If there is a lesson we can learn from the movie , it is the mess that came about altering with nature at your own peril. In this case, we are talking about the man-made danger that comes from confining a wild killer whale in a theme park and the economic peril of trying to recreate through nurture what, it turns out, can often be taught only through nature.

Keiko the killer whale was a movie star, the real-life whale featured in the 1993 film “Free Willy.” It’s the story of a good-hearted boy and his whale and the brave humans who returned him (Willy, that is) to the ocean and freedom.

Free Willy movie debut in 1993(m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjZmZjM1NWEtYTllY

y00NmIyLWEzN2EtZmQ5Yjk1ODAyZmE1XkEyXkFqcGde

QXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg, 1993.)

The real-life story was not so happy 

Keiko was a pup when captured off the coast of Iceland in the late 1970s and trained to join a long line of trick whales that performed at marine parks, in Keiko's case, he was placed in Mexico.

After the film became a “heartwarming,” “truly inspiring” “unforgettable,” “smash hit” that “kids and adults alike” would be “talking about for years,” the news media discovered that the real whale was not free and was leading a pretty miserable life.

Locality where Keiko was captured as a pup (Winerip, 2013).

“Forced to swim in endless circle, his dorsal fin drooped. He was seriously underweight, and he developed lesions from a skin virus.A veterinarian who examined Keiko estimated that if kept in the Mexican marine park, he would probably die within a few months.So to avoid this calamity, piles of money were raised from children collecting their nickels and dimes, Warner Brothers, the Humane Society and from the cellphone billionaire Craig Mc Caw (of which,all were American volunteers)  to build a $7.3 million rehab tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which was four times the size of the Mexican marine park.

Petitions for his release(Winerip, 2013).

The challenge ahead was, as it turned out, daunting. For Keiko to survive in the ocean, he had to relearn to be a wild whale.

He had to learn to hold his breath longer, swim more and catch his own food — no more froze fish dinners prepared by trainers, and for that matter, no more trainers. When he was in Mexico City he couldn’t hold his breath for two minutes, shameful by whale standards.

A snippet of the movie, where Willy jumps over the barrier and is freed (Winerip, 2013).

One reporter said,“You’re taking about something really bizarre, which was human beings teaching a whale to be a whale.” Moreover, it was said that no expense was to be spared. Mr. McCaw told reporters, “This will not be stopped for lack of money.” Once Keiko regained his health in Oregon, he was flown back to Iceland, where he went through yet another round of living-in-the-wild courses. There were boats and even a Free Keiko helicopter to track the whale as he ventured into the ocean and swam among wild pods of killer whales. And then Mr. McCaw lost millions in the dot-com crash. The project went from sparing no expense to no spare expenses. Still, Keiko made progress, and in 2002 was set loose, and swam away from his trainers and off into the ocean. Scientists tracked him through a radio signal but quickly lost sight of the world’s most thoroughly indulged whale. 

At long last, Free Willy was Free Keiko. Or was He? What happened to him? A month later, the answer surfaced.

Keiko was found all the way in the frigate waters of Norway, where the locals started feeding him with fish, a habit  that has now engraved itself onto the whale. He soon died (Decemebr 2003) because of pneumonia.

I found this movie to really be an eye opener, where this shows that animals are no meant to be held captive, domesticated or used for economic gain. This movie not only sparked me into envisioning a life where captive animals are set free, but highlights the level of animal cruelty involved.

Reference list:

Winerip,. M.2013. The Whale Who Would Not Be Freed. [Online]. Available:

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/booming/the-whale-who-would-not-be-freed.html.Sep 16, 2013. Accessed: Nov 20, 2018. (& Cover image)

 Image reference:

Free Willy.1993. IMDb. [Online]. Available:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106965/mediaviewer/rm

1409024000. July 16, 1993. Accessed: Nov 20, 2018.