Free Willy
Encyclopedia
Free Willy is a 1993 family film
directed by Simon Wincer
, and released by Warner Bros.
under its Family Entertainment
label. The film stars Jason James Richter
as a young boy who befriends an orca whale, named "Willy."
Followed by two sequel
s, a third non-consecutive sequel, Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove
(released in 2010), and a short-lived animated
television series
, Free Willy was a financial success, eventually making a star out of its protagonist Keiko
. The film's famous climax has been spoofed
several times in popular culture
.
Michael Jackson
produced and performed "Will You Be There
", the theme for the film, which can be heard during the film's credits. The song won the MTV Movie Award
for "Best Song in a Movie" in 1994. It was also included in the album All Time Greatest Movie Songs
, released by Sony
in 1999. Jackson also performed songs for the film's first sequel.
s swimming near the coastline of the Pacific Northwest
. The pod is tracked down by a large group of whaler
s, and a single orca (Keiko the Orca
) gets caught in their net. Despite their best efforts to save him, his family leaves him behind, and he is taken away to a local amusement park.
Sometime later in Washington, Jesse (Jason James Richter
), a young 12-year-old boy who has been on the streets since he was abandoned by his mother six years before, gets caught by the police for stealing food and vandalizing a theme park, along with a group member of three other abandoned children. However, his social worker Dwight helps him avoid legal consequences by placing him in a foster home and provided he cleans up the mess at the park. While there, Jesse befriends Willy, the orca that was caught earlier and has a collapsed dorsal fin. He is amazed by Willy who obeys his commands, something the trainer, Rae Lindley (Lori Petty
), had failed to do. Over time, Jesse and Willy become the best of friends, and Jesse earns a long-term job at the marina while learning to live with his new and supportive foster parents, Glen (Michael Madsen
) and Annie Greenwood (Jayne Atkinson
).
The owner of the amusement park, Dial (Michael Ironside
) sees the talent Jesse and Willy have together, and makes large plans to host "The Willy Show" in hopes of boosting sales and making money for himself. On the day of the first performance, everyone is set to begin, but Willy comes down with stage fright due to the children banging constantly on his underwater observation area. Willy scares them off by smashing against the tank, unintentionally damaging it. Jesse is devastated, and plans to run away feeling everyone has let him down. Later, while at the tank, Jesse notices Willy's family calling to him and Dial's assistant Wade (Richard Riehle
) and other men sneaking into the underwater observation area and damage the tank enough that the water will gradually leak out in an effort to kill Willy. It is surmised that Dial is interested in collecting the insurance money, since he has a $1,000,000 life insurance plan on Willy.
Thus, Jesse, Haida native Randolph Johnson (August Schellenberg
) and Rae begin plans to release the orca. They use equipment at the park to load Willy onto a trailer, and Jesse and Randolph "borrow" Glen's truck to tow Willy to the ocean. They try to stick to back roads to keep from being spotted with a gigantic orca, and eventually get stuck. Wade meanwhile notifies Dial that the orca is missing, and begin a search to find Willy.
Jesse must admit that he needs help, and calls his foster parents using a CB-Radio located in the truck they took. Annie and Glen show up and are able to help free the truck, and continue on to the marina they are headed to, in order to release Willy. Dial knows where they are likely headed, and when they show up, he, Wade and his henchmen are blocking the gate into the marina. Glen charges at them full speed in the truck, forcing the henchmen to move right before the truck plows through the gate to the marina. Glen quickly turns the truck around and backs Willy into the water, flooding his truck in the process.
Willy is finally released into the water, but Dial and his goons attempt to stop them. During the struggle, Jesse is able to get Willy to swim away, but panics when he sees that Dial has the whaling company to back him up when their boats show up in the water. They release nets and Jesse has one last chance to get Willy away before he becomes trapped. He runs towards a wall of rocks, calling for Willy to follow him, which steers him away from the boats. Jesse goes to the edge of the rocks where Willy swims up to him and tells Willy that if he makes the jump (it will be the highest jump Willy has ever attempted), he'll be free. Jesse then starts to cry as he tells Willy goodbye, but pulls himself together and goes back to the top of the rocks. He says a prayer that Randolph taught him from a story from his tribe and throws his arm in the air, giving Willy the signal to jump. To the amazement of everyone, Willy makes the jump with no problem and is finally free to return to his family and escapes the boats. Everyone cheers and Jesse happily jumps up and down, but stops when he realizes that he'll probably never see Willy again. He goes back to Glen and Annie who hug him as they look out into the sea.
The movie ends with Willy who has found his family and the entire pod swims and jumps through the ocean.
, Oregon
, where Willy jumps over Jesse and into the wild. All stunts with the whale were performed by the young orca trainer Justin Sherman.
, the film had a domestic gross of 7,868,829 United States dollar
s in its opening weekend. It went on to make 76,000,000 dollars in its foreign release for a total of 153,698,625 dollars worldwide. Upon its initial release, Free Willy ranked number 5 at the box office before moving to number 4 by the following weekend. Afterward, its rank in the box office and began to gradually decline, with the exception of a three day weekend (September 3 to September 6), in which gross revenue increased 33.6%.
website, based on 22 reviews. The film on Metacritic
has a 79 out of 100 rating.
" is a common polite and somewhat childish euphemism for penis.
Family film
A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...
directed by Simon Wincer
Simon Wincer
Simon Wincer is an Australian film director and film producer. He attended Cranbrook School, Bellevue Hill, Sydney from 1950 to 1961. On leaving school he worked as a stage hand at TV Station Channel 7. By the 1980s he directed over 200 hours of television. In 1986 he directed the made for TV...
, and released by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
under its Family Entertainment
Warner Bros. Family Entertainment
Warner Bros. Family Entertainment is the family film label of Warner Bros., established in 1992. It is best-known for producing numerous family films and television series in either live-action or animation .-History:The division was founded in 1992 to produce more family-friendly films.The first...
label. The film stars Jason James Richter
Jason James Richter
Jason James Richter is an American actor.At the age of three, he and his family moved to Hawaii, where a Japanese casting agency discovered him and signed him up for three TV spots...
as a young boy who befriends an orca whale, named "Willy."
Followed by two sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
s, a third non-consecutive sequel, Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove is a 2010 direct-to-video family film and the fourth installment in the Free Willy series. It stars Beau Bridges and Bindi Irwin. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 23 March 2010 in the United States. It was released on August 2 in the United Kingdom...
(released in 2010), and a short-lived animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
television series
Free Willy (TV series)
For the 1954-1955 CBS situation comedy starring June Havoc, see Willy.Free Willy is an animated television series, inspired by the 1993 film of the same name....
, Free Willy was a financial success, eventually making a star out of its protagonist Keiko
Keiko (orca)
Keiko was a male orca / actor who starred in the film Free Willy and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas.- History :...
. The film's famous climax has been spoofed
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
several times in popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
.
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
produced and performed "Will You Be There
Will You Be There
"Will You Be There" is a song by Michael Jackson which was released in 1993. The song is the eighth single from the 1991 album Dangerous. The song also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Free Willy, of which it is the main theme....
", the theme for the film, which can be heard during the film's credits. The song won the MTV Movie Award
MTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...
for "Best Song in a Movie" in 1994. It was also included in the album All Time Greatest Movie Songs
All Time Greatest Movie Songs (Album)
All Time Greatest Movie Songs is a joint effort with Columbia Records of Sony Music UK to released movie compilations in 1999.-Track listing:#"My Heart Will Go On" - Celine Dion#"Men in Black" - Will Smith...
, released by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
in 1999. Jackson also performed songs for the film's first sequel.
Plot
The film begins with a pod of orcaOrca
The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...
s swimming near the coastline of the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
. The pod is tracked down by a large group of whaler
Whaler
A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...
s, and a single orca (Keiko the Orca
Keiko (orca)
Keiko was a male orca / actor who starred in the film Free Willy and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas.- History :...
) gets caught in their net. Despite their best efforts to save him, his family leaves him behind, and he is taken away to a local amusement park.
Sometime later in Washington, Jesse (Jason James Richter
Jason James Richter
Jason James Richter is an American actor.At the age of three, he and his family moved to Hawaii, where a Japanese casting agency discovered him and signed him up for three TV spots...
), a young 12-year-old boy who has been on the streets since he was abandoned by his mother six years before, gets caught by the police for stealing food and vandalizing a theme park, along with a group member of three other abandoned children. However, his social worker Dwight helps him avoid legal consequences by placing him in a foster home and provided he cleans up the mess at the park. While there, Jesse befriends Willy, the orca that was caught earlier and has a collapsed dorsal fin. He is amazed by Willy who obeys his commands, something the trainer, Rae Lindley (Lori Petty
Lori Petty
Lori Petty is an American film and television actress best known for playing "Tyler Endicott" in Point Break in 1991, "Kit Keller" in A League of Their Own in 1992, and the title role in Tank Girl in 1995.-Early life:...
), had failed to do. Over time, Jesse and Willy become the best of friends, and Jesse earns a long-term job at the marina while learning to live with his new and supportive foster parents, Glen (Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen
Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
) and Annie Greenwood (Jayne Atkinson
Jayne Atkinson
Jayne Atkinson is an English-born American film, theatre and television actress. She is perhaps best known for the role of Karen Hayes on 24 as well as her Tony Award-nominated roles in The Rainmaker and Enchanted April...
).
The owner of the amusement park, Dial (Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...
) sees the talent Jesse and Willy have together, and makes large plans to host "The Willy Show" in hopes of boosting sales and making money for himself. On the day of the first performance, everyone is set to begin, but Willy comes down with stage fright due to the children banging constantly on his underwater observation area. Willy scares them off by smashing against the tank, unintentionally damaging it. Jesse is devastated, and plans to run away feeling everyone has let him down. Later, while at the tank, Jesse notices Willy's family calling to him and Dial's assistant Wade (Richard Riehle
Richard Riehle
-Life and career:Riehle was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Margaret , a nurse, and Herbert John Riehle , an assistant postmaster. He attended the University of Notre Dame....
) and other men sneaking into the underwater observation area and damage the tank enough that the water will gradually leak out in an effort to kill Willy. It is surmised that Dial is interested in collecting the insurance money, since he has a $1,000,000 life insurance plan on Willy.
Thus, Jesse, Haida native Randolph Johnson (August Schellenberg
August Schellenberg
August Schellenberg is a Canadian actor. His ethnicity is Mohawk and Swiss-German. He was trained at the National Theatre School of Canada.His first film was Rip-Off in 1971. In 1981, he did voices for the animated film Heavy Metal...
) and Rae begin plans to release the orca. They use equipment at the park to load Willy onto a trailer, and Jesse and Randolph "borrow" Glen's truck to tow Willy to the ocean. They try to stick to back roads to keep from being spotted with a gigantic orca, and eventually get stuck. Wade meanwhile notifies Dial that the orca is missing, and begin a search to find Willy.
Jesse must admit that he needs help, and calls his foster parents using a CB-Radio located in the truck they took. Annie and Glen show up and are able to help free the truck, and continue on to the marina they are headed to, in order to release Willy. Dial knows where they are likely headed, and when they show up, he, Wade and his henchmen are blocking the gate into the marina. Glen charges at them full speed in the truck, forcing the henchmen to move right before the truck plows through the gate to the marina. Glen quickly turns the truck around and backs Willy into the water, flooding his truck in the process.
Willy is finally released into the water, but Dial and his goons attempt to stop them. During the struggle, Jesse is able to get Willy to swim away, but panics when he sees that Dial has the whaling company to back him up when their boats show up in the water. They release nets and Jesse has one last chance to get Willy away before he becomes trapped. He runs towards a wall of rocks, calling for Willy to follow him, which steers him away from the boats. Jesse goes to the edge of the rocks where Willy swims up to him and tells Willy that if he makes the jump (it will be the highest jump Willy has ever attempted), he'll be free. Jesse then starts to cry as he tells Willy goodbye, but pulls himself together and goes back to the top of the rocks. He says a prayer that Randolph taught him from a story from his tribe and throws his arm in the air, giving Willy the signal to jump. To the amazement of everyone, Willy makes the jump with no problem and is finally free to return to his family and escapes the boats. Everyone cheers and Jesse happily jumps up and down, but stops when he realizes that he'll probably never see Willy again. He goes back to Glen and Annie who hug him as they look out into the sea.
The movie ends with Willy who has found his family and the entire pod swims and jumps through the ocean.
Cast
- Jason James RichterJason James RichterJason James Richter is an American actor.At the age of three, he and his family moved to Hawaii, where a Japanese casting agency discovered him and signed him up for three TV spots...
as Jesse - Keiko the OrcaKeiko (orca)Keiko was a male orca / actor who starred in the film Free Willy and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas.- History :...
as Willy - August SchellenbergAugust SchellenbergAugust Schellenberg is a Canadian actor. His ethnicity is Mohawk and Swiss-German. He was trained at the National Theatre School of Canada.His first film was Rip-Off in 1971. In 1981, he did voices for the animated film Heavy Metal...
as Randolph Johnson - Lori PettyLori PettyLori Petty is an American film and television actress best known for playing "Tyler Endicott" in Point Break in 1991, "Kit Keller" in A League of Their Own in 1992, and the title role in Tank Girl in 1995.-Early life:...
as Rae Lindley - Michael MadsenMichael MadsenMichael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
as Glen Greenwood - Jayne AtkinsonJayne AtkinsonJayne Atkinson is an English-born American film, theatre and television actress. She is perhaps best known for the role of Karen Hayes on 24 as well as her Tony Award-nominated roles in The Rainmaker and Enchanted April...
as Annie Greenwood - Michael IronsideMichael IronsideMichael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...
as Dial - Richard RiehleRichard Riehle-Life and career:Riehle was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Margaret , a nurse, and Herbert John Riehle , an assistant postmaster. He attended the University of Notre Dame....
as Wade - Michael BacallMichael BacallMichael Bacall is an American screenwriter and actor. He acted in movies and television from an early age. Turning to writing in the 2000s, he co-wrote and co-starred in Manic...
as Perry - Mykelti WilliamsonMykelti WilliamsonMichael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
as Dwight Mercer - Danielle HarrisDanielle HarrisDanielle Andrea Harris is an American film and television actress, best known as a scream queen for her roles in several horror films, four of them in the Halloween series: in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Jamie Lloyd and in Halloween and...
as Gwenie - Isaiah Malone as Vector
- Nick Gardner as Juan Pedro Gimenez
- Alec Nichols as Jesus Gonzales
Production
Most close-up shots involving limited movement by Willy, such as when Willy is in the trailer and the sequences involving Willy swimming in the open water, make use of an animatronic stand-in. Walt Conti, who supervised the effects for the whales, estimated that half of the shots of the orca used animatronic orcas (each full-sized whale needed over 250 horsepower of hydraulics). Conti stated that the fewer movements of a real Orca actually made things difficult in some ways for him and his crew; they had to concentrate on smaller nuances in order to make the character seem alive. The most extensive uses of CGI in the film is the climax of the film, filmed in AstoriaAstoria, Oregon
Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor. His American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, where Willy jumps over Jesse and into the wild. All stunts with the whale were performed by the young orca trainer Justin Sherman.
Box office performance
According to Box Office MojoBox Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
, the film had a domestic gross of 7,868,829 United States dollar
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
s in its opening weekend. It went on to make 76,000,000 dollars in its foreign release for a total of 153,698,625 dollars worldwide. Upon its initial release, Free Willy ranked number 5 at the box office before moving to number 4 by the following weekend. Afterward, its rank in the box office and began to gradually decline, with the exception of a three day weekend (September 3 to September 6), in which gross revenue increased 33.6%.
Critical response
Despite the film's strong earnings at the box office, critical response was generally mixed. Free Willy currently holds a 57% rating on the Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
website, based on 22 reviews. The film on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
has a 79 out of 100 rating.
Reaction to the movie title in the United Kingdom
When the trailer to the movie was shown in the UK it caused laughter when the title of the film was presented. This also occurred when people met posters also. In the UK and Ireland "WillyWilly
Willy, Willie or Willies may refer to:* William * Boxcar Willie , American country music singer* Willie Dixon , American blues double-bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, and record producer...
" is a common polite and somewhat childish euphemism for penis.