Hideo Kojima Praises ‘Whalefall’ but Has Lost His Taste for Squid

Hideo Kojima has praised Whalefall as a visually striking, literary survival-horror film, but its story has left him reluctant to eat squid for the foreseeable future.

Starring Austin Abrams as Jay Gardiner, the film follows the scuba diver as he searches for his father’s body, played by Josh Brolin, after being swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-tonne sperm whale. He has one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.

To make the sequence as authentic as possible, director and writer Brian Duffield spent hours reviewing graphic videos of autopsies involving stranded sperm whales.

Film enthusiast Hideo Kojima shared his reaction to Whalefall on social media. “It was a literary film that explored, in a somewhat metafictional way, the Steinbeck-like relationship between whales and humans as part of an ecosystem, alongside the familial bond between father and son. The visual effects were also outstanding. However, I don’t think I’ll be eating squid for a while,” he wrote.

Kojima also said that he “loves” whales, explaining why they feature so frequently in his games. “When I was in the early years of elementary school, I researched whale ecology for a school project. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by their enormous size as mammals and their symbolic presence in the marine ecosystem.

“In Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden is swallowed, digested and excreted by the enormous Arsenal Gear, a whale that swallows digital information. Whales also feature in Metal Gear Solid 5 and Death Stranding,” he wrote, adding that his games also reference Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

I watched “Whalefall.” I had received a copy of Daniel Kraus’s novel, on which the film is based, quite some time ago, but hadn’t had the chance to read it yet. Kraus was also involved in writing the screenplay. It was a literary film that explored, in a somewhat metafictional… pic.twitter.com/sJUVPJT9DF

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) October 18, 2026

Last week, Kojima also commented on Austin Abrams’ other film, Resident Evil. “I wasn’t particularly interested at first, but since it’s Zach Cregger’s latest film, I went to see Resident Evil. Right from the opening, it hits you with music reminiscent of The Thing. From there, it’s a relentless barrage of classic horror techniques, terrifying situations and jump scares that never lets up until the very end. This isn’t a film adaptation of Resident Evil. It’s a film about the experience of playing Resident Evil controller in hand,” he wrote.

Kojima is currently involved in the film adaptation of Death Stranding, while his next game project, OD, will unite him with several of his favourite directors for a horror anthology.

He is also developing Physint, a new action-espionage property designed to bridge film and interactive entertainment. Announced in 2024, the project is being made with cutting-edge technology and talent from both film and video games. Kojima described it as an interactive “game” whose look, story, themes, cast, performances, fashion and sound aim to deliver a new level of “digital entertainment”—something that could be called a “movie.”

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