October, 1988. Adam Carlson, a reporter for a local Anchorage television station, is currently in Barrow doing a series of pieces on the “local cultural color” of northern Alaska. While out on the sea ice filming a less than promising piece, he spots off in the distance what ends up being three California gray whales – a mother, father and son – who are literally imprisoned by ice which has surrounded them in the earlier than usual onset of winter.
They are looking worse for wear as they have been ramming the ice surface to maintain a hole in the ice to be able to breathe and thus survive. The professional and cultural assessment he receives is that the whales, in their current situation, cannot survive for more than a few days, with the ice fives miles in distance to the open ocean with a vertical ice shelf that has developed midway. Adam’s piece on the whales not only gets played on his station, but is picked up by news services throughout the States, including the national broadcasters, which brings the plight of the whales to the attention of various different groups.
First and foremost is Greenpeace, Anchorage-based Rachel Kramer in particular who will do anything to save the whales, she who happens to be Adam’s ex-girlfriend the two having parted on not good terms. Rachel tries to manipulate those who can do something to do those somethings. Those groups include the governor’s office, who she wants to request deployment of the National Guard specifically to transport via helicopter tow a privately owned hoverbarge capable of breaking through the ice.
The problem for Rachel is that the hoverbarge is owned by her mortal enemy, J.W. McGraw of Alaskan Northern Oil, which wants drilling rights in the northern waters. More and more news services send their reporters to Barrow to cover the story, including Los Angeles based Jill Jerard after who Adam has long lusted from afar.
The White House gets wind of the story, support for the whales which they are determined to demonstrate, as public support grows, that White House support especially important in an election year. And the local indigenous group, the Inupiat, initially plan to harvest the whales in their certain death in an effort to protect their natural hunting/fishing way of life, despite the gray whale specifically not being part of their natural diet.
Big Miracle is a 2012 British-American drama film directed by Ken Kwapis, and 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.
Big Miracle (2012)
Directed by: Ken Kwapis
Starring: Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, John Pingayak, Ishmael Angalook Hope, John Krasinski, Andrew Daly, Thomas R. Daly, Maliaq Kairaiuak, Jeffrey Evan, Tim Blake Nelson, Thom Van Dorp
Screenplay by: Jack Amiel, Michael Begler
Production Design by: Nelson Coates
Cinematography by: John Bailey
Film Editing by: Cara Silverman
Costume Design by: Shay Cunliffe
Set Decoration by: Aaron Bailey, James Edward Ferrell Jr.
Art Direction by: Scott Meehan
Music by: Cliff Eidelman
MPAA Rating: PG for language.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 3, 2012
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