| Free Willy film series | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Simon Wincer Dwight H. Little |
| Produced by | Lauren Shuler Donner |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris Enis Rotthoff |
| Studio | Regency Enterprises |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. (1993-1997) Warner Premier (2010) |
| Release date(s) | 1993 (Free Willy) 1995 (Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home) 1997 (Free Willy 3: The Rescue) 2010 (Free Willy: Escape From Pirate's Cove) |
| Running time | over 6.5 hours total (as of 2010) |
| Country | United States South Africa |
| Language | English |
Free Willy is a series of family films from Warner Bros. The first installment, Free Willy, was released on July 16, 1993, the second, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, was released on July 19, 1995, and the third film, Free Willy 3: The Rescue was released on August 8, 1997; these first three films were produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, and distributed by Warner Bros.. The fourth installment, Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove, was directed by Will Geiger, and distributed by Warner Premiere. It was a reboot of the original series and is in no way connected.
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Free Willy was directed by Simon Wincer and was shot mainly in Mexico City and Portland, Oregon.
The film begins with a pod of Orcas swimming near the coastline of the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, this family of Orca is tracked down by a large group of whalers, and a single orca (Keiko the Orca) gets caught in their net. Unable to save him, his family leaves him behind, and he is taken away to a local amusement park.
Sometime later, Jesse (Jason James Richter), a young boy who has been on the run since he was abandoned by his mother six years before, gets caught by the police for stealing food and vandalizing a theme park along with a group member of three other abandoned kids (who are not caught). However, his social worker Dwight helps him avoid legal consequences, provided he cleans up the mess at the park. While there, Jesse befriends Willy, the Orca that was caught earlier and has a collapsed dorsal fin. He teaches him behaviors, something the trainer, Rae Lindley (Lori Petty), had failed to do. Over time, Jesse and Willy become the best of friends, and Jesse earns a long-term job at the marina while learning to live with his new and supportive foster parents, Glen (Michael Madsen) and Annie Greenwood (Jayne Atkinson).
The owner of the amusement park, Dial (Michael Ironside) sees the talent Jesse and Willy have together, and makes large plans to host "The Willy Show" in hopes of boosting sales and making money for himself. On the day of the first performance, everyone is set to begin, but Willy comes down with stage fright due to the children banging constantly on his underwater observation area. Willy scares them off by smashing against the tank, unintentionally damaging it. Jesse is devastated, but notices Willy's family in the ocean. Later, while at the tank, Jesse notices Dial's assistant Wade (Richard Riehle) and other men sneaking into the underwater observation area and damage the tank enough that the water will gradually leak out in an effort to kill Willy. It is surmised that Dial is interested in collecting the insurance money, since he has a $1,000,000 life insurance plan on Willy.
Thus, Jesse, Haida shaman Randolph Johnson (August Schellenberg) and Rae begin plans to release the Orca. They use equipment at the park to load Willy onto a trailer, and Jesse and Randolph "borrow" Glen's truck to tote Willy to the ocean. They try to stick to back roads to keep from being spotted with a gigantic Orca, and eventually get stuck on a back road. Wade meanwhile notifies Dial that the Orca is missing, and begin a search to find Willy.
Jesse must admit that he needs help, and calls his foster parents using a CB-Radio located in the truck they took. Annie and Glen show up and are able to help free the truck, and continue on to the marina they are headed to, in order to release Willy. Dial knows where they are likely headed, and when they show up, he, Wade and his henchmen are blocking the gate into the marina. Glen charges at them full speed in the truck, forcing the henchmen to move right before Willy's ride plows through the gate to the marina. Glen quickly turns the truck around and backs up Willy into the water, flooding his truck in the process.
Willy is finally released into the water, but Dial and his goons have a backup plan for the death of Willy. The whaling company shows up in the water, releasing nets into the water to trap Willy in the marina and succeed. Jesse has one last chance. He leads Willy to an area where if Willy would just jump, he would be free. Amidst everyone's prayers, Willy makes the jump, to the amazement of all his friends, and is free to return to his family. The film ends with the happy trainers and newly formed family watching Willy swim away.
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home was directed by Dwight H. Little.
Jesse, the boy who freed Willy the orca two years ago, has been adopted by his foster parents, Glen and Annie Greenwood. They have come to the San Juan Island Environmental Institute from which they will embark toward Willy's new habitat. Before they leave town, however, Jesse's counselor informs him that his birth mother, who abandoned him eight years before, has died in New York City. To add to his dismay, Jesse has to contend with the sudden presence of his overly talkative and mischievous younger half-brother, Elvis (Francis Capra), who is a virtual stranger to him. Elvis is prone to telling lies and easily gets on Jesse's nerves. He is invited on their long camping trip so that he and Jesse might get to know one another.
On this trip, Jesse reunites with his old Native American friend Randolph Johnson (August Schellenberg), a shaman, and quickly becomes smitten by Randolph's goddaughter, Nadine (Mary Kate Schellhardt). As the youngsters grow closer, Jesse helps Nadine befriend Willy and his whale siblings, Luna and Little Spot.
As they continue to enjoy their camping trip, an oil tanker runs aground and spills oil into the ocean, trapping the three young whales in a small cove. When word gets out that the whales are trapped and Luna is dying from the oil in her lungs, the president of the oil company (Jon Tenney) arrives with a great plan to move the whales into captivity where they can recover from their injuries. His real plan, however, is to sell the whales to marine mammal parks and have them perform in shows.
Jesse, Nadine and Elvis get the whales away from the cove by stealing the boat belonging to Glen, Jesse's adopted father, and leading them out of the cove to safety, but aren't able to save themselves when the tanker explodes and the oil in the water catches fire. Their boat hits a rock and starts to sink while Glen, Annie, and Randolph set out to find them in Randolph's boat while calling for help. Nadine and Elvis are lifted into a rescue helicopter summoned by Randolph's distress signals, but young Jesse is unable to hold on and falls back into the water. There is too much smoke in the air and the helicopter is forced to leave. Right as he is about to get engulfed by the flames, Willy arrives and takes Jesse under the flames to the other side. There they come upon Randolph's boat and Glen, Annie and Randolph pull Jesse safely aboard.
In the end, Willy, Luna and Little Spot are reunited with their mother and Jesse learns to accept Elvis, despite his annoying ways. Elvis also starts being more honest and reveals to Jesse that even though his mother abandoned him, she always loved him and regretted that she couldn't care for him. Jesse is then able to let go of the past and move on with his friends and his new family.
Free Willy 3: The Rescue was directed by Sam Pillsbury.
Jesse is sixteen years old and works as an orca-researcher on a research ship called the Noah alongside his old friend Randolph. They suspect that Willy and his pod are being hunted by whalers posing as commercial fishermen. Aboard just such a ship, the Botany Bay, Max, who is ten years old, takes his first trip to sea with his father, a whaler from a long line of whalers, and learns the true nature of the family business. During his first hunt, Max is thrown overboard and comes face to face with Willy. From this point on, Max is working against his own father, teaming with Jesse and Randolph to save Willy from becoming $200 per pound sushi. Jesse introduces Max to Willy properly after learning of Max's experience and how Max likes whales. Jesse tries to get his and Randolph's head boss to take the threat to the whales seriously, but he refuses to until Jesse manages to get proof with help from Max.
Jesse knows the whalers are heading back out to go after Willy and his pod, using a copy of the song Jesse plays on his harmonica as a lure for Willy, who won't realize it's not Jesse until it's too late. Jesse's boss plans to call for help the next day, but knowing it will be too late then, Jesse, Randolph and one of their fellow researchers, Drew, steal the research boat the Noah and go after the whalers themselves. Max manages to buy them a little time by jumping into the water and forcing the whalers to perform a rescue, which gives Jesse and his two companions enough time to catch up. Max's father is angry because he learns that Max isn't on his side and believes Max tried to sabotage the engine, but it doesn't stop him.
Jesse, Randolph and Drew try to bluff the whalers into stopping, but when it doesn't work, Jesse rams the Botany Bay with the Noah, causing them to miss Willy and knocking Max's father into the water. Willy tries to kill him, biting at him, but Jesse and Max manage to convince him to stop. Max's father then gets trapped under a net and nearly drowns as the net drags him down, and ultimately comes face to face with Willy himself. Willy, instead of killing him, saves him by pushing him to the surface and holding him there long enough for Jesse and Randolph to rescue him. The Marine Patrol arrive, having been summoned by Jesse before he rammed the Botany Bay and catch the whalers (who are stunned by Willy rescuing their boss) in the act and arrest them. Being saved by Willy causes Max's father to realize that he was wrong about the whales, and he apologizes to Max. The father is not sure where to go from here as his whole life has been about whaling, but Max tells him he is his father and forgives him.
Later, Jesse, Randolph, Drew and Max witness the birth of Willy's son (the mother is an orca named "Nikki") and Jesse decides to name him Max when given the choice. The film ends with the two whales, their calf, and the rest of the pod swimming away out to the open sea.
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove, the final film of the series and a remake of the original, was directed by Will Geiger.
Dr. Sam Cooper is a veterinarian in Australia. After Sam, a widower, is hospitalised with a broken arm and leg for six weeks, his daughter Kirra (Bindi Irwin) is sent to stay with her maternal grandfather Gus, who lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Upon arrival, Gus is playing poker while she is met at the airport by Mansa, one of her grandpa's employees. Kirra is initially unhappy about her new home, an old house designed like a pirate ship attached to a run-down amusement park by the sea front but she makes friends with a boy called Silfiso. Gus informed Kirra of how he came to end up at the amusement park before the two go on a bike ride.
During a fierce storm, a baby male orca becomes separated from his pod (family), and stranded in the lagoon on Gus' property. The next morning, Kirra discovers the animal; Silfiso expressed fear that if Gus would try to make money if he found out about the baby orca. Kirra named the orca Willy, who proves to be a big hit. However, Kirra is concerned that Willy is being over-exposed, and that Willy isn’t eating despite attempts to feed him. Gus sets Kirra and Silfiso to work in the park, during which time Silfiso and Kirra get on well together. One day, Kirra goes out while her grandpa is asleep and talks to Willy about her parents, before she finally manages to get Willy to eat a fish.
Gus' competitor Rolf Woods learns about the new attraction at Gus' park, he comes offering to buy Willy; the sum of $500,000 is mentioned, but no deal is made. After much perseverance, Kirra persuades Gus to call the marine rescue centre, to discover that the animal had under-developed echolocation skills and needed his pod, meaning that he would eventually starve and would die if he was returned to the ocean. Kirra does much researching; she and Silfiso make several attempts to feed Willy but fail. One evening, Gus reveals how her mother, after going to college and meeting her father, returned to South Africa and gave Gus money to buy the park, which he lost mostly through gambling. Gus also revealed that he was both too ashamed and broke to go to his daughter's funeral when she died. The following day, Kirra tries again to feed Willy, and this time, she succeeds and even manages to stroke Willy.
Rolf hires two men to make Willy sick by feeding Willy fish that have been in anti-freeze so that the financially distressed Gus will sell him at a cheaper price. Rolf orders the men to inject Willy with anti-freeze if he refuses the fish. The two men sneak into the park by night, but their splashing and shouting waking up Kirra, who comes down to the lagoon to confront the men. During the commotion, Gus arrives; Willy bites one of the hired hands on the backside, and the two men are chased off. Gus later goes around to Rolf’s house and angrily accuses him of sending the men to try to poison Willy. Rolf denies it but keeps offering to buy Willy.
Kirra camps out by the lagoon to keep Willy calm after the events of the previous night. Willy wakes her up, Kirra assumed he wanted feeding. He refuses a fish, Kirra strokes him but Willy pulls her into the water and lets her ride him. Kirra and Willy become a double-act, reporters and cameramen are at the park recording Kirra riding Willy as well as interviewing her. After the show, Gus gives Kirra a bucket of live fish which she used to help develop Willy’s echolocation. Kirra puts a blindflold on Willy while Silfiso throws the fish into the water, hoping that Willy would start using his sonar to find the fish. After a while, Willy manages to learn to use his echolocation, and eats live fish put into the lagoon by Silfiso. In the meantime, Rolf returns to tempt Gus with his [lower] offer. This time, Gus agrees to sell Willy to Rolf, as the orca feed- bill is getting too expensive. Gus holds out and gets the originally mentioned half-million, but insists exchange would have to take place ten days later, after Kirra's departure.
Mansa has made an underwater recording device to record Willy’s sounds, hoping use the sounds to allow his pod to locate him. After recording Willy’s sounds, Silfiso Kirra and Mansa work for days, but without any results. Silfiso invites Kirra to go on a bike ride to meet his Uncle Rudy, who is a ranger. On their way back, they see a billboard for Rolf’s amusement park, advertising Willy as a new attraction. The pair hurries back to Gus’s amusement park, but not before Gus has signed the agreement selling Willy to Rolf. Kirra is heartbroken, but makes Gus promise her to make sure that Rolf takes good care of Willy. Later, when Kirra goes down to the lagoon to tell Willy that she is leaving for home, Willy heads for the sea fence. As she runs to the rocks, she sees Willy’s pod. The pod has gone by the time Gus arrives; Gus is sceptical, saying she had perhaps imagined it.
As her grandpa goes out, Kirra and Silfiso go to see Uncle Rudy with a plan to put Willy back into the ocean. However, he is not around, and the two children manage to steal a crane truck and return to the amusement park. Returned to the park, Gus agrees to help them get Willy back into the ocean if his pod can be found. With Mansa’s help, the four of them get Willy onto the truck. Kirra and Silfiso head for the harbour with Willy, while Gus and Mansa try to distract Rolf, who they know is on his way over. Eventually they find Willy's family, Willy is lowered back into the water and is joined by Kirra, who jumps in to say goodbye.