever made for me or mom.

I remember hearing you two talk after I went to bed.

How do you remember all that?

I told you, I never forget anything.

How did he die?

I… I don’t… I’m…

I really don’t want to talk about that right now, if that’s all right with you.

(Cell phone keys clacking)

I’ll write these essays for you.

I want you to do some writing, just for me.

I hate writing essays.

Just think about the poem for a while, and write something.

Tell me what you really think.

You want me to write what I really think?

I’ll be right back.

Just write whatever you want.

(Charlie groaning with exertion)

(Continues groaning)

(Water running)

(Suppressed sobbing)

(Muffled sobbing)

(Water continues running)

Are you okay?

Unless you’re dying, there’s no way I’m going in there.

(Exhales) Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I’m fine.

(Brid wings flapping)

(Water running) (Knocking continues)

I was looking for Charlie?

He’s in the bathroom.

Oh, I can come back.

Are you his friend, or…

I’m his daughter.

Oh. Are you surprised?

Yeah, I guess.

What’s more surprising? That a gay guy has a daughter, or that someone actually found his penis?

I’m kidding.

Charlie was interested in hearing more about my church, and I brought some literature…

Are you Mormon? No, I’m from New Life.

Oh. That end times cult thing.

(Pours juice) It’s not a cult.

Tell you one thing that I like about religion.

What I like about religion is that it assumes that everyone is an idiot and that they’re all incapable of saving themselves.

I think they got something right with that.

I don’t think like that…

What I don’t like about religion is that when people accept Jesus or whatever, they suddenly think that they’re better than everyone else. (Charlie grunting)

By accepting the fact that they’re stupid sinners, somehow they’ve become better, and they turn into assholes.

I don’t really know what to say.

I have some pamphlets that I think would…

(Camera clicks) Why did you just do that?

Are you coming back tomorrow?

I’m not sure… Come back tomorrow.

I’ll be here around the same time.

I’m sorry, what’s happening?

(Camera clicks)

Hi. I was just coming over to share these pamphlets with you.

You’ll have those done by tomorrow?

Five-page minimum.

It’ll be good, I promise.

I’m Ellie. Thomas.

(Breathes heavily)

(Slams door shut)

Christ’s return has been promised for centuries.

But there are a lot of clues in scripture that suggest it’s imminent.

So, that means we don’t have time to deny the gospel, we don’t have… Do you really think that the world’s gonna end soon?

Well, the Bible says that no one shall know the day or the hour, but, yeah, I think we’re probably living in end times.

And that doesn’t bother you?

No. It’s the idea

that a better world is coming to replace this one.

That everything terrible about this country, this planet, is gonna be wiped clean, and replaced with something pure and holy, and…

I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude, but I know all this.

What do you mean?

I have probably read everything New Life Church has ever written.

Probably every pamphlet they’ve ever published.

Wow, that’s great and everything, but these tracts are just the beginning.

There’s so much more in the Bible that we can… I read the Bible.

Sure. Couple times.

Did you like it?

I thought it was devastating.

God creates us, expels us from paradise.

We wander around for thousands of years killing each other, before he comes back and saves 144,000 of us.

Meanwhile, seven- and-a-half billion of us fall into hell.

That’s not really how I interpret it, but…

Charlie, you have to understand, God hasn’t turned his back on you.

If you accept him, he’ll release you from this.

(Sipping) He’ll take your soul out of this body and give you a brand-new body.

One made of pure light. I mean, don’t you want that?

I’m not interested in being saved.

(Sighs) I appreciate what you did the other day, but you can go.

This doesn’t sound like something that I…

Look, I really think that god brought me here for a reason.

There’s a reason why I knocked on your door right when you needed someone the most.

Isn’t there any way I can help?

I mean, that’s the entire reason why I became a missionary in the first place, right?

There’s something you can do for me.

What? Um, nothing I just…

I hope you know I wasn’t talking about, um…

What? I’m not…

Oh, my god. I’m… I’m sorry. I just…

No. With what you were watching the first time I came in here, I just…

(Chuckles) I am not attracted to you.

Please, you gotta believe me when I say I’m not attracted to you.

You’re a fetus.

Thomas, tell me the truth.

You find me disgusting?

I just want to help.

Please, just let me help.

(Grunts softly)

Thank you. That’s very helpful.

What happened to your… Sorry. Your friend, Liz, she said that your boyfriend, he used to go to new life?

(Door opens)

Liz: Charlie? Yeah.

I got you this.

I did some asking around, and…

What the fuck is he doing here?

He’s just helping me with something.

Take it easy, Liz.

Okay, well, you can go now.

Sorry. I’m sorry. Leave it.

(Charlie grunts) I said, leave it!

Charlie: Liz, would you stop?

Actually, stay. We’ll have a little chat.

What’s this?

The fuck does it look like?

It’s a fat-guy wheelchair.

And why do I need a wheelchair?

I was talking to one of the er doctors, he said moderate activity would be a good idea.

Sense of independence might help you out.

And what did you pay for this thing?

Nothing. We ordered it for a patient a few months ago.

It’s just been sitting around.

What happened to the patient?

Just try it out.

(Exhales sharply)

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Charlie: Can I sit? I gotcha.

(Charlie groaning)

Good? Yeah, actually, this is really nice.

Let me clear some space for you.

Charlie: Whee.

Charlie: Look, no hands.

Thank you, Liz. This is great, so great.

(Chuckles) See? I told you.

Charlie: I know.

I should go. Ah-pap-pap.

Not until we have our little chat.

What? Liz: Come on.

Just gimme a minute with him.

(Dog barks in distance)

Where are you from?

You said you’ve only been here for a little while.

Where you from?

Uh, Iowa. A town called Waterloo?

You asking me?

No. I’m from Waterloo.

Your whole family move out here for new life?

No, it’s just me.

I wanted to do some missionary work before school.

You’re from Iowa, and you came to Idaho to do missionary work?

Why aren’t you in Africa or something?

Idaho needs the word as much as anywhere else.

Okay, listen.

I know this is fun for you.

You get to travel around, act superior than everyone else, and eventually, you go home, get some boring job, have too many kids.

It’s God’s plan.

But there are other types of people.

People like Charlie, for whom this amazing plan doesn’t fit.

So, just stay away from him.

He doesn’t need this right now.

I disagree.

(Exhales) Excuse me? Sorry, I just, uh…

He’s dying.

He’s refusing to go to the hospital.

What he needs is spiritual guidance.

And you’re gonna give him that?

No. God will.

My big brother did some missionary work for new life.

Went to South America.

I was the black sheep.

I refused to go to church ever since I was 12.

Dad knew I was a lost cause, but not my brother, he loved new life.

He wrote me a letter a few months after he left, told me he was tired, and lonely, but he didn’t want to come home because he didn’t want to get married.

He didn’t want to get married?

Dad had set it all up.

Pushed him into getting married to this girl from the church he barely knew.

But when he came back, he met someone else.

Fell in love, started a whole new life.

And dad kicked him out of the church.

And the family.

I thought he was gonna be able to get over all that religious stuff, but it was like a cancer.

He couldn’t shake it.

He just caved in on himself, stopped sleeping, stopped eating.

Lost a ton of weight.

One night, he doesn’t come home.

Couple weeks later, this guy is out jogging on a bike path near the river in Lewiston, sees something washed up on shore, and that was Alan.

The love of Charlie’s life, and my brother.

Oh. Yeah. “Oh.”

To this day, my dad won’t admit it.

Told the whole congregation Alan’s death was…

Just an unfortunate accident.

Denying him to the end.

Look, I know that you don’t trust me.

And I know that I haven’t known him for very long, but I really think that god brought me here, right when Charlie needs it the most.

I just want him to be saved, that’s all… You listen to me!

He doesn’t need saving!

In a few days, he’s probably going to be dead, so what he needs is for you to leave him alone.

I’m the only one who can help him.

You understand me?

Charlie: Liz.

(Cutlery clacking)

(Charlie wheezes softly)

(TV turns on)

You wanna watch some Maury?

Sounds good, right?

(Indistinct chatter on TV)

Actually, I got another night shift tonight.

I better, uh…

You good for the night?

(Smacks lips) I’ll leave the remote here.

(Door closes)

(Lock clicks)

(Light switch clicking)

(Chuckles softly)

(Door shuts)

Yeah. You can, uh…

Man: Money in the mailbox, leave it on the bench.

Yeah. Thanks.

Man: I’m Dan.

Dan: I just… My name, it’s Dan.

I’ve been coming here for a while now.

Just thought you’d wanna know my name.

Dan: Hey, Charlie.

(Mailbox opens, closes)

Dan: Have a good night, okay?

(Footsteps receding)

It sure did.

More Idaho Republicans want to see senator Ted Cruz in the white house than any other candidate.

Cruz will split Idaho’s 32 delegates with Donald Trump, the only other candidate to clear that 20% threshold.

It was a disappointing night for senator Marco Rubio who failed to win any delegates in the four states that held primaries, while…

(Switches TV off)

(Wheelchair squeaking)

“This apartment smells. This notebook is retarded. I hate everyone.”

(Syllabically) This apartment smells.

This notebook is retarded.

I hate everyone. (Laughing)

(Breathing laboriously)

And I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales because (exhales) I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story, just for a little while.

This apartment smells.

(Inhales deeply) This apartment smells.

The author was just trying to save us from his own sad story.

I hate everyone.

Do you have it?

Charlie: I’m almost done.

You can wait while I finish it up, print it out.

Maybe while you’re waiting, you can write some more in your notebook. Oh, my god.

You’ve only written a couple sentences so far.

Can you write more?

I kind of hate you. (Chuckling) Yeah.

Well, you hate everyone.

Listen, just keep going.

Forget about the poem.

Write whatever you want, whatever you’re thinking.

(Bag thuds) Okay. Be quiet, just…

You know, I was in a really strange place in my life when I married your mom. Did I fucking ask?

I just wish…

I’m sor… I’m sorry.

I understand that you’re angry.

You don’t have to be angry at the whole world.

You can just be angry at me.

(Aggressively) Okay, you know what?

You can’t throw me away like a piece of garbage, and then suddenly just want to be my dad eight years later.

You left me for your boyfriend.

(Sighs) It’s that simple.

And if you’ve been telling yourself anything different, then you’re lying to yourself.

But you know what? I’m glad.

I’m glad, because you taught me something very important.

People are assholes.

Most people learn that way too late.

You… you taught me that when I was eight.

Thank you for that.

You know, you could’ve…

Ellie: You could’ve been sending us money.

If you had all that money saved up, and wanted to be a part of my life so bad, you could’ve been sending money to mom.

Ellie: Yeah, I mean more than just child support.

When I left your mom, she did not want me around you.

I hoped that she would change her mind eventually, but she…

You could have just fucking called me.

All this time, you…

You could have been a part of my life.

Look at me.

Who would want me to be a part of their life?

I’m hungry.

There’s some stuff for sandwiches in the fridge.

I’ll make you one, but it’s going to be small.

And I’m only using Turkey, and no mayonnaise.

What? Nothing.

You’re an amazing person, Ellie.

I hope you know what an amazing person you are.

I couldn’t ask for a more incredible daughter.

I’ll print that out for you now.

(Bird wings flap)

(Keyboard clacking)

(Lighter clicks)

(Charlie breathes heavily)

(Snores softly)

(Pills rattle)

(Door creaks)

Ellie: Yeah?

Thomas: Uh… hello?

(Knocks) Hi.

Ellie: Come on.

Is he…

Is he okay? I don’t know.

I ground up some Ambien and I put it in his sandwich.

I only gave him a couple. He’s fine.

I can take, like, three at a time.

Thomas: Where did you get Ambien?

I had sex with a pharmacist.

I’m kidding. Gross.

My mom pops them like tic tacs.

I don’t know if he should be taking Ambien.

Does this make you nervous? ‘Cause it’s just pot.

It’s not like I’m smoking meth or anything.

I know. I… I know what pot is, okay?

No. You only think you know what pot is because your parents told you a bunch of lies about it.

Don’t. I know what drugs are.

I’ve smoked pot before. Ooh. Oh, I’m so impressed.

I wasn’t trying to impress you.

You’ve not smoked pot before. Yes, I have. It…

It was kind of a problem.

That is the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

I was smoking every day. I had a problem.

You were a stoner. You had a hobby.

All right, I’m gonna go. Just tell him I was here and I’ll…

If you leave, I’ll feed him the rest of the pills I have in the bottle.

What? Yeah.

There’s, like, 20, 30 more in here.

I’ll crush them up, I’ll put them in some water, (Puts bottle down)

And I’ll pour it down his throat.

You wouldn’t actually do that, would you? Sit down.

So, why do you keep coming back here?

He needs help.

He needs god in his life right now.

That’s a stupid reason.

Do you think he wants to have sex with you?

That is so gross, oh, my god. Take a hit.

I don’t want… If you don’t take a hit, I’m gonna call the police and I’m gonna tell them that you tried to rape me. Take a hit.

I don’t understand you at all.

Oh, my god.

Is there a carb on this?

Ooh, I’m impressed.

There isn’t a carb.

(Coughing) What are you gonna do with that picture?

I’m gonna masturbate to it.

Is that what you want me to say?

You’re a pervert. Take another hit.

Look, I’m just fucking with you, all right?

I’m not gonna kill anyone, I’m not gonna tell anyone that you tried to rape me.

You’re not going to give him any more Ambien?

Why do you keep coming back here?

Seriously, if you hate him so much, then why…

I’m done answering questions now.

Can I take another hit?

It goes against your religion, and that makes you a hypocrite.

I really wish that you wouldn’t do that.

Yeah, I know. I heard you the first time.

Do you find me attractive?

(Hesitates)

Because I’m not attracted to you at all, just to let you know.

I’m not trying to be mean or anything.

I just don’t think you’re very good-looking, or interesting.

Or intelligent.

Oh, my god, grow up.

Maybe someone else finds you attractive.

Maybe my dad finds you attractive.

I really wish you… You know, it is so easy to make you uncomfortable.

It’s honestly… It’s a little sad.

You can cash that out.

(Scoffs) If my parents knew I was getting high, getting high while out witnessing for the church…

You’re not from new life.

There’s a kid in the grade below me who goes there.

He told me that they stopped doing door-to-door stuff last year when some woman was out preaching or whatever, and a guy answered the door with no clothes on.

I gotta go. Who are you, really?

Come on, just tell me!

Thomas: Why do you care? Because I think we have a blossoming friendship.

You’re just messing with me.

Ellie: No, I’m not.

You’re not going to tell anyone?

Who am I gonna tell?

I was on a mission.

With a group from my church, back in Waterloo, my hometown in Iowa.

When my dad caught me smoking pot, he thought a mission would be a good idea.

I mean, the truth is, he’s just embarrassed by me and wanted me gone for a while.

Anyway, I just left.

I couldn’t do it anymore.

The mission leader, this guy, Jerry, all he had us doing was standing on corners and handing out pamphlets.

The end of each day, he’d be like, “look how many people we’re helping,” but…

I tried to talk to him about different ways we can minister.

I mean, different ways that we could actually help people. But…

You could just tell that he didn’t need to earn or prove his faith at all.

After a while, I was just, like, “am I really helping?”

No. You were not.

Yeah, I started to feel that way, too.

I don’t feel that way, I know that you weren’t helping people.

It doesn’t help people to tell them that they should believe in God.

Why would that help people?

Thomas: I just thought…

I see all my family, my friends, they’re all just so happy.

I just want to be like that.

So, why’d you leave, then?

I was worried I was gonna get arrested.

For smoking pot?

For stealing from the mission.

One day, I ditched the pamphlets.

I went door-to-door.

I started actually engaging with people.

Finally. I mean, it felt like I was doing something, helping someone.

And that night, I went back to the mission meeting, and I told everyone what I did that day, and Jerry was like, “that’s not what we do, buddy.”

And I was like, “well, why not?”

And we got in this huge argument in front of everyone, and…

And that night, I decided to leave.

And when everyone was asleep, I… I took the petty cash.

Ellie: How much?

Thomas: Yeah. “Oh.”

I got on a bus.

Jerry and my parents were calling me over and over again.

I just tossed my phone.

After a while, I wound up here.

Thomas: I thought I could use this money for my own mission.

You know, see my faith save just one person.

But now I’m almost out of money. I just… I can’t go home, and…

My parents probably wanna disown me.

(Sighs) I don’t know what to do.

You’re more interesting to me now.

So, that’s why you wanna save my dad.

(Main door lock clicks)

Don’t freak out. Shut up.

Liz: You again?

(Softly) Charlie.

(Charlie coughs)

Not with the oxygen tank.

I’ll stand by the window.

Ellie told you she was coming over?

Liz: No. I did.

And just in time, looks like.

You having any more pain?

(Sighs) How easy is it to move?

Any confusion? Have you felt disoriented, forgotten where you are or what you’re doing?

Am I okay? No, you’re not okay.

But as far as the sleeping pills, you’re fine.

I don’t think she gave you much.

Yeah, that’s what I told you.

You know, I was a very angry, very stupid little girl once, too, but if you would’ve given him any more pills than that…

Yeah, but I didn’t give him more pills than that, I gave him two pills. Ellie?

How much money did he offer you?

All of it? How do you know about the money?

You think I’m an idiot?

You think I would believe that you were coming over here out of the kindness of your heart?

(Laughs) Charlie doesn’t have any money.

(Liz continues laughing)

She doesn’t know? Charlie: Mary.

Where do you think all the money from his teaching has been going?

The account for Ellie?

By now, it has to be huge.

Over $100,000 at least, right?

(Wheezes softly)

That’s not true, is it?

We could have gotten you anything you needed.

Special beds, physical therapists, fucking health insurance!

Last winter, when my pick-up broke down and I had to walk through the snow to get your groceries for you…

I offered to get your truck fixed.

Yeah, and I refused because I thought you had $700 in your bank account. The money is for Ellie.

It’s always been for Ellie.

If there was ever any kind of emergency, I would have given you the money. Would you?

Wait. (Door shuts)

Mom, you’re not getting any of my money.

Mary: Oh, shut up, Ellie.

Leave, right now.

Ellie, I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. I know you didn’t…

Okay, you know what? Listen to me. Listen.

I don’t care about you!

Get that through your fucking skull.

(Crying) Ellie, please. Just fucking die already!

Ellie, your… your essay.

(Opens drawer)

So… it’s…

It’s a really good essay!

(Sobs, wheezes)

(Wheezes) Jesus, Charlie.

Do you have anything?

It’s above the sink, the kitchen counter on the left.

The other one. (Sniffles) Yup.

Mary: Our deal was to wait until she’s out of the house to give her the money.

What’s the difference?

The difference is she’s 17 and still in high school.

She’s gonna spend it on face tattoos or ponies, or something.

I think that she’s a lot smarter than that.

(Mary scoffs)

How’s it been?

Getting to know her. (Chuckles softly)

She’s amazing. (Mary chuckles)

(Sighs) You still do that.

That positivity.

It’s so annoying.

You’re a complete cynic.

Just trying to balance us out.

Yeah. I guess I do miss that.

That one thing.

That, and the cooking.

Last month, tried to make a stir-fry thing.

Charlie: Yeah?

Almost set the entire apartment building on fire.

(Gasps, coughs)

(Continues coughing)

I never knew you were doing this to yourself.

Well, you never asked how I was doing.

You never asked how I was doing either.

Every month, it’s just, “how much money do you need?” Or, “how’s Ellie?”

You didn’t tell me that she’s flunking out of school.

I guess I just didn’t need the lecture about my involvement in her education.

That is not what I… (Exhales)

How’re you doing, Mary? (Scoffs)

I know I’m not supposed to be around her.

You could probably call the police if you wanted to. Oh, Christ.

You really think I’d do that?

You fought me pretty hard for full custody.

And I don’t blame you for keeping her from me.

Charlie, need I remind you that you left us.

And I was left raising our kid and explaining to people that my husband left me for a man.

But you didn’t have to cut me out of her life like that.

Oh, please.

You were more than happy to forget about us for a while.

You know that.

I know I made a lot of mistakes.

But I just wanted to see her, Mary.

I’ve always just… Just wanted to see her.

It’s all about you.

Even now, huh?

(Charlie sighs heavily)

Now you know why I kept you from her.

She’s awful. Isn’t she?

She’s a terror. And you think it’s my fault.

Wait, is that why you kept her from me all this time?

Because you thought that I would think that you’re a bad mother?

But later, when she was 15, 16, I was worried she would hurt you.

It’s ridiculous.

I don’t take any pleasure in admitting it.

I’m her mother, for Christ’s sake.

You know, I spent way too much time telling myself, you know, “she’s just rebellious, she’s just difficult.”

Charlie, she’s evil.

She’s not evil.

What are you doing?

(Mary typing) You think it’s just me?

“There’ll be a grease fire in hell when he starts to burn.”

Don’t feel bad.

I’ve made quite a few appearances on that thing.

She’s a strong writer.

(Raises voice) That’s your response?

This isn’t evil.

This is honesty.

Do you know how much bullshit I’ve read in my life?

My god, I don’t understand you, Charlie!

Every time I call and ask you how she’s doing, you say, “she’s fine.”

If she’s so evil, then…

(Mary shouting) What was I supposed to tell you?

Huh? That she was off making her classmates cry or slashing her teachers’ tires?

You didn’t want to hear that stuff!

I could have helped her!

She doesn’t want your help! She doesn’t want anyone!

You think I didn’t want her to have a dad?

She adored you!

The only reason you married me in the first place was to have a kid, I know that!

Mary, please!

(Mary sighs)

Well, this brings back memories, doesn’t it?

(Wheezes, coughs)

I never got to say that I was sorry.

What would you have to be sorry about?

That’s not what I mean.

I mean…

About your friend.

His name was Alan.

I know his fucking name, Charlie.

I saw him once, in the Walmart parking lot.

He wasn’t looking too good, and I don’t think it was long before he…

Anyway, I had all these things that I… I wanted to say to him, you know, hurl at him like bricks. (Sniffles)

But I… I asked if he wanted some help.

He let me carry a couple of bags to his car, he said thank you, and I left.

I never even told him who I was.

Yeah, it’s gotten worse.

Should I call someone?

No. Um…

You’ll let me hear?

(Hoarsely) How do I sound?

That was the first time we’ve all been together in almost nine years. Do you realize that?

(Chuckles dryly)

When Ellie was little, when we took that trip to the Oregon coast together, Ellie played in the sand, and…

We laid out on the beach.

I went swimming in the ocean.

That was the last time I ever went swimming, actually.

I kept cutting my legs on the rocks.

The water was so cold.

(Ocean waves splashing)

And you were so mad that my legs bled and stained the seats in the minivan.

And you said, for days after that, I smelled like seawater.

(Charlie laughs)

(Wheezes) You remember that?

You sound awful.

(Sighs) I’m dying, Mary.

(Crying) For sure?

Yeah. For sure.

(Cries, sighs)

Charlie: Listen to me.

I need to make certain that she’s going to be okay.

We can’t give up on her.

You already gave up on her!

You gave up on her when she was eight years old!

I wish I could have been a part of her life, Mary, a part of both of your lives.

You have money, just go to the hospital!

We both know that that money is for Ellie.

But beyond that, I need to know that she’s gonna have a decent life.

Where she cares about people and other people care about her.

(Crying) And she’s gonna be okay.

I need to go. Mary.

She doesn’t have anyone else! I have to go.

(Crying) I need to know that I have done one thing right with my life!

We both played our parts.

I raised her, and you’re giving her the money.

It’s the best we could do.

Do you need anything before I leave?

Water, or something.

(Phone button beeps)

(Thunder rumbles)

(Rain pouring)

(Thunder rumbling)

(Water trickling)

Dan: Gambino’s!

(Charlie coughing) Yeah.

Dan: Charlie?

Charlie: Yeah. (Clears throat)

The money is in the, um…

(Mailbox opens)

Dan: You sure you’re doing okay?

Yeah. Thanks, Dan.

(Mailbox closes)

(Rain pouring heavily)

(Intense music playing)

(Whispering) Fuck these essays.

Fuck these readings.

Just write something fucking honest.

(Banging keyboard)

(Slams laptop shut)

(Intense music continues)

(Stifles sob)

(Coughs, sobs)

(Continues sobbing)

(Gasps) Liz?

(Knocking continues)

Thomas: Can I come inside?

It’s not locked.

Hi. What’s wrong?

Thank you. For what?

Look, I’m not exactly who I said I was.

I’m not from new life.

What? I… I don’t…

I’ve been in a pretty bad place recently.

I… I stole some money, and I ran away from home a few months ago.

And your daughter, she took these pictures of me smoking pot, and a recording or something like that, and she found my church in Waterloo somehow, and then she sent it to them, and they sent it to my parents… Wait.

And you know what they said?

“It’s just money.”

And they forgive me.

And they love me, and they want me to come home.

How awful is that?

Ellie, she… She did all that?

I can’t tell if she was trying to help me or hurt me or…

Do you ever get that feeling from her? (Chuckles)

How did she even… she…

She found your church, she tracked down your parents.

She really did all that?

Yeah. I mean, I’m going home tomorrow.

But, Charlie, before I go… (Laughs)

I have to show you this.

(Breathes uncomfortably)

What… what’s wrong? (Grunts heavily)

Wait, are you okay?

It just hurts. Charlie, I want to help you. I know I can help you.

I’m not going to the hospital.

No, I know. I’m not gonna make you go.

But I can help you.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters…” What are you doing?

“We have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, then you will live.”

I… I don’t understand.

Charlie, when I read this, I finally got it.

I finally understood why god brought me here to you.

So I could help you understand what happened to Alan, so it doesn’t happen to you, too.

How did you get this?

Charlie, Alan tried to escape god’s will.

He chose his life with you over god.

But this is why he was so obsessed with this verse.

He knew that he was living in the flesh, and not in the spirit.

He never prayed for salvation, but it’s not too late for you.

Through the spirit, you can put to death the misdeeds of the body, and you will live.

You think Alan died because he chose to be with me?

You think god turned his back on him because he and I were in love?

You know something? I wasn’t always this big.

Yeah, I know.

I mean, I wasn’t the best-looking guy in the room, but…

Alan loved me.

He thought I was beautiful.

Halfway through the semester, he started meeting me during my office hours.

And we were… We were crazy about one another.

But we waited until the class was over before…

This isn’t, uh…

It was just after classes had ended for the year.

It was perfect temperature outside.

We took a walk in the arboretum, and we kissed.

Charlie, stop.

We would spend entire nights lying together, naked.

We would make love.

Do you find that disgusting?

Charlie, god is ready to help you.

Oh, I hope that there isn’t a god, because I hate to think that there’s an afterlife, and that Alan can see what I have done to myself.

Charlie… That he can see my swollen feet and the sores on my skin, and the patches of mold in between the flaps. Stop.

The infected ulcers on my ass, and the sack of fat on my back that turned brown last year.

Okay, stop! This is disgusting?

Yes! I’m disgusting?

(Shouting) Yes, you’re disgusting! You’re…

(Breath shuddering, whispering) I’m sorry.

Go home to your family.

(Coughs heavily)

Charlie: Well, your complaints have been heard.

I’ve been replaced by someone who will, no doubt, have you rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite, be more objective, less authentic, less you, with every draft.

But some of you saw my post about writing something honest.

The things that some of you wrote…

Kristy, you wrote, “my parents want me to be a radiologist, but I don’t even know what that is.”

Julian, you wrote, “I’m sick of people telling me that I have promise.”

Adam, you wrote, “I think I need to accept that my life isn’t going to be very exciting.”

You all wrote these amazing, honest things, and…

You’ve been so honest with me that I… I…

I just want to be…

Honest with you, too.

These assignments don’t matter.

This course doesn’t matter.

College doesn’t matter.

These amazing, honest things that you wrote, they matter.

(Laptop crashes)

(Charlie wheezes)

(Wheezing continues)

I’m sorry. Don’t.

(Breathes erratically)

(Suppresses grunt)

I really hate you for putting me through this again, you know that?

Those last few months before Alan…

I’d come over here, shake him, scream at him, just trying to get him to fucking eat something.

God, that was awful! It was awful for me, too.

Yeah? Well, you weren’t the one who had to identify his body, all bloated… They wouldn’t let me.

I wasn’t family.

(Charlie coughs and wheezes)

I got you two meatball subs. Extra cheese.

(Sighs, sniffles)

I don’t know what I’m doing.

I’m not asking you to.

I can’t do this anymore.

I tried to save him, Liz.

I thought that if I just loved him, that he wouldn’t need anyone else.

I told him he didn’t need god, he didn’t need anyone but me.

Charlie, all I know is that you gave Alan the best years of his life.

If it weren’t for you, he would have jumped off that bridge years earlier. (Shudders)

Nobody could’ve saved him.

Believe me, I spent years trying.

I don’t think I believe anyone can save anyone.

She saved him.

She wasn’t trying to hurt him. She was trying to help him.

Who are you talking about?

He’s going home. She did that.

Charlie… She didn’t do it to hurt him, she did it to send him home.

Do you feel light-headed? Charlie, look at me.

She was trying to help him. Who?

Ellie. She was trying to help him, she just wanted to send him home.

Do you ever get the feeling that…

People are incapable of not caring?

People are amazing.

What the fuck did you do?

What’s wrong with him?

So, call someone.

(Softly) No. Call a fucking ambulance!

I need to talk to him.

I’m not leaving you alone with him.

I need to talk to him alone.

(Softly) Liz.

(Stifled sobbing)

Liz: I’ll call someone.

I’ll wait downstairs.

Why did you do that? (Chuckling) What?

Are you just trying to screw me over one last time?

I don’t care about you! I don’t care that you’re dying.

Do you want me to fail out of high school?

Is that why you did this? I didn’t write it.

This is the essay that you gave me yesterday.

You didn’t read it. I don’t need to read it.

This is…

I know what this is.

(Chuckling) I knew you would.

I wrote this.

You never forget anything.

I wrote this in eighth grade for English. Why do you…

“And I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales, because I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story, just for a little while.”

(Charlie chuckles) (Sniffles)

How do you have this? Your mother, she sent it to me four years ago.

I wanted to know how you were doing in school, and she sent it.

And it’s the best essay I’ve ever read.

(Sobbing) Why are you fucking with me like this?

I’m not.

(Sobs) I’m sorry for leaving you.

I was in love, and…

(Inhales laboriously) I left you behind.

You did not deserve that. I don’t… I don’t know how (Inhales laboriously)

I could have done such a thing.

You’re so beautiful. (Sobs)

You’re amazing. Stop.

You’re amazing. (Sobs)

This essay is amazing.

This essay is you.

Stop saying that.

This essay is you. Stop saying that!

You’re the best thing I have ever done.

(Cries out in pain)

(Coughs) What’s the matter?

No. Okay, I can’t be here right now.

I have to go. You’re perfect.

You’ll be happy.

You care about people. (Sobs)

The ambulance is coming, they’ll help you.

No. They won’t.

You’re going to the hospital. No.

You just need surgery, or something!

Read it to me. (Grunts) What?

(Struggling) If you want to help, read it to me.

You’ll help if you read it.

You asshole. You fat fucking asshole!

You’ll help… Fuck you.

Please. Fuck you!

(Sobbing) Daddy, please.

(Ellie sniffling)

“In the amazing book, Moby dick, by the author Herman Melville, the author recounts his story of being at sea. In the first part of his book, the author, calling himself Ishmael, is in a small seaside town and he is sharing a bed with a man named Queequeg.”

“The author and Queequeg go to church and later set out on a ship captained by a pirate named Ahab, who is missing a leg, and very much wants to kill the whale which is named Moby dick, and which is white. In the course of the book, the pirate Ahab encounters many hardships.” (Grunts)

“His entire life is set around trying to kill a certain whale.”

(Panting) “I think this is sad because this whale doesn’t have any emotions, and doesn’t know how bad Ahab wants to kill him.

“He’s just a poor big animal.”

(Charlie gasps for breath)

“And I feel bad for Ahab as well, because he thinks that his life will be better if he can just kill this whale, but in reality, it won’t help him at all.”

(Charlie breathing shallowly)

“I was very saddened by this book, and I felt many emotions for the characters. And I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales, because I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story, just for a little while.”

(Waves lapping)

(Emotional music playing)

“This book made me think about my own life, and then it made me feel glad for my…”

(Breathing erratically)

(Music swells)

(Emotional music continues)

(Grim music playing)

(Waves crashing gently)

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The Whale (2022) | The Definitive Explanation

Welcome to our Colossus Movie Guide for The Whale . This guide contains everything you need to understand the film. Dive into our detailed library of content, covering key aspects of the movie. We encourage your comments to help us create the best possible guide. Thank you!

What is The Whale about?

The Whale is a reflection on guilt, consequences, self-deceit and the power of honesty. Specifically the way in which these things can erode someone’s life. For Charlie and Liz, it’s the loss of Alan. For Alan, it was feeling abandoned by his father. Ellie, Charlie’s daughter, also feels abandoned by her father. And Thomas stole from his church, ran away, and is too scared to look back. We see how easy it is for each of them to lie to themselves about the pain they feel. They fall back on distraction. It’s only once they start being honest with themselves, with one another, and with others, that any progress is made. 

Movie Guide table of contents

The ending of the whale explained, the themes and meaning of the whale.

• Why is the movie called The Whale?

Important motifs in The Whale

• Questions and answers
• Charlie – Brendan Fraser
• Ellie – Sadie Sink
• Mary – Samantha Morton
• Liz – Hong Chau
• Thomas – Ty Simpkins
• Written by – Samuel D. Hunter
• Directed by – Darren Aronofsky
• Based on the play – The Whale

The ending of The Whale begins when Thomas comes over and tells Charlie that he, Thomas, is going home thanks to Ellie. The conversation takes a turn when Thomas tries to “save” Charlie. Charlie pushes back on the idea of God and an afterlife and explicitly states his shame, guilt, and frustration with himself over his weight. 

The next day, he tells his online class that he’s been replaced. This is the consequence of posting an assignment to be honest where he used cuss words. During this “last lecture”, Charlie makes a big point about honesty and being yourself. This culminates with him turning on his facecam for the first time, revealing to the class what he looks like. Some are shocked. Some are awed. Some are concerned. Embarrassed. Stunned. “These assignments don’t matter. This course doesn’t matter. College doesn’t matter. These amazing, honest things that you wrote, they matter.” As a sign off, he throws his laptop across the room. It breaks. 

Liz shows up with food. Charlie doesn’t look good. He’s audibly wheezing. These two now have their final talk. Liz is upset at the revelation that Charlie has over $100,000 in the bank he’s refused to use to get himself medical help. She compares what happened with Alan dying from not eating to Charlie dying from overeating. “I can’t do this anymore.” Charlie says he told Alan he didn’t need anyone else, not God, not anyone else. Liz says, “I don’t think I believe anyone can save anyone.” Which leads to Charlie talking about Ellie and Thomas. “Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring? People are amazing.”

 Ellie bursts into the house and confronts Charlie about the essay he gave her. It received an F. When she finally reads it, she realizes what it is. It’s an essay she wrote in eighth grade English class. It’s the whale essay Charlie has obsessed over since the opening of the movie. Charlie apologizes to Ellie. He breaks down Ellie’s own self loathing. “This essay is you.” He tells her she’s perfect, that she’ll be happy, that she cares about people. His condition quickly deteriorates. Charlie begs her to read the essay. Ellie’s about to go but opens the door and bathes herself and the room in light. She says, “Daddy, please.” Then turns and begins to read the essay. 

Charlie calms. Suddenly motivated, he rolls, he struggles, he stands. He steps. He steps. Closer and closer to Ellie. He flashes to a day of being back at the beach. His feet in the water. Ellie and Charlie share a moment. Then Charlie’s feet lift off the ground, he gasps, and ascends. We get a final wide shot of him on the beach, standing in the surf, young Ellie behind him. It’s a bright, lovely, picturesque day. 

There’s a good amount going on here, narratively and thematically. 

Charlie’s death

First and foremost, the obvious implication is that Charlie dies. But how should we take his feet lifting off the ground? The flash of light? The final shot? The Whale had been a very grounded, realistic movie. But that ending brings in aspects of the surreal. 

There’s an argument to be made that it’s a subjective visual. At that moment Charlie has a sense of peace. He reconnected with Ellie in a major way, breaking through the angry wall she had kept up for so much of the movie. To Charlie, his death isn’t this bleak, horrendous thing. It’s transcendent. The visual supports his sense of the weight lifted from his shoulders, and the grace and peace he feels. It’s similar to the end of Iñárritu’s film Birdman or scenes in Tár . In both those films the filmmaker allows the main character’s subjectivity to influence the film’s form. Aronofsky isn’t a stranger to this tactic, employing similar techniques in The Fountain and   Black Swan . The benefit of the subjective visual is that you can do dynamic things with it. The con is how subjective moments can create confusion around how literally something should be viewed. 

On the flip side of the subjective visual is the literal visual. In Birdman , we’re not supposed to believe the main character has telekinetic powers and can fly. It’s surreal subjectivity. But in Justice League , yeah, those things are literal. The Fountain , subjective. Inception , literal. Fight Club , subjective. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , literal. Mulholland Drive , incredibly subjective. Hereditary , literal. 

The literal visual means that what we see has to be taken at face value. It’s not metaphoric. Like all the transcendent, crazy stuff we see in The Fountain is just a way to demonstrate the grieving process. It’s not literally what Hugh Jackman’s character does. But representative of his journey. In Inception , everything that happens is what happened. The dream-sharing isn’t some euphemism. The memory erasure in Eternal Sunshine is not merely a representation of getting over an ex. It’s a “real” procedure the character’s going through. 

So in The Whale , if we read the ending as literal, then we have to try to explain how Charlie leaves his feet. What the flash of light means. And what that last image on the beach is. The clear, primary answer is that it’s a confirmation of God. That at the moment of his death, Charlie has this divine moment, a kind of personal rapture, as his soul leaves his body. Faith is one of The Whale ’s major themes. Thomas embodies that theme. His belief and quest to save Charlie creates a means by which the narrative can explore Charlie’s relationship with religion. It’s not a coincidence that the arc between those characters ends with Charlie decrying God, hoping there isn’t an afterlife. That conversation happens when it happens for a reason. 

The nuance here would be that Thomas thinks Charlie must atone for his sexuality. Something Charlie rightfully rejects. If Thomas was right, Charlie shouldn’t have such a divine conclusion. Instead of a light turning on, you’d expect a descent into darkness. It seems the atonement Charlie needed to make was with Ellie. Having done that, he’s redeemed. 

It probably doesn’t matter whether the end is surreal or literal. Either way, the point is the same: guilt, fear, and shame can lead us down a dark path where we lie to others and ourselves. If you walk that path, you’re damned. Through honesty, we find redemption. We improve our relationships. We liberate the mind, body, and soul. And it’s never too late to give yourself and those you love that closure. Thomas had the right idea in that it wasn’t too late for Charlie to be saved. But Thomas was wrong in what that meant. And how to apply it. As Liz says, “I don’t think I believe anyone can save anyone.” The Whale makes the point that others can’t know what we need. What will save us. Especially not a random niche religious off-shoot. Only you know what you need to do. If you’re honest with yourself, the answer is clear. If you’re not honest, then it won’t be easy. 

Ellie and her essay

We never hear the end of Ellie’s essay. It always cuts off at the same point: This book made me think about my own life, and then it made me feel glad for my…

While objectively we don’t know what Ellie says next, the visuals seem to imply the last word is “dad”. Just in the way that Charlie walks over to her. How she walks up to him. That when she reaches that point we see a shot of Charlie and he smiles. It cuts back to Ellie and she looks at him and smiles. It would also make sense why Charlie cherished that essay so much. Because it’s the one physical reminder he has that his daughter loved/loves him. She was glad for him. 

Whether she says “Dad” or not at the end of the essay, the important thing is that it ends with Ellie being glad. That embodies her narrative arc. She starts off so angry. She’s mean to everyone. Her own mom calls her evil. The implication is that she’s so upset about Charlie leaving that she’s been taking it out on everyone else. There’s a lot of fear of abandonment and self-loathing. Charlie slowly breaks down that wall. He keeps telling Ellie she’s amazing. She’s beautiful. Smart. Perfect. Even at the end. He’s adamant about the good in her. That she can be happy. He even says that she is that essay. The essay is ruminative, serious, slightly sad. But it builds to a point of finding joy. And the hope is that Ellie herself will now be able to do the same. 

Near the end of The Whale , Charlie and his ex-wife, Mary, get to reconnect. It’s not always pretty but it is cathartic. Eventually, they end up sitting next to each other. Mary lays her head on Charlie. They share a moment. Then Charlie begins to reflect. 

When Ellie was little, when we took that trip to the Oregon Coast together, Ellie played in the sand and we laid out on the beach. I went swimming in the ocean. That was the last time I ever went swimming actually. I kept cutting my legs on the rocks. The water was so cold. And you were so mad that my legs bled and stained the seats in the minivan and you said for days after that I smelled like seawater. You remember that? 

It’s not a profound moment. Nor a perfect moment. But it is a time Charlie remembers fondly. Through that subjective lens, it would represent simply a time of peace and potential. It’s probably one of many happy memories Charlie would die with. through the literal lens, it would imply something more heavenly, something afterlife-y. 

Zooming out from the narrative reasons, two things come to mind. First, most of The Whale is very interior. Aside from the opening shot, the entire movie takes place in Charlie’s house or on his front porch. There’s a claustrophobia to the mise-en-scene. That also influences the color palette. The Whale is a very muted film, full of grays and shows. Typically, art finds the most power through escalation or contrast. So if a story starts in a sad place, the most powerful ending is either complete desolation or a true reversal of fortune. Often you build up the potential of the story going either way. The movie Atonement is a good example of this. It sets up the romance between Kiera Knightly and James McAvoy. But they’re separated by war. You spend the movie uncertain if they will or won’t end up together. The eventual conclusion is insanely emotional. 

For The Whale , if it was going to have a negative ending, we’d expect it to double down on the claustrophobia and color palette. It would take those things to the extreme. But since it goes for a positive ending, it embraces aspects of contrast. Which is why when Ellie opens the door it’s such a surprising moment. For her, for Charlie, for the viewer. The light. The air. The sense of space. It’s lovely. The beach is about as opposite from Charlie’s apartment as it gets. It’s open. It’s bright. It’s full of energy. It’s also a time when Charlie had his family. All things that have been missing from his life. 

So ending with the beach just has that visual energy that leaves the viewer with a better feeling than seeing Charlie on the floor of his house. 

Of course, the movie’s also called The Whale and wants us to use that as a metaphor for Charlie. Not just in terms of his physical size. But as it relates to Ellie’s essay. Given the association with whales and the ocean, ending with Charlie on the beach feels like a way to try and visually connect person and cetacea. 

Guilt, grief, control, fear. 

Deep into The Whale we find out that Charlie’s boyfriend, Alan, passed away from complications arising from starvation. The starvation was a direct consequence of a falling out between Alan and his father, the leader of the New Life church. When Alan lost his father, he also lost his faith. The existential backlash caused a depression that manifested in a lack of appetite. Both Charlie and Liz (Alan’s sister) struggled to motivate him. Alas, nothing worked. Alan eventually passed away. 

Charlie and Liz both suffered with guilt, grief, and a lack of control. A person they loved very much is gone. It’s easy for them to blame themselves for their inability to save Alan. Could they have said more? Done more? It’s easy to imagine them caught in a cycle of what ifs. The lack of control they felt in regard to what happened with Alan ends up manifesting around their relationship with food. Charlie begins to overeat, as if eating for both Alan and himself. While Liz facilitates Charlie’s gorging by bringing him food. Even though she knows what Charlie’s doing is unhealthy, she gives in because of everything that happened with Alan. She can’t abide someone being hungry. Even if it kills them. 

These same emotions plague Ellie and Thomas, too, just in different ways and for different reasons. Ellie is angry about Charlie’s disappearance from her life. The pain of losing her father has made it hard for her to form and maintain relationships. Her form of control is to distance herself before others can distance from her. Or even push them away through insults and disturbing behavior. For Thomas, he also had conflict with a parent. In trouble for smoking too much pot, his father forced Thomas to go on a mission. He went but was upset by the mission leader only wanting to hand out pamphlets. It was too little. Thomas ended up stealing $2,436 from the mission and running off to do his own work. Which is what brought him to Idaho. Does he want to be there? No. But he’s also too scared to go back home. 

The lies we tell ourselves 

Charlie, Liz, Ellie, and Thomas all find ways to justify their behavior. 

For Charlie, he convinced himself that no one would want to be around him. This is why he keeps his camera turned off while teaching online courses. It’s how he reasoned staying out of Ellie’s life. And it fuels his eating. Because the more he eats, the more he can defend running away from any kind of accountability or confrontation. 

Liz is in a similar boat. She knows Charlie isn’t doing well. But he’s the only attachment to her brother that she has left. By feeding Charlie, it’s like she’s feeding her brother. She could put her foot down. Maybe she used to. Maybe there was a time she didn’t bring him two meatball subs with extra cheese or an entire large bucket of KFC? Maybe she used to try to get him to exercise? But it became easier to not fight him. She’d rather enjoy that part of Charlie that reminds her of her brother and gives her a sense of comfort rather than put her foot down and do what’s best for Charlie’s health. 

Ellie yells and screams that she wants nothing to do with Charlie. She says a lot of horrible things about him. Not just to his face but on social media. Yet she keeps coming back to his house. Ostensibly, it’s because he’ll do her homework and give her $120,000. But really it’s because she truly does want a relationship with her father. It’s just hard for her to work through those emotions. She’s been upset with him for so long that the process of forgiveness isn’t easy. And you can imagine there’s part of her that wonders if she did something to cause her dad to leave. By continually threatening to go, she causes Charlie to, over and over again, declare he wants her around. Slowly, she begins to believe it. 

And then Thomas lies about being from New Life and on a sanctioned mission. He ran away because he messed up and is scared to face the consequences. What will his father say? What will his church do? Will he go to jail? Will his family abandon him? To prevent that, he, much like Ellie, abandons them first. He tells himself and others that it’s the mission that’s important. But the minute he has an opportunity to go home: he does. That says a lot. 

The Moby Dick essay that Charlie’s so obsessed with is something Ellie wrote four years earlier. 

In the amazing book, Moby Dick , by the author Herman Melville, the author recounts his story of being at sea. In the first part of his book, the author, calling himself Ishmael, is in a small seaside town and he is sharing a bed with a man named Queequeg. The author and Queequeg go to church and later set out on a ship captained by a pirate named Ahab, who is missing a leg, and very much wants to kill the whale which is named Moby Dick, and which is white. 

In the course of the book, the pirate Ahab encounters many hardships. His entire life is set around trying to kill a certain whale. I think this is sad because this whale doesn’t have any emotions, and doesn’t know how bad Ahab wants to kill him. He’s just a poor big animal. And I feel bad for Ahab as well, because he thinks that his life will be better if he can just kill this whale, but in reality, it won’t help him at all. 

I was very saddened by this book, and I felt many emotions for the characters. And I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales, because I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story, just for a little while. This book made me think about my own life, and then it made me feel glad for my…

There are a number of resonances with The Whale . It helps to look at these not through the lens of “Why did Ellie write this?” but in terms of “Why did the filmmakers include this? What are they trying to say to the viewer?” First, the reference to Ishmael and Queequeg sharing a bed is reminiscent of Charlie and Alan. The reference to church brings us back to how much religion is a part of the film. Then the way in which Ishmael’s “entire life” is dominated by this one thing. Lastly, it’s the idea of the author attempting to “save us from his own sad story” through the descriptions of the whales. 

As Ellie says, “This book made me think about my own life…” We’re supposed to do the same with the film. Each of us probably has some whale that shapes our life. And other whales we use save others, even ourselves, from the saddest parts of our story. 

To put it another way: you have some guilt, some fear, that influences you, that causes you to seek control in ways that can often be detrimental. Maybe not to the extreme we see with Charlie. But problematic nonetheless. This can be minor like procrastinating on mundane things like laundry, texting back, being on time, going to bed, looking for a new job, etc. You get to it eventually, but not in a way that allows you to feel ahead of the curve rather than behind. Or it can be as large as neglecting responsibilities completely, abandoning relationships, hoarding, overconsumption of food and/or alcohol, etc. 

We all have some kind of Moby Dick that shapes up. And we all have the boring chapters about whales that distract us and others from the problems in our lives. They are the excuses we make. The lies we tell. 

There’s irony to how much Charlie keeps harping on Ellie and his students about being honest. At first, it feels like the basic sort of thing an English professor would want. Artists often talk about the need for honesty in the work. But as we learn more about Charlie, we realize how dishonest he’s been. To his students. To Ellie. To Liz. To his ex, Mary. And to himself. 

While he’s the one who’s the most vocal about honesty, the theme is a major part of Thomas’s character arc. He’s not really from New Life. He’s lied to Charlie, Liz, and Ellie. But finally comes clean to Ellie about his addiction to weed, the resulting fallout with his father, going on a mission as punishment, then stealing money and running away. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s just trying to help someone, anyone, so he can tell himself everything that happened had some kind of meaning. He’s desperate for that sense of catharsis. It’s similar to Charlie saying, “I need to know that I have done one thing right with my life!” But he’s at a far later stage than Thomas. 

What happens with Thomas? In his own words: “And your daughter, she took these pictures of me smoking pot, and a recording or something like that, and she found my church in Waterloo somehow, and then she sent it to them, and they sent it to my parents. And you know what they said? ‘It’s just money.’ And they forgive me. And they love me, and they want me to come home. How awful is that? I can’t tell if she was trying to help me or hurt me or…I’m going home tomorrow.”

Ellie facilitated an honest conversation between Thomas, his church, and his parents. The very thing Thomas had been avoiding. He hadn’t wanted the confrontation, the consequences. Because he feared the worst. But the reality wasn’t so bad. Honesty gave him a path back home. 

We see a similar thing with Charlie and Ellie. Charlie spent years hiding from Ellie because he didn’t want to be honest with her about what he looked like now. And he didn’t want to have the inevitable confrontation about his leaving with Alan. But knowing he only had such a short time left to live, he made the effort, finally. And, yes, Ellie was mean, cruel, petty, and in some ways evil. But she was also there. And simply being there gave father and daughter an opportunity to heal. If only he had done this years earlier, what would have happened? Would Ellie be the angry person she is? The “evil” person Mary describes? And would Charlie still be so large? Would he have had the capacity to forgive himself for what happened to Alan? Would he be in a much better place?

The end of the movie seems to imply that, yes, by being honest, Charlie finally finds some form of redemption. 

Why is the movie called The Whale ?

The most obvious application of the title is the size of Brendan Fraser’s character, Charlie. He is an immense man. Narratively and thematically, his obesity is a primary point of concern. Given the film is a character study, the title of The Whale seems like a poetic alternative to something more mundane like Charlie . It grounds us in the literary “what” rather than the more straightforward “who”. 

But there’s more to it than that. In the film itself, references to “the whale” have nothing to do with Charlie or his size. They originate with an essay written by Ellie.

Two key takeaways from this essay, The first is the dynamic between Ahab and Moby Dick. The second is how Ellie interpreted the descriptions of whales. 

Regarding Ahab and Moby Dick, notice how Ellie says Ahab’s “entire life is set around trying to kill a certain whale.” And how the whale is completely oblivious to it. When you look at the characters in the film, each of them has their own white whale that haunts them and influences their life. For Charlie and Liz, it’s the death of Alan. For Alan, it was his father’s rejection. For Ellie, it’s feeling abandoned by Charlie. For Thomas, it’s fear of judgment from his family and former church. Really, all of them are dealing with guilt. Guilt and fear. 

That brings us to how the descriptions of whales equate to the author “trying to save us from his own sad story”. That description demands we reconsider what the title means. Clearly there’s more to it than Charlie’s size. Rather, it seems to refer to the stories we tell others, or even ourselves, to spare them from our feelings and emotions. In other words: our guilt and fear cause us to distance ourselves from others. Rather than letting them see us for who we are, rather than letting them in and letting them help us, we look to save them from our weaknesses. 

This is exactly what we see with Charlie. He keeps his facecam off so his students don’t have to look at him. He refuses to see his daughter or ex. He doesn’t leave his house. All because he wants to protect others from seeing him. We hear the lies he tells. ONe of his first lines of dialogue is “And, yes, the camera on my laptop still doesn’t work.” It does. He’s just not being honest. 

What we see between the start and end of The Whale are a bunch of characters who weren’t being honest with themselves in some way or another. And they’re dishonestly presenting themselves to others. By the end, they all start coming clean and being more true to who they are. Warts and all. 

So the title The Whale refers to, I believe, not just Charlie, but these stories we tell to distract others. And the grief and fear that cause us to do so. 

Confinement

99% of The Whale is spent in Charlie’s house. It’s dim, messy, and sad. There are some weak, orange-bulb lamps. Some windows. But the curtains are drawn. So the characters and viewer are crammed into this space for nearly two hours. Psychologically, it creates a sense of claustrophobia and pressure that lends itself to the viewer experiencing tension. Most of us don’t know what it’s like to be the size Charlie is, but we can identify with that sense of mental and physical stagnation and confinement. 

Light and space

It makes sense then that at the very end of the movie that light becomes a powerful motif. The turning point between Ellie and Charlie happens after Ellie opens the front door and fresh air and sunshine flood the room. She reads her whale essay to him and we have these close ups of them washed in this light. And when Charlie dies, a bright light blossoms around him. The last shot of the beach is also very bright and open and seems to be symbolic for either a literal afterlife or just the final sense of peace Charlie has as he passes. Either way, its a stark contrast to the house that had become so much like a jail cell. 

Charlie holds the whale essay in high regard. At first, it seems like that’s just because it’s a simple, well-written, honest essay. A thing any teacher might have a soft spot for. Eventually, we find out the essay is something Ellie wrote four years earlier and Mary sent it to Charlie. So there’s the personal connection to it as well. It reminds him of Ellie. It has been, for eight years, his sole link to Ellie. When he hears it, he hears her. It also serves Charlie as a kind of compass. When Ellie returns to his life, she’s incredibly mean. Brutal. Mary even describes her as evil. Charlie rejects that. He’s convinced there’s more to Ellie. That she not only can be better but is better. That’s because of the essay. For Charlie, the essay is Ellie being honest. While everything else is performative, a consequence of the pain she doesn’t know what to do with. It’s acting out. It’s through the essay he seems to break through to her and, hopefully, change her future for the better. 

Food and more

Alan starved himself. It got bad. Both Liz and Charlie watched this person they loved whither. Eventually, Alan jumped off a bridge. The entire experience changed the relationship Charlie and Liz had with food. For Charlie, he started overeating. While Liz, a caregiver, started overfeeding. Even though they knew what they were doing wasn’t good, it provided both a sense of comfort and control. So they lied to themselves about how bad it was. This mutual enablement was a coping mechanism that represents an inability to process grief, guilt, fear, and anger in a healthy way. 

The facecam

Charlie has his facecam turned off when he teaches the online courses. He knows how shocking his appearance is. So he lies and says his camera is broken. In that way, he spares his class from having to look at him. The camera being off becomes the embodiment of not being honest with yourself or others. This false presentation that allows us to get through each day. Charlie turning the camera on becomes symbolic of finally getting honest with himself. It’s only by being honest that he can find peace before death. It’s just a shame he waited so long. Otherwise, he might have never been in such a dire place to begin with. That’s why he’s so adamant that Ellie and his students embrace honesty sooner rather than later. 

Questions & answers about The Whale

Is ellie really evil.

I don’t think Ellie’s evil in the way that Michael Myers is evil, though Mary seems to think so. But Ellie is very cruel. Her Facebook post about Charlie is pretty mean. Her breaking the plate that has the bird food—jerk move. Her taking the video of Thomas and sending it to his church—terrible. 

Thematically, though, there’s more going on. The Whale explores ideas of honesty and deceit. Especially self-deception. So even though you can perceive what Ellie’s doing as cruel, she’s often cutting through the lies we tell others and ourselves and getting at the truth of a situation. Which can hurt and create conflict. But as we see: that conflict is sometimes the thing we need the most to move beyond stagnation. 

What is the opening scene?

It’s Thomas getting off the bus from Iowa and deciding to start his missionary work. 

Is The Whale connected to other Aronofsky movies like The Wrestler or Black Swan ?

Narrative-wise, absolutely not. But there are similar themes. All three of those films end with the main character giving their life in some cathartic final act. It’s just The Wrestler and Black Swan focus on performance and the demands of high performance. The Whale doesn’t share that concern. With that said, all three movies deal with parent/child relationships, redemption, and self-destruction. And all end in very similar ways. So there is a conversation to be had, especially in terms of Aronofsky’s filmography. I just don’t think The Whale should be looked at as part of a thematic trilogy with Black Swan and The Wrestler . 

Now it’s your turn

Have more unanswered questions about The Whale ? Are there themes or motifs we missed? Is there more to explain about the ending? Please post your questions and thoughts in the comments section! We’ll do our best to address every one of them. If we like what you have to say, you could become part of our movie guide!

Chris Lambert is co-founder of Colossus. He writes about complex movie endings, narrative construction, and how movies connect to the psychology of our day to day lives.

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Reader Interactions

September 30, 2023

Well said. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this synopsis.

January 4, 2024

This is a great analysis of the movie. Thanks

January 27, 2024

The boyfriend is called Alan, not Andy. That mistake ruined the entire review / analysis for me.

I feel bad. It’s fixed now. If you want to know what happened. In 2022, we were doing this thing were each section about a movie had its own page. So we had 5 different articles about The Whale. I’d write a draft for each article in Google Docs, copy it to WordPress, make final edits, then post. For some reason, when writing about the themes, I switched from writing Alan to Andy. It wasn’t something I caught until I was about to post. So I fixed it in WordPress but not the Google Doc. In 2023, we switched from the sectional style back to a singular page. It was easier to build out the single page from the Google Docs than from the WordPress pages so I went back to the original drafts. But completely forgot to update the mistake in the Theme section. That’s why you probably noticed that I used “Alan” in the beginning of the article then suddenly and abruptly switched to “Andy”.

It’s all fixed now. Thank you for the heads up. I feel bad that thousands of people have read this article with the wrong name.

Write a response Cancel reply

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

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"The Whale" is an abhorrent film, but it also features excellent performances.

It gawks at the grotesquerie of its central figure beneath the guise of sentimentality, but it also offers sharp exchanges between its characters that ring with bracing honesty.

It's the kind of film you should probably see if only to have an informed, thoughtful discussion about it, but it's also one you probably won't want to watch.

This aligns it with Darren Aronofsky's movies in general, which can often be a challenging sit. The director is notorious for putting his actors (and his audiences) through the wringer, whether it's Jennifer Connolly's drug addict in " Requiem for a Dream ," Mickey Rourke's aging athlete in " The Wrestler ," Natalie Portman's obsessed ballerina in " Black Swan ," or Jennifer Lawrence's besieged wife in "mother!" (For the record, I'm a fan of Aronofsky's work in general.)

But the difference between those films and "The Whale" is their intent, whether it's the splendor of their artistry or the thrill of their provocation. There's a verve to those movies, an unpredictability, an undeniable daring, and a virtuoso style. They feature images you've likely never seen before or since, but they'll undoubtedly stay with you afterward.

"The Whale" may initially feel gentler, but its main point seems to be sticking the camera in front of Brendan Fraser , encased in a fat suit that makes him appear to weigh 600 pounds, and asking us to wallow in his deterioration. In theory, we are meant to pity him or at least find sympathy for his physical and psychological plight by the film's conclusion. But in reality, the overall vibe is one of morbid fascination for this mountain of a man. Here he is, knocking over an end table as he struggles to get up from the couch; there he is, cramming candy bars in his mouth as he Googles "congestive heart failure." We can tsk-tsk all we like between our mouthfuls of popcorn and Junior Mints while watching Fraser's Charlie gobble greasy fried chicken straight from the bucket or inhale a giant meatball sub with such alacrity that he nearly chokes to death. The message "The Whale" sends us home with seems to be: Thank God that's not us.

In working from Samuel D. Hunter's script, based on Hunter's stage play, Aronofsky doesn't appear to be as interested in understanding these impulses and indulgences as much as pointing and staring at them. His depiction of Charlie's isolation within his squalid Idaho apartment includes a scene of him masturbating to gay porn with such gusto that he almost has a heart attack, a moment made of equal parts shock value and shame. But then, in a jarring shift, the tone eventually turns maudlin with Charlie's increasing martyrdom.

Within the extremes of this approach, Fraser brings more warmth and humanity to the role than he's afforded on the page. We hear his voice first; Charlie is a college writing professor who teaches his students online from behind the safety of a black square. And it's such a welcoming and resonant sound, full of decency and humor. Fraser's been away for a while, but his contradictions have always made him an engaging screen presence—the contrast of his imposing physique and playful spirit. He does so much with his eyes here to give us a glimpse into Charlie's sweet but tortured soul, and the subtlety he's able to convey goes a long way toward making "The Whale" tolerable.

But he's also saddled with a screenplay that spells out every emotion in ways that are so clunky as to be groan-inducing. At Charlie's most desperate, panicky moments, he soothes himself by reading or reciting a student's beloved essay on Moby Dick , which—in part—gives the film its title and will take on increasing significance. He describes the elusive white whale of Herman Melville's novel as he stands up, shirtless, and lumbers across the living room, down the hall, and toward the bedroom with a walker. At this moment, you're meant to marvel at the elaborate makeup and prosthetic work on display; you're more likely to roll your eyes at the writing.

"He thinks his life will be better if he can just kill this whale, but in reality, it won't help him at all," he intones in a painfully obvious bit of symbolism. "This book made me think about my own life," he adds as if we couldn't figure that out for ourselves.

A few visitors interrupt the loneliness of his days, chiefly Hong Chau as his nurse and longtime friend, Liz. She's deeply caring but also no-nonsense, providing a crucial spark to these otherwise dour proceedings. Aronofsky's longtime cinematographer, the brilliant Matthew Libatique , has lit Charlie's apartment in such a relentlessly dark and dim fashion to signify his sorrow that it's oppressive. Once you realize the entirety of the film will take place within these cramped confines, it sends a shiver of dread. And the choice to tell this story in the boxy, 1.33 aspect ratio further heightens its sense of dour claustrophobia.

But then "Stranger Things" star Sadie Sink arrives as Charlie's rebellious, estranged daughter, Ellie; her mom was married to Charlie before he came out as a gay man. While their first meeting in many years is laden with exposition about the pain and awkwardness of their time apart, the two eventually settle into an interesting, prickly rapport. Sink brings immediacy and accessibility to the role of the sullen but bright teenager, and her presence, like Chau's, improves "The Whale" considerably. Her casting is also spot-on in her resemblance to Fraser, especially in her expressive eyes.

The arrival of yet another visitor—an earnest, insistent church missionary played by Ty Simpkins —feels like a total contrivance, however. Allowing him inside the apartment repeatedly makes zero sense, even within the context that Charlie believes he's dying and wants to make amends. He even says to this sweet young man: "I'm not interested in being saved." And yet, the exchanges between Sink and Simpkins provide some much-needed life and emotional truth. The subplot about their unlikely friendship feels like something from a totally different movie and a much more interesting one.

Instead, Aronofsky insists on veering between cruelty and melodrama, with Fraser stuck in the middle, a curiosity on display.

Now playing in theaters. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Whale (2022)

Rated R for language, some drug use and sexual content.

117 minutes

Brendan Fraser as Charlie

Sadie Sink as Ellie

Hong Chau as Liz

Ty Simpkins as Thomas

Samantha Morton as Mary

Sathya Sridharan as Dan

• Darren Aronofsky

Writer (based on the play by)

• Samuel D. Hunter

Cinematographer

• Matthew Libatique
• Andrew Weisblum
• Rob Simonsen

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The ‘cathartic release’ of ‘The Whale’ explained by the play’s actors and directors

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The following contains spoilers from the movie “The Whale,” now playing in theaters.

The movie version of “The Whale” ends with a breath, a bright light and a beach. The last visual shows the sun shining, the tide rising and falling, and a younger, slimmer version of the lead character, Charlie, staring out into the ocean as his daughter plays in the sand behind him.

If the serene seaside scene confused you, you’re not alone: That final flashback was a surprise to playwright and screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter, as director Darren Aronofsky tacked it on without discussing it with him. But the ending’s overall effect echoes the final moment of its source material, which actors and directors who’ve staged the popular play consider to be a release that, when performed, feels communal and generally satisfying for the audience in the room.

“The way it’s structured, this play is designed to slowly and repeatedly turn up the pressure until it almost can’t be tolerated,” said Davis McCallum, who directed a 2012 off-Broadway staging at Playwrights Horizons. “And then it has this really cathartic release at the end of the piece — a blackout, a sound effect, and a moment where the audience just lived in that silent darkness together.”

Both the play and the movie “The Whale” center on Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a reclusive, morbidly obese instructor of online writing classes who has been eating himself to death since the passing of his lover, a casualty of religious homophobia.

Review: Does Brendan Fraser give a great performance in ‘The Whale’? It’s complicated.

Darren Aronofsky’s intimate chamber drama, adapted by Samuel D. Hunter from his own play, navigates a tricky line between empathy and exploitation.

Dec. 8, 2022

The character is an amalgamation of Hunter’s past lives: as a closeted gay kid attending a fundamentalist Christian school in rural Idaho, a depressed adult who silently self-medicated with food, and an expository writing instructor for college freshmen (the piece’s heartbreakingly honest line “I think I need to accept that my life isn’t going to be very exciting” is an actual submission from one of Hunter’s students).

Throughout “The Whale,” Charlie is visited by his estranged and troubled daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink) , and his frustrated ex-wife, Mary (Samantha Morton), both of whom Charlie abandoned when he ended his marriage and came out as gay; Liz (Hong Chau) , a conflicted caregiver who is also the sibling of Charlie’s late lover; and Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a fundamentalist missionary who is far from home. Hunter doesn’t shy away from any of the issues the characters are dealing with “but doesn’t bury you in [them] either,” said Martin Benson, who directed a 2013 staging at South Coast Repertory. “He’s not advocating anything, he’s just writing what he believes is true.”

These characters and their concerns are similar to those in Hunter’s other plays, which tackle subjects “fundamental to Greek tragedy: the limitation of humanity’s vision, the place of religion in society and the desperate longing for relief from the lonely uncertainty of life,” wrote Times critic Charles McNulty when Hunter received the MacArthur “genius” grant in 2014. “He proceeds not with a moral point but through observation of the way his characters either defend their bunkered existences or attempt to reach beyond them — or more commonly, some combination of the two.”

Throughout the intimate live piece — which is staged without the escape of an intermission — all five characters reveal truths to each other and the audience that raise the stakes of their potential bonds.

“These deeply flawed characters actually care about each other so much, but there are so many obstacles for them to express that love or connect with one another in real ways, however desperately or destructively,” said Joanie Schultz, who directed a 2013 production at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater. “So when some of them finally do, it’s gorgeous and almost magical.”

Numerous stagings of “The Whale” accentuate the pressure-cooker effect by designing Charlie’s living room, where the entirety of the play unfolds, with an extra sense of claustrophobia or isolation. For example, the 2014 Bay Area run raised the Marin Theatre Company stage by four feet and angled Charlie’s ceiling so that, from the audience’s perspective, the character appeared to “dominate the space in a way that intimidated the people who visited him,” said director Jasson Minadakis.

Likewise, the off-Broadway version strategically lit the space “so that it felt as if his room were hovering in this dark void,” said director McCallum; the Chicago staging positioned the proscenium “like an island in the sea, which was really effective because they’re all alone on their own islands in some ways, with all these barriers to connection,” said director Schultz.

Darren Aronofsky on ‘The Whale,’ fatphobia and empathy

Director Darren Aronofsky dives deep on “The Whale,” fatphobia, human connection and how he feels about Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink.

Dec. 13, 2022

Within these confined spaces, the actors who played Charlie — each wearing body suits weighing anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds — charted his arc physically and emotionally. As he attempts to nudge daughter Ellie toward a place of authentic self-expression, he too reveals himself to his students. The intention is that, by the time Charlie shares that he’s giving his life savings to Ellie, and endures great pain to stand up and walk toward her as she reads her “Moby-Dick” essay aloud to him, the audience would feel the overwhelming fulfillment Charlie gets during his final breath in the play.

“Every night, it was a journey, and it wasn’t easy to watch or to perform,” recalled Tom Alan Robbins, who starred in the 2012 world premiere in Denver. “His goal is self-destructive, but you want the audience to understand what has driven him to do this, and that his redemption is in the relationship he tries to forge with his daughter. You want that last second to be a combination of incredible pain and incredible triumph because, however briefly it is that they connect, it’s still an achievement for him.”

“Ellie says terrible, devastating things to Charlie throughout the whole thing, but he loves her so much that it doesn’t even hurt him,” said Matthew Arkin, who played Charlie at South Coast Repertory. “So in that final moment, whatever flaws he had, whatever mistakes he made and in whatever ways he couldn’t love himself enough, he lived a life redeemed, because he gave everything to save his daughter.”

Whether Charlie dies at the end of “The Whale” is up for debate. As written in Hunter’s script, the stage directions of that breath simply read, “A sharp intake of breath. The lights snap to black.” Many theater makers say that breath could very well be his last inhale, after which he is finally freed from the pains of his body, his loneliness, his grief. “The love and connection that Charlie gives Ellie is a gift, and hopefully she will remain true to her voice and herself in a way that he gave up on,” said Hal Brooks, who directed the Denver premiere.

It also could be considered in a metaphorical way, mimicking “how whales immerse themselves for so long underwater and then they finally come up to the surface,” said Schultz, or “a deep intake of breath before diving in somewhere they’ve never gone before,” said Shuler Hensley, who played Charlie in the New York run as well as a London staging in 2018. “It’s a brilliant ending, because audience members have constantly told me they couldn’t breathe afterwards. They didn’t know what to do, whether to applaud or get up or move because they’ve become so connected to Charlie.”

When asked about the ending, Hunter didn’t clarify Charlie’s status because, he said, it’s not necessarily relevant. “The final moments of this play and this movie abandon realism a little bit, and it’s no longer about this guy in this apartment,” he explained. “What matters is that he’s connected with Ellie, he’s done the thing that he’s been trying to do throughout this entire play, and that connection feels real and genuine. There’s this apotheosis that happens, and in the film, Charlie literally ascends off the ground.”

Though Hunter didn’t write the beach scene that follows Charlie’s onscreen ascension, he called it “marvelous” and shared an interpretation of what it might mean: “If it’s a flashback to the last time Charlie went swimming in the ocean, close to when the family fell apart, what I see in that shot is a man staring down the abyss of self-actualization, contemplating the decision he has to make about the different avenues he can take.

“Maybe he was thinking about what would happen if he stayed in that marriage: Ellie would have grown up with a closeted father, [his lover] Alan would have been miserable and, as Liz points out, would have probably died way before he did when he was with Charlie,” Hunter continued. “Choosing to stay or leave, both paths are complicated and tragic in their own ways, but ultimately, I think Charlie took the more hopeful route, and chose to look for the salvation one can find through human connection.”

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Ashley Lee is a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where she writes about theater, movies, television and the bustling intersection of the stage and the screen. An alum of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute and Poynter’s Power of Diverse Voices, she leads workshops on arts journalism at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She was previously a New York-based editor at the Hollywood Reporter and has written for the Washington Post, Backstage and American Theatre, among others. She is currently working remotely alongside her dog, Oliver.

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Screen Rant

Brendan fraser shares his interpretation of the whale’s final scene.

Actor Brendan Fraser finally explains his interpretation of The Whale's final scene, which is rather ambiguous, and what it means about Charlie.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Whale. Brendan Fraser breaks down his interpretation of The Whale 's ending after it concludes on an ambiguous note. The Whale premiered on December 9 and is an emotional psychological drama starring Fraser. It has been touted as Fraser's comeback film after he disappeared from the Hollywood scene for many years. The Whale follows Charlie (Fraser), a morbidly obese man who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink). The film has received mixed-to-positive reviews so far, with critics being nearly unanimous in their praise of Fraser's performance. However, the film has received some criticism for director Darren Aronofsky's melodramatic adaption of Samuel D. Hunter's 2012 play of the same name.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , Fraser and Hunter (who also wrote the film's screenplay) shed some light on the ambiguous ending of The Whale . For many viewers, the scene may seem tragic and to others, the religious undertones may evade their understanding. Hence, Fraser and Hunter discuss how they interpreted the ending and how it was a hero's ending for Charlie, one in which he found liberation. Check out their statements below:

Fraser: It's important because it's a Herculean effort that he makes to even get to his feet. For him to finally break through to her, humble himself before her, and let her know that he made a mistake and is sorry for it. While his life has not physically ended in that moment, I think that he knows he doesn't need to live any longer, which is why he takes off his breather, he's got her reading the essay, and he does take to his feet like three Olympic dead-lifters, takes his baby steps to his baby, and in that beautiful two-shot, a great white light appears, and they look skyward. Depending on your belief system, spiritually or otherwise, we see that Charlie — with a touch of magic realism — finally does fly. Hunter: He's struggling this entire film to put a mirror up to his daughter to say, 'This is who you are,' and in those final moments, that mirror is this essay, when she looks at it, she can't deny turning it in and getting a D, but then, here's her father, all these years later, being like, 'This is the best essay I've ever read.' At long last, he's the only person who sees her, and she knows it.

Related: The Whale Confirms Sadie Sink Is Stranger Things' True Breakout Star

What Happens In The Whale's Ending

Fraser and Hunter's explanation of the ending will be welcomed by some, as The Whale 's final scene is a bit difficult to understand on paper. Before the ending can fully be explained, Fraser reveals that viewers needed to understand an earlier scene in the film. That particular Whale scene was one in which Ellie and Charlie first begin spending time together after Charlie agrees to help her write an essay for school. Ellie, still hurt at being abandoned by her father, tries to hurt him back by challenging him to walk. Unfortunately, at that point in The Whale , he can't stand or walk, and is therefore unable to prove himself to her.

In the final scene of The Whale , Ellie confronts Charlie about switching out her essay with an essay on Moby Dick she wrote in 8th grade. Charlie switched out the essays because he finally saw her and understood that the latter essay was an expression of herself. Though Ellie is defensive at first, the two end up attempting to connect one last time. To do so, Charlie asks Ellie to read the essay to him. As she does so, despite his health failing him, Charlie manages to stand and walk toward her. He is finally able to prove himself to her. However, the effort of walking is more than Charlie can withstand, and he dies as Ellie reads the essay. In the end, a bright light seemingly shines down, which could be interpreted literally as Charlie ascending to heaven or figuratively to prove that he has been redeemed.

Ultimately, The Whale 's ending has many layers to it, and it is tragic in some sense. However, Fraser and Hunter point out that the underlying theme is redemption and liberation. In the end, Charlie is willing to accept his death because he has accomplished the one goal that he had, which was to prove to his daughter that she is seen and understood. It is also an extremely touching portrayal of the relationship between a parent and a child. Even though Charlie failed Ellie in many ways, he proved that his parental instinct and love for his daughter never faded as he was able to see the value and the piece of his daughter within a years-old 8th grade essay. According to Fraser and Hunter, The Whale 's ending isn't ambiguous or tragic but hopeful for all the parents out there seeking redemption.

Next: Why The Whale Is Controversial, Despite Brendan Fraser's Comeback

Home » TV and Movie Quotes » Emotional Quotes From The Whale

Emotional Quotes From The Whale

Posted on Last updated: January 5, 2023

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Don’t miss this incredible performance by Brendan Fraser! We’ve got the emotional quotes from The Whale (2022 movie) for you to revisit.

About The Whale (2022 movie)

From Darren Aronofsky comes  The Whale , the story of a reclusive English teacher who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.

Starring Brendan Fraser and based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter.

Watch The Whale trailer  here.

Read the parents guide for The Whale age rating here.

-The camera on my laptop still doesn’t work, you’re not missing much – Charlie

-I just hate the thought of you being sealed up in this place while I’m not here – Liz quotes from The Whale

-Pain in my chest, hard to breathe. I couldn’t intake air – Charlie

-I always wheeze, Liz – Charlie

-You’re young, why would you want to believe that the world is going to end – Liz

-Believe me, he doesn’t want to hear about your life – Liz

-It killed his boyfriend – Liz

-We don’t need you coming over here, especially not now, not this week – Liz

-Stop saying you’re sorry and go to the hospital – Liz

-You have congestive heart failure, if you don’t go to the hospital you’ll be dead within a week – Liz

-You say you’re sorry again I’ll push a knife straight into you, I swear to g-d – Liz

-This book made me think about my own life – Charlie quotes from The Whale

-Does this mean I’m gonna get fat – Ellie

-You look beautiful – Charlie

-Well of course I care! I’ll pester your mom for information as often as she’ll give it to me – Charlie

-I posted something about my stupid b!tch lab partner that the principal said was mildly threatening – Ellie

-I’m a smart person. I never forget anything, high school is just bullsh!t – Ellie

-I’m not spending time with you. You’re disgusting – Ellie

-You’d still be that piece of sh!t dad who walked out in me when I was 8. All so he could f@ck one of his students – Ellie

-Maybe you could do some writing just for me – Charlie

-Plus, I’m a teacher-I want to make sure you’re getting something out of this – Charlie

-Stand up and walk over here towards me – Ellie

-Everything ok in there? – Dan quotes from The Whale

-Apparently, you f@cking do – Liz

-I don’t need a little machine to tell me to take a few deep breaths and stop sweating – Charlie

-You haven’t seen her since she was 8 years old and now you’re gonna do her homework? – Liz

-I’m worried she’s forgotten what an amazing person she is – Charlie

-Chew your food like a normal human being, you could have just died right in front of me! – Liz

-I’m sorry, Liz – Charlie

-Just pick a sentence from the reading and say it’s good or some sh!t – Charlie

-Think about the truth of your argument – Charlie

-My titles better – Ellie

-If you’re gonna interrogate me, I’m gonna do the same thing – Ellie

-I told you- I never forget anything – Ellie

-What’s more surprising, that a gay guy has a daughter or that they actually found his penis – Ellie

-I just wanna help – Thomas

-What the f@ck is he doing here – Liz quotes from The Whale

-It’s a fat guy wheelchair – Liz

-Denying him to the end – Liz

-I’ve been coming here for a while now. Just thought you might want to know my name – Dan

-I hate everyone – Ellie/Charlie

-I kind of hate you – Ellie 

-You don’t have to be angry at the whole world. You can just be mad at me – Charlie

-People are @ssholes – Ellie 

-Most people learn that way too late. You taught me that when I was 8. – Ellie

-Who would want me to be a part of their life – Charlie

-You’re an amazing person Ellie, I hope you know what an amazing person you are. I couldn’t ask for a more incredible daughter – Charlie

-I’m done answering questions now – Ellie quotes from The Whale

-It doesn’t help people to tell them they should believe in god. Why would that help people? – Ellie

-You think I would believe you were coming over here from all the kindness of your heart? – Ellie’s mom/Mary

-Just f@cking die already – Ellie

-She’s gonna spend it on face tattoos or ponies or something – Ellie’s mom/Mary

-I never knew you were doing this to yourself – Ellie’s mom/Mary

-She’s awful, isn’t she? She’s a terror and you think it’s my fault -Ellie’s mom/Mary

-Charlie, she’s evil – Ellie’s mom

-That’s your response? – Ellie’s mom

-The only reason you married me in the first place was to have a kid, I know that. – Ellie’s mom/Mary

-You sound awful – Ellie’s mom/Mary quotes from The Whale

-I’m dying, Mary – Charlie

-Mary, she doesn’t have anyone else. – Charlie

-I need to know that I have done one thing right with my life – Charlie

-I wasn’t the best-looking guy in the room but Alan loved me. He thought I was beautiful. – Charlie

-I hope that there isn’t a g-d and there isn’t an afterlife so Alan can’t see me like this – Charlie 

-Go home to your family – Charlie

-These assignments don’t matter, this course doesn’t matter, college doesn’t matter. These amazing, honest, things that you wrote, they matter – Charlie

-I really hate you for putting me through this again – Liz

-I don’t think I believe anyone can save anyone – Liz

-She was trying to help him. She was trying to send him home – Charlie

-Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring – Charlie

-People are amazing – Charlie quotes from The Whale

-I’m sorry for leaving you, I was in love and I left you behind. You did not deserve that – Charlie

-You’re amazing, this essay is amazing, this essay is you – Charlie

-You’re the best thing I’ve ever done – Charlie

-Ellie, you’re perfect. You’ll be happy – Charlie

-You’ll help if you read it to me – Charlie

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How Aronofsky's 'The Whale' is an Empowering Story About Honesty

by Alex Billington December 28, 2022

There's a value that seems to be becoming rarer and rare these days - honesty . Yes, it's scary, yes, it can be painful, but it's a necessary and important part of humanity. They even make fun of this in Interstellar , with TARS making a joke about how his honesty setting is too high because, "Absolute honesty isn't always the most diplomatic nor the safest form of communication with emotional beings." One of my Top 10 films of the year is Darren Aronofsky's The Whale , which I already reviewed out of the Venice Film Festival a few months ago. I recently watched the film again for a second time and it really struck me even more this time around - The Whale is about honesty above all else. It's not really about being fat or the struggles of being overweight, it's about depression and disconnection and how being dishonest put everyone in the situation they're in at this moment. The film is about an obese man named Charlie who attempts to reconnect with his daughter over the course of a week, with a very emotional finale where he literally yells about being honest.

Note: spoilers from now on discussing The Whale . The film is adapted from a stage play and feels just like one. It's set entirely in one apartment, where Charlie lives, and all of the other characters come there and interact with him. Charlie, played perfectly by Brendan Fraser in an awards-worthy role, is learning to be more honest with himself after experiencing so much of phoniness in his past. We learn at one point that he left his wife and his daughter behind to start a relationship with a man, which hurt them both. This was his first major step into being honest with his sexuality, and his romantic interests led him to be with a person that truly loved him. Unfortunately his partner's religious beliefs and conflicts within himself contributed to his death. That left Charlie in ruins and his sadness & depression made him self-medicate with food, which is now his great source of comfort and relief. This is the reason why he looks the way he does, and he knows this, but he's also unable to break from this addiction anymore and doesn't seem to care. Instead, he focuses on nurturing kindness and positivity with the few people left around him, hoping it will make a difference.

The film then introduces Sadie Sink as his teenage daughter Ellie. She is also being dishonest with herself and her emotions, caught up in the typical teenage angst of feeling disconnected from everyone. She must learn to be express her feelings properly, and Charlie senses this in her, recognizing that love and support is what she needs the most. Then there is Ty Simpkins as Thomas, a religious boy from New Life Church who appears on his doorstep as a missionary hoping to convert him. Later on we learn that all of this is a lie, too, and he doesn't want to face who he is, how he really feels, what he's doing there, or how he needs to proceed to make amends in his life. There's also Charlie's ex-wife, Mary, played by Samantha Morton , who is in a few scenes. Ellie reminds Charlie she's only able to be honest and be "happy" when she's drinking, which is what helps Mary have a nice moment of reconciliation with Charlie near the end of the film. The only honest person in Charlie's world is Liz, played by the incomparable Hong Chau . There's also Dan The Pizza Man, but Charlie can't establish a real connection with him because he's scared of showing himself to anyone else.

Liz is a vitally important character in this story, and Hong Chau humbly takes on this role with one of her career-best performances so far. Everyone who watches The Whale talks about how much they admire her in this, even if they don't like the rest of the film. It's because her character Liz is the most honest. She's the only one who not only makes fun of Charlie about his weight, about his situation, about anything he's thinking, but she's also direct with him about his health as an obese man on the verge of death. They're good friends because they have a deep connection which is so pure and raw that Charlie & Liz both appreciate it and are subconsciously intertwined in this way. She wants him to lose weight and get healthy, but she also respects his choices and his way of living. She just loves him for who he is, regardless of how he looks or the choices he makes, and that's a beautiful thing. It's another emotional core of this film that brings so much life to the story. Being open & vulnerable with each other is the foundation of sincere human relationships.

Throughout the film, Charlie connects virtually to an online class to teach writing to college students. He's never really impressed with any of their work and eventually, in an emotional outburst, exclaims he would rather hear something honest from them for once. This moment hit me harder than any others in the film because I sense this regularly with so much writing I encounter out there. Who cares about style and form and perfect writing if you can't even be honest in what you're saying? Just like with all art , being truthful and expressing whatever's inside of you is more important than how the art looks, or how nicely it's painted. The same goes with writing… It's almost as if Darren Aronofsky was tired of reading so many nicely written yet superficially negative reviews of his films, when he'd prefer that critics just be honest. Just say it , blurt it out. I'm right there with him. So much writing I come across seems to be more obsessed with how "good" the writing is while saying nothing of substance, sounding phony and shallow. Where is the honesty? Why are we all afraid of it? Yes it can hurt and sting but that's a part of how we heal and grow as social creatures.

It's possible that honesty can be perilous, which is why TARS says it's not "the safest form of communication with emotional beings." But we can't hide from the truth forever. This is a lesson we all must learn. Charlie learns this, but so do Ellie and Mary. There are other examples of this in other great films - in Pixar's Inside Out , Riley tries to hide her sadness and pretend she's not angry and upset about moving, which just makes everything worse. Only when she learns to let that sadness show does she realize how important anger and sadness are to connecting us together. In The Whale , Charlie reads out a few of his writing students' honest responses and they're all so sad and depressing. There isn't enough time in the film for him to address this, but it's obvious the point being made is that deep down we're all lonely, we all feel bad about ourselves, and instead of silently wallowing in that misery, expressing that is a vital aspect of bringing people together. You can't start to solve any problem until you admit the problem exists. It may be hard but working on that is imperative. Even Charlie recognizes this truth, it's part of his final outcry to Ellie before he meets his maker.

I've seen some complaints saying the " Moby Dick " essay that Charlie reads over and over, which it's revealed is written by his daughter, is not very well written and he is a bad English teacher. Perhaps true, but that's irrelevant. It was written by Ellie when she was in 8th grade, it's not supposed to be perfect writing, but it's honest . It's real. She complains about the book, she laments how boring and dull so much of it is, until she realizes Herman Melville's passages about the whales are him expressing his own loneliness and torments, too. This is why Charlie loves this essay and why it means so much to him. That spoke to him deep down. At the time the book was published, Melville wasn't a very successful writer. His own truth can be found in his writing, and that's more important, even if "Moby Dick" is boring. This is what Charlie is trying to teach all of us – beyond the grave, beyond the film – that we're all lonely people and being direct about what makes us sad is necessary to heal us and reconnect. It's the right path to take, no matter how tough it might seem.

Aronofsky's The Whale is ultimately not really a film about being a fat guy who can't stand up. Anyone that watches and only sees it in that way and can only judge it by the way it portrays this character is interpreting the film incorrectly. His sadness and his struggles have turned him into this person on the outside, but deep within he has maintained his beguiling kindness and integrity. This is what makes him the hero of the story. As with any good film, it's a story about him realizing just before it's too late that he needs to express how he really feels and try to remind those he loves how beautiful they actually are. He repeats "you're amazing" to Ellie over and over because it's true, not because it's some dumb thing he just needs to say. She needs to be honest with herself, too, and realize it is true . I believe every last one of us needs to understand how much truthfulness can actually make the world better. Being afraid of this pushes us further apart. I try to live in an open and honest way, spending my time being clear rather than never saying what I really mean. Let The Whale speak deeply to your soul, too. We only have a short life to live - so let's be honest while we still can.

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‘The Whale’ Review: Brendan Fraser Is Sly and Moving as a Morbidly Obese Man, but Darren Aronofsky’s Film Is Hampered by Its Contrivances

The director seamlessly adapts Samuel D. Hunter's play but can't transcend the play's problems.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“The Whale” is based on a stageplay by Samuel D. Hunter, who also wrote the script, and the entire film takes place in Charlie’s apartment, most of it unfolding in that seedy bookish living room. Aronofsky doesn’t necessarily “open up” the play, but working with the great cinematographer Matthew Libatique he doesn’t need to. Shot without flourishes, the movie has a plainspoken visual flow to it. And given what a sympathetic and fascinating character Fraser makes Charlie, we’re eager to settle in with him in that depressive lair, and to get to the bottom of the film’s inevitable two dramatic questions: How did Charlie get this way? And can he be saved?

In case there is any doubt he needs saving, “The Whale” quickly establishes that he’s an addict living a life of isolated misery and self-disgust, scarfing away his despair (at various points we see him going at a bucket of fried chicken, a drawer full of candy, and voluminous take-out pizzas from Gambino’s, all of which is rather sad to behold). Charlie teaches an expository writing seminar at an online college, doing it on Zoom, which looks very today (though the film, for no good reason, is set during the presidential primary season of 2016), with video images of the students surrounding a small black square at the center of the screen. That’s where Charlie should be; he tells the students his laptop camera isn’t working, which is his way of hiding his body and the shame he feels about it. But he’s a canny teacher who knows what good writing is, even if his lessons about structure and topic sentences fall on apathetic ears.

Charlie has a friend of sorts, Liz (Hong Chau), who happens to be a nurse, and when she comes over and learns that his blood pressure is in the 240/130 range, she declares it an emergency situation. He has congestive heart failure; with that kind of blood pressure, he’ll be dead in a week. But Charlie refuses to go the hospital, and will continue to do so. He’s got a handy excuse. With no health insurance, if he seeks medical care he’ll run up tens of thousands of dollars in bills. As Liz points out, it’s better to be in debt than dead. But Charlie’s resistance to healing himself bespeaks a deeper crisis. He doesn’t want help. If he dies (and that’s the film’s basic suspense), it will essentially be a suicide.

It’s hard not to notice that Liz, given how much she’s taking care of Charlie, has a spiky and rather abrasive personality. We think: Okay, that’s who she is. But a couple of other characters enter the movie — and when Ellie (Sadie Sink), Charlie’s 17-year-old daughter, shows up, we notice that she has a really spiky and abrasive personality. Does Charlie just happen to be surrounded by hellcats and cranks? Or is there something in Hunter’s dialogue that is simply, reflexively over-the-top in its theatrical hostility?

And what a rage it is! Sadie Sink, from “Stranger Things,” acts with a fire and directness that recalls the young Lindsay Lohan, but the volatile spitfire she’s playing is bitter — at her father, and at the world — in an absolutist way that rings absolutely false. Lots of teenagers are angry and alienated, but they’re not just angry and alienated. There are shades of vulnerability that come with being that age. We keep waiting for Ellie to show another side, to reflect the fact that the father she resents is still, on some level … her father.

“The Whale,” while it has a captivating character at its center, turns out to be equal parts sincerity and hokum. The movie carries us along, tethering the audience to Fraser’s intensely lived-in and touching performance, yet the more it goes on the more its drama is interlaced with nagging contrivances, like the whole issue of why this father and daughter were ever so separated from each other. We learn that after Charlie and Ellie’s mother, Mary (Samantha Morton), were divorced, Mary got full custody and cut Charlie off from Ellie. But they never stopped living in the same small town, and even single parents who don’t have custody are legally entitled to see their children. Charlie, we’re told, was eager to have kids; he lived with Ellie and her mother until the girl was eight. So why would he have just … let her go?

There’s one other major character, a lost young missionary for the New Life Church named Thomas, and though Ty Simpkins plays him appealingly, the way this cult-like church plays into the movie feels like one hard-to-swallow conceit too many. This matters a lot, because if we can’t totally buy what’s happening, we won’t be as moved by Charlie’s road to redemption. Near the end, there’s a very moving moment. It’s when Charlie is discussing the essay on “Moby Dick” he’s been reading pieces of throughout the film, and we learn where the essay comes from and why it means so much to him. If only the rest of the movie were that convincing! But most of “The Whale” simply isn’t as good as Brendan Fraser’s performance. For what he brings off, though, it deserves to be seen.     

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival, Sept. 4, 2022. Running time: 117 MIN.

• Production: An A24 release of a Protozoa Pictures production. Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Jeremy Dawson, Art Handel. Executive producers: Scott Franklin, Tyson Bidner.
• Crew: Director: Darren Aronofsky. Screenplay: Samuel D. Hunter. Camera: Matthew Libatique. Editor: Andrew Weisblum. Music: Rob Simonsen.
• With: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Sathya Sridharan.

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Read The Whale 's moving script page that allowed Brendan Fraser to build the 'spine' of the film

See EW's exclusive screenplay excerpt from Samuel D. Hunter's new drama that features an emotional exchange between Fraser and Hong Chau.

Brendan Fraser 's physical and emotional transformation into The Whale 's Charlie, a reclusive professor spending his final days patching up his relationship with his estranged daughter, has been hailed as one of the most moving performances of 2022. But to get there, he leaned intensely on the film's heart: writer Samuel D. Hunter's script , a self-adaptation of his 2012 stage play of the same name, loosely inspired by his real-life experience as a gay man struggling with identity and religion in small-town Idaho.

Below, Hunter exclusively breaks down his own words, offering insight into a key scene from director Darren Aronofsky's drama that sets the film's plot in motion, as Liz ( Hong Chau ) — Charlie's longtime friend and caregiver — attempts to dissuade him from burdening his mind (and body) with the stress of reconnecting with the daughter he abandoned eight years prior.

Friendly fire

Liz knows Charlie is dying, and her fierce protective instincts, Hunter says, are "demonstrating love for him" while he deals with "invasive forces" like Ellie ( Sadie Sink ), the daughter he abandoned, coming back into his life.

Inspired improv

Fraser played Charlie with such an "extraordinary amount of love" that Hunter wrote new dialogue on set, based on whatever emotions "Brendan was accessing [that day]."

Daddy issues

Hunter leans into the characters' "contradictions," from Liz harping on Charlie's health, yet providing food for him to binge on, to Charlie wanting to step up as a dad, but only at the end of his life.

Extra credit

Inspired by Hunter's teaching experience at Rutgers, Charlie shows love via instruction, helping a hardened Ellie express herself on paper. Hunter calls Charlie's offer "the spine of the entire film."

The Whale is now playing in limited theatrical release via A24, and opens nationwide on Dec. 21. Watch EW's full Awardist interview with Fraser above.

Check EW's The Awardist , featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in movies.

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‘The Whale’ – Film Review and Analysis

“‘The Whale’, directed by director Darren Aronofsky shows us how low someone can go when things go wrong in life but also how our lowest lows can also bring out the best of us when it is most important.”

2022 may be over but I am still thinking about the most emotionally impactful movie of the past year, which deserves its own review and analysis. Likely to be nominated for a few Academy Awards at the least an Oscar for Best Actor nomination for Brendan Fraser, ‘The Whale’ is a powerful film about a man’s desire to try to right past wrongs in some way before it is too late. ‘The Whale’, directed by director Darren Aronofsky shows us how low someone can go when things go wrong in life but also how our lowest lows can also bring out the best of us when it is most important.

Aronofsky’s filmography from ‘Requiem for a Dream’ to ‘The Wrestler’ to ‘Black Swan’ to ‘The Foundation’ to now ‘The Whale’ all deal with flawed characters looking to right past wrongs or to find redemption in the most meaningful way(s) before they are past the point of no return. Aronofsky so brilliantly can capture psychological drama and tension in each sense in his movies that by the end, you’re so emotionally affected by it all that it can be hard to wrap your head around what you just watched. As a director, he is excellent at painting a picture of a person or people in distress and how while they may have had good intentions, they are almost too far gone to seek redemption or a new start.

Different from Aronofsky’s past films, ‘The Whale’ is adapted from a play of the same name dating back to 2012 so the screenplay that is written and the way the film is set up is exactly how a play would be seen on the big screen. There are few characters, the plot does not get too murky or complicated, and the setting remains the same largely throughout the whole film.

Film critics today may dismiss this film as lacking scale and scope in its ambition, but I was drawn to how beautifully it portrays what could be real people living real lives. ‘The Whale’ may be a film and fiction but it likely portrays real situations and real tragedies that some people unfortunately come to pass in their life. The film deals with multiple real world issues affecting people from obesity to alcoholism to lost loves to broken up families that most people in life can see how that can throw someone’s life off a cliff and make it almost impossible to recover.

‘The Whale’, as the title makes clear is about a severely obese man named Charlie who weighs around 600 pounds and suffers from multiple health issues because of his weight issue. He is estranged from his teenage daughter, separated from his alcoholic wife, and unable to turn the video screen as an online English professor because of his weight condition that may affect how his students see him. His only interaction is with his friend, Liz, who is also a nurse who comes to take care of Charlie especially with his multiple health issues causing him to be near death and at risk of heart failure.

Charlie has become a tragic figure in that he only has Liz left in his life after suffering the loss of the man who he fell in love with. Because of that love, he sacrificed his marriage with his previous wife and his relationship with his daughter for. After the affair he had with his student, Alan, who is also the brother of Liz, for whom she was adopted by a family and her father who was a pastor in the New Life Church. Liz was able to escape the church’s cultish tendencies but Alan’s possible guilt from being disowned by the Church and perhaps his family as well for his homosexuality and relationship with Charlie caused him to end his own life.

This terrible series of events punished Charlie and his eating condition after the death of Alan exacerbated his obesity and caused him major depression and an inability to form relationships with others beyond his caretaker and friend, Liz. Charlie is not looking for any pardoning of ‘sins’ from God or the Church that disowned Alan but rather the sole forgiveness of his daughter for whom he last saw when she was eight years old. Ellie is not a child anymore but is a rebellious and sullen teenager who misses her father and lashes out at her mother, who deals with her problems by downing a bottle of liquor, rather than raising her daughter to be better. Charlie is no saint in the matter in that he did commit adultery with Alan and led him to neglect his daughter, Ellie, and to push his wife away as well.

He never made amends for having caused them both grief and pain with his impulsive decision. His love for Alan eclipsed his love for his daughter, which he struggles in the film to get back. When the New Life Church’s doctrine and his family’s discontent with Alan’s sexuality, Alan’s suicide caused Charlie to spiral further to eat uncontrollably and to negate his relationships even more by becoming a total recluse who cannot even leave the house because of his body weight and inability to walk or drive a car.

‘The Whale’ also highlights how Charlie is not looking for pity from others or for forgiveness. He knows how much his life has gotten out of hand, but he is hoping to do ‘one thing in his life’ right before it’s too late for him. He believes that while his daughter acts out and despises what he has done, that there is still hope for her and that can she achieve her potential but to more importantly to ‘be a good person.’ It may be too late for Charlie to turn it around in life much to Liz’s, his wife’s, and even Ellie’s disappointment, but Charlie knows that redemption is possible for each of them and that even if he is not there, he will try to leave money for his daughter to have a future, or to tell his wife that he is regretful for him leaving them for his affair, and that he apologizes to Liz for what he has done to himself with the loss of her adopted brother that has strained their friendship in the aftermath.

Charlie does not want to be saved by God or religion or from himself but he wants to know that his life through the birth of his daughter is one thing that he got right in life and that while he wasn’t there for her before when she needed him, he can try to make amends before he leaves the world, and to encourage her to be better than he was, to be better off in life, and to be kind to others. He may have lost hope for himself, but he has never lost hope for his daughter.

Similar to how Charlie encourages his English students to be honest with their written essays, he tries to be honest with Ellie in why he did what he did, how he could have been a better husband to his wife, Mary, and how he let Liz down after the tragic death of Alan. Not everyone can be this honest, but Charlie has nothing left to lose, nothing much to gain, and with not a lot of life ahead of him except imminent death due to his body’s condition.

Despite all the concurring factors, Charlie is trying to regain his humanity and his family back as much as he can recoup after it had been lost even if he has become ‘The Whale’. While he may be misunderstood and loathed like the whale in the book Moby Dick by Herman Melville, he is not beyond redeeming himself in the eyes of others and providing some closure for himself in a life that had gone so far astray yet for which he had also been able to give something out of love back to the world to live on in the form of his daughter, Ellie.  

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Hello, I am an Entrepreneur in Online Education focusing on English as a Second Language Studies. I offer online courses and eBooks on English grammar, Business English, and English writing. I also recently released my first personal development guide. You can find all of these offerings below and please sign-up for updates to come! Thanks. View all posts by Ben W.

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Josh appelbaum & andré nemec scripting ‘space mountain’ movie for disney, breaking news.

‘The Whale’: Read The Screenplay For The Play-Turned-Film That Made Brendan Fraser An Awards-Season Frontrunner

By Patrick Hipes

Patrick Hipes

Executive Managing Editor

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Editors note :  Deadline’s  Read the Screenplay  series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will factor in this year’s movie awards races.

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Fraser and Sink star in the movie alongside Hong Chau, who plays Charlie’s caregiver. The cast also includes Ty Simpkins and Samantha Morton.

Fraser has been Oscar-buzzed since the beginning of the season, and has already scored Critics Choice and Golden Globe Best Actor nominations among others. Aronofsky told the Deadline Studio in  Toronto  where the film was in the lineup that he spent 10 years searching for the actor to play Charlie, describing the process as the “biggest hurdle” to making the film.

The Whale hit theaters in six theaters in Los Angeles and New York on December 9 and scored 2022’s best per-theater average. It later expanded, with its box office cume now sitting at $8.58 million.

Click to read Hunter’s script below:

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75+ Emotional THE WHALE Movie Quotes

By: Author mandipie4u

Posted on Last updated: December 9, 2022

Categories Entertainment , Films

The Whale is in select theaters this Friday, December 9th, and coming nationwide on December 21st. I will have a review of the movie coming soon, so make sure to stop back by to check it out. It will be linked below. In the meantime, I wanted to share a list of some of the best quotes from the film. Check out these 75+ of the best and most emotional The Whale movie quotes .

If you enjoyed The Whale movie quotes , check out these other articles: Emancipation movie quotes , Guillermo del Torro’s Pinocchio 2022 quotes , Firefly Lane season 2 quotes , Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules quotes , Lady Chatterley’s Lover movie quotes , Darby and the Dead quotes , Violent Night movie quotes .

The Whale Parents Guide Movie Review

The whale movie quotes.

Read this to me.

This book made me think of my own life and then be glad for it.

I don’t do hospitals.

I thought I was dying, and I wanted to hear it one last time.

I hate the thought of you being sealed up in this place when I’m not here.

I always wheeze, Liz.

Why the hell would you want to believe the world is about to end?

Believe me, he doesn’t want to hear about New Life. It’s caused him a lot of pain.

If you don’t go to the hospital, you’ll be dead by the weekend.

What’s it going to do? My internal organs are 2 feet in, at least.

Does this mean I’m gonna get fat?

I was always this big. I just let it get out of control.

I pester your mom for information as often as she’ll give it to me.

Only it’s not like high school.

I’m a smart person; I don’t forget anything. High school is just bullsh*t.

You’d be disgusting even if you weren’t this fat.

I don’t even understand you.

Everything okay in there?

I don’t need a machine to tell me to take a few breaths and to stop sweating.

You know you’re not supposed to be around her.

You’re going to reconnect by doing her homework for her?

It doesn’t look like she has any friends.

I’m worried she’s forgotten what an amazing person she is.

It’s not like she’s alone, ya know. She has her mom.

God d*mmit, Charlie. What is wrong with you?

I don’t want to force you to be here.

I check in with her as often as she lets me.

Why did you gain all that weight?

You want me to write what I really think?

Unless you are dying, there is no way I’m going in there.

What’s more surprising? That a gay guy has a daughter, or that anyone could find his penis?

I’ll be good. I promise.

I thought it was devestating.

God hasn’t turned his back on you.

I really think God brought me here for a reason.

Please believe me when I say, I’m not attracted to you. You’re a fetus.

Tell me the truth, do you find me disgusting?

It’s a fat guy wheelchair.

You’re from Iowa, and you came to Idaho for mission work?

Just stay away from him. He doesn’t need this right now.

He’s dying. What he needs is spiritual guidance. I really think God brought me here to save him.

I understand that you are angry, but you don’t have to be angry at the entire world. You can just be angry at me.

All this time, you could have been a part of my life.

Who would want me to be a part of their life?

I hope you know what an amazing person you are. I could not have asked for a better daughter.

If you don’t take a hit, I will call the police, and I will tell them you tried to rape me.

I’m done answering questions now.

It doesn’t help people by telling them they should believe in God. Why would that help them?

You’re more interesting to me now.

So that’s why you want to save my dad?

You think I’m an idiot? You think she would keep coming over from the kindness of her heart?

I don’t care about you. Get that through your f*cking skull and die already.

Our deal was to wait until she was out of the house to give her the money.

You still do that, that positivity. It’s annoying.

I never knew you were doing this to yourself.

Need I remind you that you left us?

You were more than happy than to forget about us for awhile.

She’s awful, isn’t she? She’s a terror, and you think it’s my fault.

Charlie, she’s evil.

They’ll be a grease fire in hell when he starts to burn.

I never got to say that I was sorry.

That was the first time we’ve all been together in almost 9 years.

You sound awful.

I’m dying, Mary.

I need to make certain that she’s going to be okay. We can’t give up on her.

I need to know that I’ve done one thing right in my life.

I can’t tell if she’s trying to help me or not.

Through the spirit, you can put aside the deeds of the body and truly live.

I wasn’t always this big.

Go home to your family.

These assignments don’t matter. This course doesn’t matter. College doesn’t matter. The amazing, honest things that you wrote, they matter.

I really hate you for putting me through this again, you know.

I can’t do this anymore.

I don’t believe that anyone can save anyone.

Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of helping?

I’m sorry for leaving you.

You are the best thing that I’ve ever done.

Daddy, please.

• Movie quotes

“The Whale” quotes

“It doesn’t help people to tell them they should believe in god. Why would that help people?” Brendan Fraser - Charlie

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7 Best Quotes From The Whale

The Whale starring Brendan Fraser has been hailed for the incredibly quotable moments, but which The Whale quotes are the best?

The Whale is a powerhouse of a film that has become notable for giving Brendan Fraser the opportunity to revive his career with a performance that is being called one of the greatest of the year. This defining moment in his storied career brought with it an incredible script that contains some excellent quotes.

Related: Worst TV Moments Of 2022

About a father trying to reconnect with his daughter, The Whale co-stars Sadie Sink and Ty Simpkins, The Whale is an intriguing effort that may not win many awards through the season but has definitely been an effective vehicle for a deep and meaningful performance from Fraser.

7 "Who Would Want Me To Be A Part Of Their Life?"

This quote comes from Charlie, Fraser’s character, as he argues with his daughter about whether it is right for him to try and be a parent to her after having been estranged for so long. The quote speaks as to the same things his reclusiveness and appearance speak to. Despite being kindly-hearted, Charlie has completely given up on his life and himself.

Charlie sees a lot of beauty in people, and in the world, but he has lost so much faith in himself that he honestly doesn’t understand how anybody could want him to be even a piece of their life. He wants to show his daughter her brilliance and how she shines, but is simultaneously, ironically, incapable of seeing his own kindness and the other qualities that make him amazing.

6 "People Are Amazing"

Charlie says this after asking a question, the question was do you ever believe people are incapable of not caring? It’s an interesting question, which he poses because other people in his life see the world as a desolate, cold place, and believe people generally to be bad at their center, selfish and uncaring.

Charlie, in spite of the rough hand he has been dealt by life and the less-than-ideal way in which he handled many parts of his own life, believes that people are essentially good, and this is the one ideal he constantly strives to pass on to his daughter through the film.

5 "I’m Worried She’s Forgotten What An Amazing Person She Is"

One of the most central quotes to what the film strives to be as a whole, and what really drives Charlie throughout it. When Liz questions Charlie about why he wants to see Ellie now so badly, he gives this answer. It makes complete sense that after becoming a recluse, only the loss of hope in his daughter could prompt Charlie to try and reconnect to share some of the hope in humanity he has

Even though Charlie has no hope of redemption for himself, there is hope in him that Ellie’s life can be better than he was. This is what remains so inspirational about Charlie and the film, the idea that our children can do better than us and have better lives. It is a common theme in films throughout history but was exceptionally well shown in this one.

4 "You Say You’re Sorry One More Time"

Although it isn’t a serious threat, when Liz gets fed up with how common Charlie apologizes and threatens him with a knife, Charlie doesn’t even care. He merely responds that it wouldn’t do anything anyway because his vital organs are beneath at least two feet worth of fat.

Related: Best Oscars Director Underdogs In 2023 This light-hearted moment from Charlie about his weight gain is a tension reliever in the film, but it is also a reminder that he can see some of the light-heartedness about himself and his position despite genuinely despairing at the thought of what remains of his life.

3 "It Doesn’t Look Like She Has Any Friends"

It is difficult for Charlie to ever really hear anything negative about Ellie. When he does, it prompts him into action like nothing else can anymore. The only way to bring Charlie even slightly back from the darkness his life has become is to find out that Ellie, the only thing he ever did that he views as being right, isn’t having the life he wants for her.

There are few things more than triggering this deep-seated paternal instinct that could shock a man who has so completely given up on life into action this way, but The Whale perfectly encapsulates how a father, even an estranged one, will still go far for a child.

2 "Because That’s All I Want To Know About"

One of the moments that Ellie begins to realize in The Whale these very things about Charlie , about the depths to which he still and always has cared for her, is when she asks if he often talks to her mother and he tells her that he only talks to her about Ellie because it’s all he cares about.

Ellie, hearing this quote from Charlie, is one of the turning moments in the film. As Ellie begins to realize that there is more to Charlie than meets the eye, which is a key theme and moment for everyone watching as well.

1 "I Need To Know That I Have Done One Thing Right With My Life!"

Possibly the most important monologue and the most pivotal moment in the film comes with this line at its end. Charlie prompted again to speak about why he wants to reconnect with Ellie now and fix things while he still has time, speaks about needing to know that she is going to have a good life.

More than that, more than flourishing herself, Charlie seems to want to try and instill in her the knowledge that people can be good and that everyone should try to be good to others and to the world around them. His fervor in this monologue and this quote in particular shows that his relationship with Ellie and restoring it in some form is about a feeling of salvation for himself as he approaches the end of his own life.

More: Best Actor Oscar Underdogs In 2023

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter. A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.

• Darren Aronofsky
• Samuel D. Hunter
• Brendan Fraser
• Ty Simpkins
• 989 User reviews
• 325 Critic reviews
• 60 Metascore
• 50 wins & 120 nominations total

• Dan the Pizza Man
• Young Ellie

• (uncredited)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia For the role, Brendan Fraser had to don a heavy prosthetic suit that he wore for hours. According to a piece in "Variety", he told members of the media in attendance at the Venice International Film Festival, "I developed muscles I did not know I had. I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed. It was like stepping off the dock onto a boat in Venice, that undulating. It gave me appreciation for those whose bodies are similar. You need to be an incredibly strong person, mentally and physically, to inhabit that physical being."
• Goofs Charlie nicks his skin when shaving but the cut disappears in the next shots.

Charlie : Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring?

• Connections Featured in Projector @ LFF: The Whale (2022)

User reviews 989

• Jithindurden
• Dec 16, 2022
• How long is The Whale? Powered by Alexa
• What is the movie based on?
• Where is the movie take place?
• When does the movie take place?
• December 21, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Official A24
• Newburgh, New York, USA
• Protozoa Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $10,000,000 (estimated)
• $17,463,630
• Dec 11, 2022
• $57,615,635

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 57 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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An Essay on Moby Dick – The Whale Review

An Essay on Moby Dick - The Whale Review

Everyone loves a good comeback story, and that is especially true when we are talking about Brendan Fraser’s. The actor’s unexpected return has been all over the internet for a while now, but with The Whale premiering in most European countries in February, we finally get to see what all this fuss has been about.

Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” revolves around Charlie , the reclusive, dangerously obese English teacher ( Brendan Fraser ). Charlie has lost someone close to him in the past, resulting in his massive weight gain and alienation from society. Holding his classes from home, he needs constant supervision and care, provided by his best friend and nurse, Liz ( Hong Chau ). As Charlie ’s condition is getting worse, so much that he might not make it to next week, he tries to spend as much time as he can with his daughter Ellie ( Sadie Sink ), who he has abandoned 8 years ago in the search of his newfound love and sexuality.

Aronofsky has always been known for his deep and dark dramas, but the director seems to have really hit the spot with “The Whale” , as he not only managed to revive Brendan Fraser ’s semi-forgotten career with it, but also earned 3 Oscar nominations, next to the many awards the movie won already since last year. Oh, and he also directed one of the best pictures of the decade.

“The Whale” , presented in a tight 4:3 aspect ratio, encapsulates the viewer in an almost 2 hours long journey into loss, love and religion, packed into beautiful literary themes and sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes utterly grotesque situations. Its characters and story both have, creating a sense of perfectly balanced duality that everyone experiences in life at some capacity. We barely leave Charlie ’s porch in the film, making us feel this entrapment that Fraser ’s obese character lives through every day. Over a week, we meet the most important characters of Charlie ’s life, each time experiencing an interaction different in tone and meaning, constantly putting their relations to Charlie and each other in new perspectives.

Since the film was adapted from a screenplay, there are some noticeable pacing issues in the first half of the movie, but watching the actors perform quickly captures our attention. Leaving his macho adventure flick characters behind, Brendan Fraser gives a performance of a lifetime, exploring an unbelievable range of emotions, making sure there are no dry eyes in the house by the end of the film. The four key characters Charlie interacts with have also been delivered exceptionally well by the rest of the cast.

The carefully crafted atmosphere of The Whale can be uncomfortably disgusting and downright beautiful at times, aided by wonderful cinematography, detailed set design, and of course, Rob Simonsen’s incredible score. Surprisingly, humor is not missing of this dark mixture of cinema either, but some might find it hard to laugh while experiencing this vast array of feelings at the same time.

“The Whale” is a textbook answer to the question of why we are still going to the movies. To experience joy, horror and devastating emptiness at the same time, crying our eyes out, and still coming out with a smile on our face from the screening, like the devastating story of an obese teacher was the best thing ever. Maybe The Whale won’t be that for some people, but it is certainly one of the best films of the past few years, and definitely an Oscar win for Brendan Fraser .

“The Whale”; Director : Darren Aronofsky;

Actors: Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins ;

American Drama, 117 minutes, 2022

The Whale is a textbook answer to the question of why we are still going to the movies. To experience joy, horror and devastating emptiness at the same time, crying our eyes out, and still coming out with a smile on our face from the screening, like the devastating story of an obese teacher was the best thing ever. Maybe The Whale won’t be that for some people, but it is certainly one of the best films of the past few years, and definitely an Oscar win for Brendan Fraser.

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