Orca (1977)

I think many people are familiar with this De Laurentiis flop, so I’ll be brief and say simply, this movie traumatized my wife. Like many, she caught it as youngster during the early days of TBS going national. Their Saturdays were filled with total movie awesomeness, Orca being in pretty heavy rotation. But this repetition is not what traumatized her, but the miscarriage, oh dear god, the killer whale miscarriage.

Let me back up and run through the story as briefly as permits...We have Richard Harris, a salty ole sea dog who is out to catch himself an orca after seeing a dazzling presentation on their intellect and cunning. So in his pursuit, rather than catching his first killer whale, he kills it. While its mate watches. And she has a terrible, wretching, slow-mo miscarriage. Whales wailing, Harris sprays the whale fetus into the ocean, and with it any future plans he has, because as we learn, killer whales are some of the most vengeful creatures anywhere! Mr. Orca swears revenge in his whale screams and vows to make Harris’s life hell in hilarious and terrible ways. Harris gives in after a series of absurd attacks ending when the whale kills Bo Derek in her first film role. Harris finally succumbs to the bullying and hollers out to sea “I’ll fight you, you revengeful sunvabitch!!!!!!” The whale then leads him out to the parking lot, er I mean Arctic and then kicks Harris’ ass, and then commits whale suicide.



Trauma pics below, consider this your warning! Harris even throws up in his mouth a little bit.






If you didn’t see this on TBS, you have to see it now because it’s so ridiculous and entertaining to watch unfold. Director Michael Anderson directed other cult classics like the 1956 version of Orwell’s 1984, and the Kris Kristofferson gem Millennium. The one actual quality part of this movie is the score is by workaholic Italian master, Ennio Morricone. There is, however, a pretty ridiculous end credit song by Carol Connors and Morricone that recounts dramatically the relationship between Harris and the whale, that begins during the whale suicide ending. Check it out below, it wasn’t easy to find, but make sure to also grab the whole score, which really is awesome.

Orca Soundtrack

Carol Connors & Ennio Morricone - My Love, We Are One

Buy Orca/ Rent It