Have you heard the one about the guy who gets stuck inside a whale? No, not the Bible story about Jonah, the survival story that imagines what, exactly, that might look like. Based on the novel by Daniel Kraus, “Whalefall,” directed by Brian Duffield, requires a certain suspension of disbelief to go along with this high-concept thriller (though the science is sound).

Austin Abrams, in his second solo survival thriller in a month after “Resident Evil,” stars as Jay, and it’s a one-man show. He’s exceptional in this mode, talking himself through these insane situations, allowing his fear and vulnerability to show. In “Whalefall,” despite the absurd situation, he sells the deeply earnest melodrama of the film, which is about grief and catharsis more than anything else. During his struggle to survive, Jay learns to accept the father that he had and lost, and the person that he’s become, both in spite of and because of his father.

We meet dad first, Mitt (Josh Brolin), a rough-around-the-edges waterman and dive master from the Central California coast. The ocean is the place that Mitt wants as his final resting place, his persistent, hacking cough indicating to us the shape he’s in. A year later, after he’s gone, we meet Mitt’s family, including the reserved, uncomfortable Jay. In trying to accept his father’s death, he embarks on a secret mission to find his remains in the cove where he died — without knowing that what remains of his father is him.

This mission results in the worst morning anyone’s ever had. On his dive, Jay is caught up in a hunt between a squid and sperm whale, and gets swallowed. We know that this is the premise of the film, but we keep hoping that Jay might escape this fate, in an action-packed suspense sequence of three creatures fighting mightily. Still, he ends up trapped in the whale’s stomach cavity with an angry giant squid. As Jay weeps in fear and sorrow, the camera pulls out to capture his isolation and dread. Here’s where many would give up. Jay might not realize it yet, but he’s not trained for that.

“Whalefall” takes place during the hour or so that Jay is trapped inside (we keep time through how long he has in his oxygen tank), but we’re given breaks from the gooey claustrophobic horrors of a whale’s intestines with various flashbacks. As he’s sucked beyond the whale’s throat, we get a flashback of Jay and Mitt’s biggest fight before Mitt’s death; he passes out in pain ripping the squid’s beak out of his hand and it takes us back to another moment of reflection. These memories create a portrait of his father: a tough, unyielding and quite judgmental man who insists on his son having the same value system and passions that he does. That dogged insistence drove a wedge between them.

But in Jay’s fight to survive, a channel opens up for these two men to finally communicate — insert joke here about how men would rather get swallowed by a whale than go to therapy. Inside the whale, Jay has a profound experience recognizing that his father and the lessons that he tried to impart are indeed within him, and that’s how he’s going to survive.

The expression of these themes are quite obvious in the script, which was written by Kraus and Duffield. Brolin keeps whispering “the ocean provides” every time Jay comes upon some new tool that might aid in his escape. One might chuckle at the lack of nuance here, but the film doesn’t shy away from being heartfelt, as repressed emotions are allowed to emerge in this circumstance.

But the filmmaking on display in “Whalefall” is remarkable, as Duffield weaves in elements of horror, and Abrams’ solo performance is astonishing. At times, he’s all eyes and teeth, acting behind a mask and through a regulator, his expression and screams emerging from under all that scuba gear. Duffield crafts a nightmarish environment of cavity walls, muscles and sphincters, toxic air, and acidic goo. Jay spits blood into the water he’s sloshing in, watches it disappear, and says, “it’s chewing me,” realizing he’s been swimming around in briny bile. The next chamber is even worse. In this harrowing journey through the digestive system of a whale, it’s just Abrams’ face, the goo and the impeccable sound design, mysterious roaring and rumblings echoing throughout.

“Whalefall” is much weirder and more hallucinatory and spiritual than one might expect, and if the themes are heavy-handed, this is an over-the-top concept. But if you’re willing to go on this deep dive into the unknown, “Whalefall” rewards with a fable that has a whole lot more heart (and guts) than most adventure movies these days.

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'WHALEFALL'

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for peril, violent content, bloody images, some strong language, and thematic content)

Running time: 1:46

How to watch: In theaters Oct. 16

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