The Whale

Beyond it being a purely human interest story, narrator Ryan Reynolds and journalist/filmmakers Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm convey their built-in affinity for the subject of this documentary, namely L98, better known to most of the world as Luna, an "orphaned" orca, aka killer whale. A member of the very limited number southern resident community, who as highly social mammals live their entire lives with the rest of their pod, Luna, either by choice or more likely by accident, was spotted alone in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, two hundred miles north of where the rest of his pod was known to be. Two at the time of his first spotting in Nootka Sound, Luna, otherwise healthy in being able to feed for himself, ultimately made the decision to seek out contact with humans, and by association whatever vessels they were on, arguably as a replacement for what would have naturally been his socialization with the rest of his pod. Luna's actions in Nootka Sound, over the course of several years, led to a tug of war between competing factions of several groups, from the general public, to the local First Nations (the Mowachaht/Muchalaht), to animal rights activists, to marine biologists, to overseeing government agencies, in what to do for Luna's best interest, most who would admit that contact with such an orca under normal circumstances in the wild would be frowned up - to retain a wall between the species - both for the humans and the orcas' safety. In the matter of safety, potential issues were if Luna, in his want for that contact with humans and especially boats, would cause property damage, or worse accidentally kill someone, or conversely if Luna would get into a losing battle with especially boat propellers, he already having physical scars in such interactions. Both Parfit and Chisholm, who originally went into the story just to cover it as journalists, crossed what would usually be that journalistic line in getting involved having witnessed for years this tug of war between the groups, which could not have been good for Luna no matter which group was ultimately right, that matter which is never clear.