Hollywood thriller Whalefall puts a diver inside a sperm whale, but no whale has ever been recorded swallowing a person

The only animal with documented cases of swallowing people whole is the reticulated python, not any whale. The sperm whale is the one whale with a throat wide enough to take a human. Whale scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta of Macquarie University says a person could theoretically pass down it. Lobster diver Michael Packard came closest, scooped up by a humpback off Cape Cod in June 2021.

Packard spent an estimated 30 to 40 seconds in the humpback's mouth before it spat him out.

Anatomist Joy Reidenberg on the fin whale's throat: 'I can barely get my arm down.'

Director Brian Duffield calls his film 'the opposite of Jaws', with the whale as hero.