Films The Loneliest, a short
mockumentary film about two women searching for the loneliest whale, was made by Lilian T. Mehrel with support from an
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation production grant. The animated short film
The Phantom 52 premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival in January 2019. The film was written and directed by
Geoff Marslett, and stars
Tom Skerritt as the loneliest whale. The feature-length documentary
The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52, directed by Joshua Zeman, the director of
Cropsey, and executive producers
Leonardo DiCaprio and
Adrian Grenier, was commercially released by
Bleecker Street on July 9, 2021. The film follows Zeman and a group of five scientists and oceanographers on a quest to find the whale off the coast of California. Funded through a
Kickstarter campaign, the film received generally positive reviews among critics, holding an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews on
Rotten Tomatoes.
Time's Stephanie Zacharek called the film "both invigorating and calming to watch," while Katie Walsh wrote in the
Los Angeles Times that the film is "a modern-day Moby Dick with a conservationist bent" that "surprises, delights and will keep you on the edge of your seat." Sheri Linden of
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "the film's epilogue caps the action with a rapturous surprise", referring to the sightingcomplete with film footageof a
blue whale-
fin whale hybrid, believed to be the source of the 52 Hz calls. In 2025, the animated short film
Whale 52 - Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale screened at Manhattan's
IFC Center and at the
Woodstock Film Festival. Based on the legend of the loneliest whale, the film was animated by
Bill Plympton, and stars writer and performer
Bruce Vilanch.
Music Montreal-based saxophone player and composer
Colin Stetson's 2013 album
New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light included a song entitled "Part of Me Apart From You". Though not explicitly written about the 52-hertz whale, when first performing the song live, he has remarked on at least several occasions that the story of the "loneliest whale" resonated deeply with his composition. "This whale is alone in a large body of water, swimming, singing its song, calling for a likeness it will never find," he said by way of introducing the song at a performance at Toronto's Great Hall on 19 May 2013. "When I play this song, I can't help but think about this whale, who right at this very minute is singing alone." South Korean group
BTS' 2015 album
The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2 includes the track "Whalien 52", which explicitly uses the 52-hertz whale as a metaphor for the alienation from others often felt by adolescents. English folk duo
Kathryn Roberts and
Sean Lakeman included the song "52 Hertz" on their 2015 album
Tomorrow Will Follow Today. The song is about the whale and includes the line, "52 Hertz, 52 Hertz, I'm singing a love song that no-one can hear" in the chorus. Chinese folk metal band
The Samans included "Whalesong" in their 2012 EP with the same title. The song has lyrics such as "Making wishes that I will find my herd tomorrow" and "52 Hertz of heartbreak". This metal song features folk music elements, harsh death metal vocals and clean vocals. It was well received and soon became one of the signature songs of the band.
Books In 2020, Japanese novelist
Sonoko Machida published the novel
52-Hertz Whales, in which the anomalous whale serves as a metaphor for "voiceless" lonely people who find each other by chance. A Japanese film adaptation of the novel premiered in 2024. In 2014, American writer
Leslie Jamison published an essay in
The Atavist Magazine about the 52-hertz whale's popular appeal as a metaphor for loneliness and perseverance. The piece was later included in Jamison's 2019 essay collection
Make It Scream, Make It Burn. The 2019 book
Song for a Whale by American author
Lynne Kelly features a fictional whale known as Blue 55, who the author has stated is directly inspired by the 52-hertz whale. ==See also==