In February 2024, a dead fin whale washed up on the Oregon Coast for the first time in 10 years. A local indigenous tribe made the first cuts of the carcass to pay respects to the animal, and a team of researchers released its intestinal gas to prevent an explosion. From there, the whale was left to decompose on the beach, feeding the local ecosystem, but not before strange encounters with a diversity of whale-watching humans. 

Filmed over the course of the whale’s full decomposition back into the Pacific Ocean, this short documentary is a cinematic portrait of a decomposing whale and what that means for the humans who come to see it. Visitors of all ages and walks of life circle around the splayed carcass to witness its spectacle. Some inspect it with the lens of a citizen scientist, others take bizarre selfies with it for social media, and many will ponder their own existence. The film’s audio interviews reveal a collective inner dialogue of curiosity and wonder: How did it die? Where did it come from? What does it mean for the environment? What does it mean to me? 

Weeks pass and the tides loosen whale flesh from bone. Bugs feast on chunks of meat rotting under the sun. Crows and eagles wait for the caravan of humans and automobiles to leave so they can feed on whale skin and intestines. All the while, the waves move the dead beast around, flapping its tail as if it had been alive the whole time. Then one day, it is gone. The high tide has reclaimed the whale back into the ocean and shortly thereafter, during a solar eclipse, thousands of stranded velella mysteriously wash onto the same beach and begin to feed the ecosystem anew.