Orca (1977)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Michael Anderson

Writers:

Luciano Vincenzoni (story) and
Sergio Donati (writer)

Release Date:

22 July 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Drama | Horror

Tagline:

Terror just beneath the surface

Plot:

A hunter squares off against a killer whale seeking vengeance for the death of its mate.

Plot Keywords:

Whale | Killer Whale | Revenge | Death | Ice

Cast

Richard Harris	...	Captain Nolan
Charlotte Rampling	...	Rachel Bedford
Will Sampson	...	Umilak
Bo Derek	...	Annie
Keenan Wynn	...	Novak
Robert Carradine	...	Ken
Scott Walker	...	Swain
Peter Hooten	...	Paul
Wayne Heffley	...	Priest
Vincent Gentile	...	Gas Station Attendant
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Dock Worker

Also Known As:

Orca: Killer Whale
The Killer Whale

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | UK:18 (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

Malta

Company:

Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica

Trivia:

In the mid-80s, Dino De Laurentiis considered a sequel to King Kong (1976) that would have had him going head-to-head with an Orca.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Annie's cast-enclad leg is briefly visible after the whale bites it off, extending down through a hole in the floor.

Quotes:

[Captain Nolan has just seen the orca kill a member of his crew after the orca knocked the house into the ocean. He then looks out to the water & sees the killer whale leaping out of the water, breaching]
Captain Nolan: You revengeful sonofabitch! You win!
[the orca keeps breaching, as if taunting Captain Nolan]
Captain Nolan: You want revenge? Well, you'll have it! I'll come out and fight you! You revengeful sonofabitch!
[Nolan's boat, the 'Bumpo', steams out of the little harbor the next morning with the fishermen watching as he goes to fight the orca]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ghost Voyage (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

My Love, We Are One

Are you kidding?

This is only a response to the yahoo who says this movie is more realistic than the classic, genre defining MASTERPIECE, Jaws. Yes, brainiac, great whites(and other species of shark, bull, black-tip, oceanic white-tip, tiger)have been known to populate areas where easy prey is found. Humans don't often make it onto that menu, granted, but the shark in the film was repeatedly pointed out to be exhibiting abnormal behavior. It's not like it's never happened. The odds of a killer whale destroying nearly a whole town, singling out a human nemesis, sinking several dozen thick hulled North Atlantic fishing boats and knowing when certain people, all friends of the aforementioned "nemesis", are close enough to the water for it to reach, are so slim as to be laughable. Much like this turd of a Jaws knock-off. Laughable. Great white sharks are also known to frequently chew on boats, protective underwater cages and people on rafts and surfboards, as they look like seals from below. A shark the size of Bruce(if you don't know, look it up)would be more than capable of sinking a boat like The Orca(hey! that's the name of the blatant rip-off we're discussing!), as it would weigh upwards of 6,000 lbs. I could go on, but I don't need to. Jaws is amazing(better acting, better effects, better music, better writing), Orca is crap(BLATANT rip-off of Jaws, lousy writing, abominable effects, most ridiculous plot this side of an Olson Twins flick). It doesn't take a masters from Columbia University to see that. Watch better movies.