In the Heart of the Sea Trailer: Chris Hemsworth Battles the Leviathan

Posted on January 3, 2015

Here is the first teaser trailer for the In the Heart of the Sea which tells the true story which inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick. Ron Howard directed the film which stars Chris Hemsworth as first mate Owen Chase.

The film is based on the 2000 National Book Award-winning non-fiction book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. The Essex was attacked by a giant sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean in 1820. The first mate, Chase, wrote about the crew's ordeal and it was published during his lifetime. Decades later, the cabin boy's account of the events was found in a manuscript. The two accounts differ on some facts, but both agree that the sperm whale sank the whaling ship.

The film focuses on the crew's real life struggle to reach South America in tiny boats salvaged after the ship went down. They faced starvation, dehydration and many other struggles. The surviving crew had a terrible choice: travel to land 1,000 miles against the winds, or try to reach South America, which was thousands of miles away but offered favorable winds.

Whale experts say that sperm whales are extremely intelligent and have huge brains for their size. They are peaceful creatures, but their excellent memories could lead them to remember a whaling ship that had killed one of its pod, especially if the whale was a female who lost a calf. Sperm whales have been hunted nearly to extinction. Whaling is banned by most countries. Only Japan and Norway continue to hunt whales.

The film also stars Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Brendan Gleeson, and Jordi Molla. Ben Whishaw as author Herman Melville who found inspiration in the story for his most famous work, Moby Dick. The film will hit theaters on March 13, 2015. It will also be released in IMAX. Take a look:

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