Big Miracle | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Ken Kwapis |
Screenplay by | Jack Amiel Michael Begler |
Based on | Freeing the Whales by Tom Rose |
Produced by | Steve Golin Michael Sugar Tim Bevan Liza Chasin Eric Fellner |
Starring | Drew Barrymore John Krasinski Kristen Bell Dermot Mulroney Tim Blake Nelson Vinessa Shaw Ted Danson |
Cinematography | John Bailey |
Edited by | Cara Silverman |
Music by | Cliff Eidelman |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
Countries | United States United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $40 million [1] |
Box office | $24.7 million [2] |
Big Miracle, originally Everybody Loves Whales, is a 2012 drama film directed by Ken Kwapis. It stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski. The film is based on Tom Rose's 1989 book Freeing the Whales , which covers Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 international effort to rescue gray whales trapped in ice near Point Barrow, Alaska.
In small town Alaska 1988, Adam Carlson, a news reporter, recruits his ex-girlfriend Rachel – a Greenpeace volunteer – on a campaign to save a family of gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle. Adam names the adult whales Fred and Wilma, and the infant Bamm-Bamm.
Drawn into the collaborative rescue work are several normally hostile factions: Inupiat whale hunters, a Greenpeace environmental activist, an oil executive, ambitious news reporters, the National Guard, the American president and politicians on the state, national, and international levels. Also joining in the effort are two entrepreneurs from Minnesota, who provide de-icing machines to help keep the hole open.
Finally an enormous Soviet ice-breaker ship arrives to remove the last barrier before the whales die. The ship's first attempt leaves only a dent. The ice is finally broken and the adult whales escape the ice. The infant whale dies from injuries.
The epilogue, narrated by Nathan, reveals that McGraw used his new reputation to uphold a contract to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Karl and Dean's de-icers made them local celebrities, Scott and Kelly were married, Jill worked her way up to a national news network, Greenpeace membership became more prominent, Adam confesses his love for Rachel and she returns his affections and they share a kiss, Adam got to stay being a news anchor, and both Nathan and Malik became closer to one another, and Nathan recalls about the hole in which the whales were first found and quotes, "It kept getting bigger and bigger, until it let the whole world in."
Warner Bros. bought the screenplay by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler in April 2009, and in the following June, Kwapis was attached to direct. [9] In September 2010, with Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski cast in the starring roles, filming began in Seward. It had a production budget of $30 or 40 million. The crew constructed sets in Anchorage to resemble places in Utqiagvik during the whale rescue. Filming lasted for 10 weeks. [10] The film's working title was Everybody Loves Whales, which is a line still heard in the film. Visual effects on Big Miracle were created by Rhythm and Hues Studios and Modus FX. Burger King promoted the movie with toys. The MPAA has rated this film PG for language.
The red-and-black Soviet icebreaker in the movie is modeled after real world Arktika-class nuclear-powered icebreaker which is considerably larger than the diesel-electric icebreaker used in the actual rescue effort, the 1975-built Admiral Makarov. In shots which include live footage of the 2007-built 50 Let Pobedy , the blue-and-white polar bear logo of the former operator of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet, Murmansk Shipping Company, is clearly visible but the atom symbol on the hull as well as the name of the vessel has been airbrushed out.
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 75% based on reviews from 104 critics. The site's consensus was: "Big Miracle uses real-life events as the basis for a surprisingly satisfying family drama." [11] On Metacritic the film holds a score of 61 out of 100 based on 28 reviews. [12]
The film grossed $2,267,385 in the US and Canada on its opening day, ranking fourth behind Chronicle , The Woman in Black , and The Grey at the box office. [13] The film grossed $7,760,205 on its opening weekend and remained at the same spot. [14] On its second weekend the film dropped to #8, with $3,946,050. [15] The film closed its run on April 5, 2012, with $24,719,215 worldwide.
Drew Blythe Barrymore is an American actress, producer, talk show host and author. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received several awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for nine Emmy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. She is also the Chief Gifting Officer for Etsy as of January 2024.
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Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, is the borough seat and largest city of the North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located north of the Arctic Circle, it is one of the northernmost cities and towns in the world and the northernmost in the United States, with nearby Point Barrow as the country's northernmost point.
The Iñupiat are a group of Alaska Natives whose traditional territory roughly spans northeast from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the northernmost part of the Canada–United States border. Their current communities include 34 villages across Iñupiat Nunaat, including seven Alaskan villages in the North Slope Borough, affiliated with the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; eleven villages in Northwest Arctic Borough; and sixteen villages affiliated with the Bering Straits Regional Corporation. They often claim to be the first people of the Kauwerak.
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Operation Breakthrough was a US-Soviet effort to free three gray whales from pack ice in the Beaufort Sea near Point Barrow in the U.S. state of Alaska in 1988. The whales' plight generated media attention that led to the collaboration of multiple governments and organizations to free them. The youngest whale died during the effort and it is unknown if the remaining two whales ultimately survived.
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Big Miracle is a book that tells the true story of three gray whales trapped beneath Arctic ice in the fall of 1988, and of Operation Breakthrough, the collaborative efforts to free them by oil company executives, activists, Inupiat people, the U.S. military, and Soviet ice-breakers. Written by journalist Tom Rose, the book was originally published in 1989, titled Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event. It was re-released under its current title by St. Martin's Press in 2011.