Whale Escape | Hollywood's Whale Escape based on true story: Venezuelan teenager survives inside whale's mouth, says it feels like a 'second life'

Venezuelan Adrian Simancas, 23, was capsized into the sea while kayaking off the coast of Patagonia, Chile, in February 2025, and was swallowed into a humpback whale's mouth before being spat out; he described it as feeling like gaining a 'second life'. The Hollywood film Whale Escape is adapted from the novel of the same name published by Daniel Kraus in 2023. Whale experts say the likelihood of a sperm whale swallowing an adult is extremely small, and only an adult male sperm whale of 18 metres or more could possibly do so.