The “Whalefall” whale stomach set that swallows the film’s main character, Jay, for most of the movie was a physical, buildable structure made from foam, silicone and canvas rather than a purely digital creation, according to production designer Ramsey Avery. Avery told Variety he built the set to be as practical and in-camera as possible, working inside an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale that pulls Jay inside after a battle with a giant squid off the California coast.
Avery said the goal was to put as much of the creature’s interior in front of the camera as the production could manage. “We pushed as much of it being practically in-camera as we could,” Avery told Variety.
Research Behind The Whalefall Whale Stomach Set
Before building anything, Avery consulted Dr. Joy Reidenberg, a biomedical research scientist, and examined autopsy photos of sperm whales to understand what the inside of the animal actually looks like. That research shaped the shape, texture and layout of the sets that followed, grounding the film’s creature interior in anatomical reference rather than invention.
Building The Mouth, Throat And Stomach Sets
The production built roughly 30 feet of the whale’s head and placed it inside a tank 60 feet wide and 20 feet deep. That head piece included an articulating mouth that moved forward and backward on a ram, giving the crew a working entry point for the character and camera equipment.
Behind the mouth, the team built a physical tongue positioned at the back of the whale’s throat. The tongue could move up and down as a set piece, adding motion to the passage Jay travels through before reaching the stomach itself.
Materials That Made The Stomach Look Alive
The main stomach set, where Jay spends most of his time on screen, was constructed with upholstery foam measured at two to three inches thick depending on the location within the set. Over that foam base, the crew applied multiple layers of translucent, colored silicone to give the interior a viscous, wet appearance.
The exterior of the stomach structure was wrapped in heavy-duty canvas and coated with glue, a combination Avery said gave the piece rigidity without sacrificing flexibility. Avery said the combined materials gave the whale’s innards a living quality on screen. “This made the stomach look alive,” Avery told Variety.
When fully expanded, the inside of the stomach measured about eight feet wide and six feet tall. For most of the shoot, though, the space was compressed down to roughly the size of a sleeping bag, leaving just enough room for Jay and one or two cameras at a time.
A Moving Rig And Six Weeks Of Filming
To simulate the whale diving and its stomach acids churning around Jay, the entire set sat on a large teeter-totter rig that produced sloshing movement throughout filming. That built-in motion meant the actors and crew were working inside a set that shifted under them rather than a static piece.
The stomach set held up through six weeks of filming that involved Jay, stunt performers, cameras, and visual and special effects equipment, all operating in water. Weta Workshop later added digital effects work on top of the finished practical set to complete the sequence, according to Avery.
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