Line #12 Film/InTheHeartOfTheSea


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3	Innkeeper Thomas Nickerson is the last survivor of the whaleship ''Essex'' and agrees to tell the secret details of the experience to novelist Creator/HermanMelville, who seeks inspiration for a novel he intends to call [[Literature/MobyDick "Moby Dick"]].
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5	''In the Heart of the Sea'' is a [[TheFilmOfTheBook 2015 biographical adventure film based on Nathaniel Philbrick's 2000 non-fiction book of the same name]]. The film was directed by Creator/RonHoward and stars Creator/ChrisHemsworth, Creator/BenjaminWalker, Creator/CillianMurphy, Creator/TomHolland, Creator/BenWhishaw, Creator/FrankDillane, and Creator/BrendanGleeson.
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7	!!Tropes:
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9	* ActionSurvivor: Thomas Nickerson, who survives the ordeal to tell the tale (obviously).
10	* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: The ''Essex'' crew resorting to NoPartyLikeADonnerParty is treated like a supreme taboo that must be jealously concealed, when in fact it was an acceptable possibility of seafaring life with no particular social stigma in a community as tied to the sea as Nantucket.
11	** The story of the ''Essex'' was not some secret mystery that Melville had to pry out of Nickerson, it was an (in)famous sea tale well known to the men of the whaling trade and captured in popular imagination, if not spoken of too openly by the austere Quaker community of Nantucket. Pollard would speak openly of the story from the very moment he was rescued, and Chase and Nickerson would both write down accounts. Chase became a minor celebrity off the back of the publication of his book.
12	* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Chase is altered from a Nantucketer to an off-islander son of a farmer (what would be known to the Nantucketers by the slur "coof") to add drama and fuel the conflict between him and the film version of Pollard. In reality, the bond between the Nantucketers, Chase among them, is theorized to have been a source of strength and brotherhood that allowed them to survive whereas the coofs were ostracized along with the African-American crewmen and the majority of them assigned to the ill-fated boat led by second mate Joy.
13	* AdaptationalNameChange: Understandably to avoid the audience [[OneSteveLimit confusing him with main character Owen Chase]], Owen Coffin is renamed to Henry Coffin.
14	* AdaptationalMundanity: The "white whale" is instead portrayed as a heavily-scarred individual whose whiteness comes from extensive scarring, as opposed to the traditional portrayal of Moby Dick as an albino. While rare, albino sperm whales have been documented, and the inspiration of the tale, ''Mocha Dick'' was historically known to indeed be an albino sperm whale. In 2021, [[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/30/white-sperm-whale-rarest-animals-captured-on-film-jamaica an albino sperm whale was sighted near Jamaica]].
15	* TheAlcoholic: Joy used to be one, and he managed to stay sober throughout the entire movie.
16	* AnimalsNotToScale: The titular sperm whale turns out to be a 100 ft (30 meters) bull. That is, it is almost as long as your [[TheGiant average blue whale]]. The largest known sperm whales measured up to 65.5 ft (20 meters). Accounts of 100-ft sperm whales were not unheard of, but no such beast has ever been scientifically verified.
17	** The real whale was estimated by eyewitnesses to be roughly 85 feet long, as he surfaced immediately after ramming ''Essex'' the first time and was observed to be comparable in length to the 88-foot ship. This is still 20 feet longer than the largest confirmed sperm whale. Whether the white whale really was that big or exaggerated as "the one that got away" often is is uncertain.
18	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The sperm whale attacking the ship is indicated to be male, and is presented as the leader of a pod, protecting his family. Male sperm whales are actually solitary, and only converge with others during the mating season.
19	* TheBlackGuyDiesFirst: In the book it's noted that this is unfortunately TruthInTelevsion; all the survivors of the ''Essex'' were white, and all six of the black crew perished. Philbrick notes that because because of the racism they faced back home, they were generally a lot poorer and so less likely to have fat or muscle reserves than their white crewmates.
20	* ChildhoodFriends: First Officer Owen Chase and Second Officer Matthew Joy. Thomas also has an older friend whom he sees as a brother.
21	* CurbStompBattle: The white whale vs the ''Essex''. [[spoiler: The whale wins in less than a minute]].
22	* DwindlingParty: The ''Essex'''s survivors.
23	* FramingDevice: The main story is told by the elderly Thomas Nickerson to Herman Melville.
24	* HeroAntagonist: The White Whale, given that he protects a female and her calf as well as an entire pod.
25	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Owen Chase of the film can do no wrong, which is rather ironic since the film uses an elderly Nickerson as its FramingDevice while Philbrick's book uses the elderly Nickerson's account to challenge Chase's more famous account which probably made Chase as heroic as possible so he could keep getting jobs as a whaler:
26	** He opposes every questionable decision made by his incompetent captain. In real life, his heroic leadership of his open boat is certainly commendable, but he also made several questionable decisions before, during, and after the sinking that may have put the crew in further danger, particularly the decision to head south into the open sea to find winds instead of heading for the relatively close Society Islands, which arguably led to [[spoiler: the whole [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty cannibalism]] situation]].
27	** He heroically dives into the sinking ''Essex'' to retrieve valuable navigation equipment, complete with OutrunTheFireball, a feat actually committed by [[CompositeCharacter the ship's steward]] in real life.
28	** Ultimately, he has an epiphany that [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory whaling is immoral]] and decides to settle down with his family. This cannot be further from the truth of the man who went on to have a long and successful career as a whaling captain while going through ''four'' marriages in his lifetime, and was said by some who served under him to have carried a personal vendetta against the whale that stove the ''Essex'' before spending his later years in a mental institution.
29	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Captain George Pollard, which is rather ironic since the Philbrick's book takes pains to portray Pollard sympathetically.
30	** Pollard is portrayed as a haughty and inexperienced BlueBlood who owes his captaincy to {{nepotism}} when in reality Pollard had already served as a Mate on the ''Essex'' itself for several years and was justly deserving of his promotion.
31	** He holds his officers in contempt and steers the ''Essex'' recklessly into a storm. In reality, the ''Essex'' did get caught in a storm four days out of Nantucket, but it was due to the officers' collective miscalculation not Pollard's arrogance, and there were no NeverMyFault recriminations afterward. In fact, Pollard was if anything ''too'' willing to heed the advice of Chase and Joy, who didn't always make the best decisions, particularly in heading south in search of variable breezes after the sinking instead of making for the Society Islands (ironically because they probably feared being CapturedByCannibals).
32	** Pollard did indeed reprimand his young cousin for trying to invoke [[{{Nepotism}} familial privilege]], but the film turns an understandable and somewhat comical moment into a sinister one since historically the boy was hoping to be excused from duty due to seasickness (which many other young sailors were also suffering), not standing up to Pollard on behalf of the whole crew.
33	** Lastly, in the film Pollard is implied to have wrecked his second ship pursuing a personal vendetta against the whale, when by all evidence it was ''Chase'' who carried on a vendetta (unlike in the film where Chase has [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade an epiphany and gives up whaling]]) and just about everyone who served under Pollard had only praise for him and felt it unfair he was forced to retire from the sea after the luckless loss of his second ship.
34	* IronicName: Matthew ''Joy'' suffers terribly, along with the rest of the crew, before DyingAlone of a head injury and starvation.
35	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Owen Coffin acts like a dick to pretty much everyone. However, near the end, he [[spoiler:sacrifices himself to save his cousin Pollard]]. And once again, in real life, it was actually the other way around; [[spoiler: When Coffin drew a lot that would see him being eaten, Pollard swore to protect the boy and even offered to take his place. Coffin gently refused and accepted his fate.]]
36	* LighterAndSofter: At the end, Melville assures the Nickersons that he's going to write a novel VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, and doesn't intend to include the goriest parts of the crew's ordeal. [[spoiler:Nor does he. ... Instead, ''his'' crew is killed when Moby Dick sinks the ship -- save the narrator, who is immediately rescued]].
37	* MobySchtick: Naturally, since the events inspired the novel, but subverted in that this is the first contact with the leviathan and the ''Essex'' is unable to put up a fight. The ending narrates that Pollard went out again looking for the white whale but he never found it.
38	* {{Nepotism}}: George Pollard, Jr. is chosen as Captain of the ''Essex'' -- over the more-experienced Owen Chase -- because Pollard comes from a well-established family and his father is one of the investors. In real life, Pollard was much more experienced than Chase and fully deserved his position as Captain.
39	* NeverMyFault:
40	** The ship survives a storm, thanks to Owen's efforts. Pollard instructs him to tell the crew they'll be heading back to Nantucket for repairs, where Owen would resign in public for decisions that nearly sunk the ''Essex''. Owen points out that it was Pollard's decision to not take down the sails that nearly got the ship sunk until it was too late to do so and Pollard won't have any of it. Notably, none of this happened in real life, it was a simple error that saw the ship running into an unfortunate storm, Chase didn't save the day and Pollard didn't threaten to blame him for the incident.
41	* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: [[spoiler:The ''Essex'''s survivors eventually have to resort to cannibalism, which haunts Thomas for decades.]]
42	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Chris Hemsworth uses his natural Australian accent for Owen Chase, a character born and raised in the United States.
43	* OneHeadTaller: Non-romantic example; Chase is a head taller than his childhood friend Joy.
44	* PluckyMiddie: Thomas. He's a teenager on his first sail and the youngest of the crew by a margin. The plucky part has to be coaxed into him by Chase, and he ends up traumatized for life due to the horrors they lived through.
45	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: [[spoiler:Owen Chase refuses to lie about the ''Essex'''s fate even after his employers offer him a bribe. Pollard eventually also decides the truth is more important than his family's good name]].
46	* SeaMonster: The white whale, inspiration to Moby Dick itself.
47	* SparedByTheAdaptation: William Bond went missing at sea and was presumed dead; in the film, he makes it back to shore.
48	* SuperPersistentPredator: The white sperm whale [[spoiler: [[TheHunterBecomesTheHunted pursues the survivors of the ''Essex'' shipwreck]]]] with no reason given. Given the aforementioned attack, it probably acknowledged their [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters dangerousness]] very quickly however given to the fact that sperm whales are very aggressive creatures by nature and have been known to attack ships without reason it seems unlikely that the monster was attacking out of any feeling for its mate and offspring and only because it needed something to unleash its natural aggression on until it finally became bored.
49	* TragicKeepsake: Benjamin Lawrence winded a small piece of twine every day while adrift; the resulting rope he kept with him for the rest of his life as a memento of the incident.
50	* UncertainDoom: In the book, Obed Hendricks' whaleboat separates from Pollard's during the night, leaving him and his two crew without any navigation equipment. They're never seen again- although months later a whaleboat manned only by skeletons washed ashore, theorized to be what remained of them.
51	* WorkingClassHero: [[ValuesDissonance Moral implications]] notwithstanding, traditional whaling is realistically depicted as hard, dangerous, ''filthy'' work that could potentially earn a man a decent living or just as easily kill him.

Context Film / InTheHeartOfTheSea