Orca (The Killer Whale) (Orca)

Hey, Nolan!

You see anything?

Hey, I don't even see a great white flounder.

Shark's fin!

10 o'clock.

And it's a whopper!

Keep it this side of the ship.

Sheer off at about 200 yards.

Gus, start pitching it some meat.

Hey, keep off!

There's a diver down!

Paul, keep him to the port side!

Look out!

Paul!

Hard to port!

Any fellow dumb enough to dive near a great white-

Nice going, baby.

You maybe just cost us a quarter of a million bucks.

I what?

It's the truth.

Do you know how much an aquarium

would pay for a great white shark?

10,000 a foot!

And he was 25 feet if he was a yard.

Can you believe that, Paul?

50 foot he was, at least, 50 foot.

Hey, Nolan!

He's coming back!

Climb aboard.

Paul, put on the cord!

Stay by the side.

I'll come back to get you.

Fin at two o'clock!

Look, that idiot is in the water!

Ken, get back in the boat!

Jesus!

What did that?

There's only one creature in the world that would do that.

A killer whale.

It is without challenge the most powerful animal

on the globe.

The killer whale.

He is a mammal with warm blood, found in every sea.

The ancient Romans called him Orca Orcinus,

Latin for "The Bringer of Death".

His tapered form and muscular fin make the orca

the fastest moving whale in all the oceans.

The adult male measures around 30 feet and weighs six tons,

but there have been cases where he ran to 45 feet.

Now here is a killer whale in what

is probably his most familiar guise.

Tamed, on exhibition.

One captured as a pup and brought up with men.

Treated with kindness, there is no creature

that is a greater friend to man.

But if not,

the orca's mouth has 48 teeth set in two impressive rows.

As parents, killer whales are exemplary.

Better than most human beings.

And like human beings,

they have a profound instinct for vengeance.

Yet the most amazing thing about these creatures is neither

their gentleness nor their violence, but their brains.

Slides, please, Ken.

Now these three brains are of a monkey,

a human being, and this is the brain of a killer whale.

We know very little about the nature

of the whale's intelligence,

except that it exists and is powerful,

and in some respects may even be superior to man.

A four-month-old fetus,

incredibly like that of a human baby.

It even has two hands, with five fingers on each.

Whales talk.

They communicate,

by a combination of pure sound and sonar echolocation.

The whale sounds you are now hearing contain wavelengths

that can travel not just across one ocean basin,

but around the entire world.

This was recorded underwater

and analyzed by computers at Caltech.

It was found to contain 15 million pieces of information.

The Bible contains only four million.

What are they saying?

For that matter, do they have

to say anything to communicate?

Their sonar would be a little like our having X-ray vision.

If we could look into one other,

and instantly know if someone else was happy

or sad, indifferent or aroused,

healthy or suffering from a tumor we could actually see,

then a human phrase like how are you

would be meaningless.

What we call language,

they might call unnecessary, or redundant, or retarded.

I didn't notice at first but my lectures

suddenly gained a new and attentive member, Captain Nolan.

He began to call on me after class at odd hours,

asking about the orcas,

and occasionally, about me.

I was surprised at his ignorance of the animals.

To have fished here for so long

and to have learned so little about them amazed me.

I was also intrigued by his curiosity.

The combination made him seem vulnerable,

and even, attractive.

It was that or I had been in Newfoundland for too long.

In any case I should have known that fisherman

are rarely curious about anything at sea,

unless they want to catch it, or kill it.

Don't tell me you're building a holding pen?

Damn your big mouth.

I should have known when you pumped me about killer whales,

it wasn't to improve your mind, if any.

Now look, we're not going to harm him.

The lucky lad will have a long, happy life,

in some aquarium.

How much money do you think you're going to get for him?

Enough, enough.

Nolan, there's a word for you.

I know.

And I've been called it many times.

You're planning to capture and sell a fellow creature.

He's like you, he has warm blood,

he breathes air, he's a mammal but with intelligence,

and he communicates.

Oh, he communicates, does he?

Look at me.

Tell me I'm pulling your leg and I'll give you a dollar.

No, but I'll tell you this, you're one hell

of a girl to be living in a tent,

sleeping with a tape recorder.

Did I tell you that that animal

has a right to be left alone?

No you didn't, but I have a notion that you're about to.

These animals are too big and too smart,

and they're made to be in constant motion.

They don't even sleep.

It's much crueler than putting a lion in a cage.

It's hardly something to screw around with.

Now there's a very dangerous word

to use around a fellow like me.

I mean, I might get a notion or two.

You'll never catch a killer whale.

Is there any way that I can make you give up?

Well, there's one you might try.

But I suppose that's out of the question.

If that's what it'll take

If you're so sure I can't catch a killer whale,

why're you so upset?

Listen, you won't catch one,

but you might butcher a couple of dozen in the attempt.

Ahh, that's not my style at all.

So you refuse to quit?

That's not my style either.

Especially when a pretty and intelligent girl

like you tells me that I'm dumber than a fish.

Lots of bad luck.

How many CCs of dope in the harpoons?

Well, if a whale is twice the size of the shark,

therefore we use twice as much.

Nolan.

What?

You know, killer whales are monogamous.

Monogamous, what does that mean?

They stick with one mate all their life.

Do you realize we could be busting up a happy family?

You continue what you're doin'

and bring it up when you're finished.

Killer whales ahead!

Oh boy!

We're off to the races, boys!

Annie, bring up the doped heads.

Here, you take over.

Oh hoh hoh hoh, o-boy o-boy o-boy!

Look at 'em, just look at 'em!

We don't want to approach them like a bull

in a china shop, you understand?

Now go back now.

Here let me take over.

Merciful God, what's that?

You missed the male.

You hit the female.

He sounds almost human.

It's not a he, it's a her.

How do you know?

You can tell by the hook-shaped fin.

Paul, astern!

Paul, hard to port and full ahead!

Look she's coming back.

She's trying to kill herself.

Stop the engines!

Novak come down here and help me!

Help me get this crazy fish on board!

Sling's tight.

All right Paul, haul away.

And when she's clear, we'll swing her inboard.

She's losing so much blood.

I know I know.

Shut up.