History Headscratchers / FreeWilly

*** Also, Jesse noticed that Willy is calling to his family who are out at the nearby bay. Being abandoned by his mother and realizing why Willy didn't perform in the live show, Jesse decided immediately that Willy needed to be with his family again.

*** Also, Jesse noticed that Willy is calling to his family who are out at sea. Being abandoned by his mother and realizing why Willy didn't perform, Jesse decided immediately that Willy needed to be with his family again.

Also, another thing that bugged me: if Willy had been on that stretcher for hours, shouldn't his internal organs have been long crushed under his own weight? I understand this is what happens to a lot of stranded whales who [[TearJerker eventually die]] even despite attempts at helping them back into the water.

** It was semi-handwaved with a line from Rae saying he was too old to be taken in captivity, which was a reason he was so disobedient.

** Because the men in the boats would've still tried chasing after him. By going over the rocks, Willy was able to keep himself far enough from Dial's men to swim away without being intercepted.

** At this point, they weren't considered anybody's property. The scheme was to remove Willy and his siblings from the ocean, supposedly just temporarily until they could clean up the oil spill. Then once they had the whales in a tank or whatever (presumably owned by them), they would turn around and sell them. No one else would have legal standing to contest it.

** Sadly, this is TruthInTelevision of what happened to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7fKTh5uAxE Keiko,]] the whale who portrayed Willy in the movies. Following the film's release, a campaign was undertaken to release him into the wild. It took years of training and Keiko never fully re-integrated into the wild. He failed to integrate into a pod and could be seen seeking out human contact until his death in 2003, from pneumonia.

* How would the owner of the oil tanker be able to sell the whales when they were not his to sell?

* The ending is heartwarming, to be sure, but watching as an adult, I can't help but wonder how Jesse, Randolph, Rae, Glen, and Annie avoided prosecution for theft. Legally, Willy was still Dial's property, and as the film states he's worth $1 million, the gang is looking at grand larceny. True, Dial may not have wanted to implicate himself for insurance fraud when it was revealed why they took Willy, but as the only one who actually saw Wade compromise the tank was a 12 year old boy with a history of brushes with the law, it would be hard to prove.

* The ending is heartwarming, to be sure, but watching as an adult, I can't help but wonder how Jesse, Randolph, Rae, Glen, and Annie avoided prosecution for theft. Legally, Willy was still Dial's property, and as the film states he's worth $1 million, the gang is looking to grand larceny. True, Dial may not have wanted to implicate himself for insurance fraud when it was revealed why they took Willy, but as the only one who actually saw Wade compromise the tank was a 12 year old boy with a history of brushes with the law, it would be hard to prove.

** It makes slightly more sense when you learn that killer whales will rarely try to cross nets even when they easily can, but still, the kid could've directed Willy to jump the nets like he did the rocks...

* The last time I watched "Free Willy", I was about nine, so this never occured to me. However, when I watched it again as an adult, something bugged me a lot about the way the protagonists went about rescuing Willy after his tank was destroyed by the villains. Why didn't anyone think of calling the police, or a conservation group specialising with rescuing whales? Heck, why not both? Instead, they decide to be BigDamnHeroes and take Willy's rescue into their own hands with no prior experience and training in rescuing wildlife. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but surely someone like the Greenwoods would have suggested calling the police to catch the antagonists in the act or called in wildlife rescue. There may be a lot of awkward questions being asked by the police and wildlife groups, but at least TRAINED people would be at hand.\\
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* Rae actually suggests that they call the police but Randolph says "What good would that do?" It still would have been a better thing to do but at least it got mentioned.

* Why did Willy even need to jump over the rocks? He could've jumped over the nets a lot easier. If they wanted to keep that climax, maybe he could've been surrounded by boats, but no...

** I assumed the stretcher was designed to minimize the weight on his body. It's a stretcher, not a bed.

The last time I watched "Free Willy", I was about nine, so this never occured to me. However, when I watched it again as an adult, something bugged me a lot about the way the protagonists went about rescuing Willy after his tank was destroyed by the villains. Why didn't anyone think of calling the police, or a conservation group specialising with rescuing whales? Heck, why not both? Instead, they decide to be BigDamnHeroes and take Willy's rescue into their own hands with no prior experience and training in rescuing wildlife. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but surely someone like the Greenwoods would have suggested calling the police to catch the antagonists in the act or called in wildlife rescue. There may be a lot of awkward questions being asked by the police and wildlife groups, but at least TRAINED people would be at hand.
* Also, another thing that bugged me: if Willy had been on that stretcher for hours, shouldn't his internal organs have been long crushed under his own weight? I understand this is what happens to a lot of stranded whales who [[TearJerker eventually die]] even despite attempts at helping them back into the water.

* Also, another thing that bugged me: if Willy had been on that stretcher for hours, shouldn't his internal organs have been long crushed under his own weight? I understand this is what happens to a lot of stranded whales who [[TearJerker eventually die]] even despite attempts at helping them back into the water.