Things Only Adults Notice In Free Willy

1993's Free Willy is all about what adults don't notice. Those who are supposedly older and wiser, with the exception of an integral few, are uninterested in anything beyond their rigid conception of reality — homeless children and captive creatures are left to fend for themselves. In contrast to this carelessness, Jesse, the 12-year-old protagonist, understands that home isn't simply a place to stay. In Willy's case, in fact, his place of residence is the thing keeping him from truly being at home. Jesse's experiences as a homeless orphan uniquely equip him to understand Willy's predicament, in a way that an older generation focused on profit, marriages, and job security isn't able to do. It is only through Jesse's young, off-kilter perspective that WIlly is freed.

Free Willy is a coming-of-age story for everyone involved. Jesse reacquaints his foster parents and fellow trainer Rae with a childlike sense of empathy and love, helping them discover real maturity. On the other hand, Randolph, Rae, the Greenwoods, and, most importantly, Willy, help Jesse discover a more mature and healthy notion of family. The divide between the old and young is just as pronounced in Free Willy's audience as it is in its story — much of this movie goes right over kids' heads. We're here to explore everything in Free Willy that only the adults notice, from its marriage-centric jokes to its depiction of familial struggle.

In 2020, Free Willy turned 27. This made the film the same age Keiko, the whale who played Willy, was, when he died off the coast of Norway shortly after being released into the wild. This puts Keiko in the "27 Club," an eerie group of movie stars, musicians, and other well-known celebrities who died at 27 years old.

The superstition surrounding these deaths extends beyond the tragic serendipity of their ages. People were understandably rattled when Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, and Jimmy Hendrix passed away within just a few years of each other, all at the same age. The first two died of heroin overdoses, while the latter two suffered, respectively, a dubious "death by misadventure" in a home swimming pool, and a suspected drug overdose that has inspired extensive conspiracy theories over the decades.

The lost souls of this club died far too young, often after long battles with addiction and mental health. Keiko, who still depended on humans for food and companionship at the time of his death, was young by wild orca standards, but old for an orca being held in captivity. When Keiko died, he was, sadly, lost somewhere between youth and maturity, much like his fellows in the 27 Club.

If there's a lot in Free Willy that goes over the heads of today's youngsters, then there is even more they miss in 1985's The Goonies. Funnily enough, there are numerous thematic and production-related ties between the two films, which pretty much every modern kid will miss.

Both The Goonies and Free Willy were shot in Astoria, Oregon. Astoria celebrates its own "Goonies Day" every year on June 7, and is home to the Oregon Film Museum, located in the Clatsop County Jail, site of the famous Goonies jailbreak. The museum is chock-full of sets, exhibits, and artifacts from Oregon films like Free Willy, The Goonies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and more. There are even more connections behind the scenes: Keith Walker, who co-wrote the screenplay for Free Willy, also portrayed Irving Walsh in The Goonies.

Fans have also pointed out that Jesse's somber goodbye to Willy mirrors Mikey's last words to One-Eyed Willy the pirate in The Goonies: Both of them murmur, "Bye, Willy," and follow it up with an expression of fondness.

One of the most heart-wrenching (and heart-warming, in the context of the film's arc) moments in Free Willy comes when Jesse asks for Glen's assistance in saving Willy's life. He bargains with him desperately, saying that if he helps them, he'll do anything. Glen asks what it is that Jesse thinks he wants from him, and Jesse replies, "I don't know. I don't know what you want from me."

Jesse doesn't quite understand yet that familial love isn't transactional. He's never had a family of his own to learn from — the first lesson he gets is from the Greenwoods, Rae, and Randolph, who teach him about Orca pods and lore. In this same scene, though, Jesse demonstrates that he has indeed learned a lot about family. "Look," he explains to Glen, "I gotta look out for Willy, and I gotta do what's best for him. Do you understand?" 

As he makes this plea, Jesse himself sounds like a parent. Of course Glen understands: He's been trying, despite Jesse's confrontational behavior, to do what's best for his adoptive son this whole time! In this scene, we see just how far Jesse has come and how vulnerable he still is. Real love, he has slowly learned, isn't about trying to get something from someone. This is why he still loves Willy just as much, even after the whale failes to perform his conditioned routine in front of an audience.

Randolph's stories are a key element in Jesse's development from scrappy homeless youth to enthusiastic son, friend, and caretaker. Consider the scene in which Randolph details the lore of the whales and the history of his people, the Haida. This discussion flows into another, in which Jesse excitedly relays the story to his surprised and excited adoptive parents.

In this legend (as Randolph tells it), a young Haida named Natsilane loses his way while hunting fish with other braves, and nearly perishes in a massive storm. Afterward, he still can't find his group — all he finds is a huge log on the beach. He carves a beast on the log that comes to life as the first orca after Natsilane prays over it, leaping into its true home in the ocean.

There's just one problem, which adults might pick up on: Earlier in the film, Randolph explains that orcas' eyes "discovered the stars long before man was even a whisper on Mother Earth." This wouldn't make sense if it was, in fact, man who created the first orca.

Regardless of this error in continuity, this moment is magical, and introduces a prayer that Jesse repeats during the climax of the film, when Willy, like the first orca, makes his supernatural leap into the ocean.

While it is true that love isn't transactional, that doesn't mean that it doesn't require compromises every now and then. Glen and Annie appear to be quite happily married, but Glen doesn't pretend that married life is a bed of roses. This character trait doesn't just work for laughs: It makes Glen the ideal person to teach Jesse about love.

Love isn't perfect. It can mean saying goodbye. It can mean making sacrifices. But it is, ideally, worth it. Glen's line about giving up his car for his wife is amusing and meaningful to older viewers because they can identify similar choices in their own lives, and how they were worth it in the end, despite the bickering they might have caused.

Speaking of bickering, Glen has his own humorous take on that, too: When Jesse asks if he and Annie ever fight, Glen chuckles and comments that they schedule one every other month or so. It's a wry nod to the way couples get to know each other and thereby settle into routines (not necessarily a bad thing) to serve the common good, and an important lesson for Jesse to learn. Love isn't easy, but it's worth it.

The villain of the movie, Dial, is obsessed with money and profit, with no regard at all for the emotional or physical wellbeing of the marine life under his care. Resentful of Willy from the beginning for the extreme cost of maintaining his tank and feeding schedule, Dial snaps when the whale, distressed by the aggressive crowd of park-goers pounding on his tank in anticipation of the first "Willy Show," fails to perform.

Such an expensive asset (or liability, in Dial's eyes) must also cost a lot to insure. This is something few kids grasp. Adults, on the other hand, have a better (though hopefully not too good) understanding of insurance fraud. Not only do they have knowledge of the financial mechanisms that would offer Dial a million-dollar payout for Willy's death, but they also understand Dial's revelation that he doesn't have theft insurance.

Deciding on insurance coverage is an exercise in risk assessment. It's so unlikely that someone could successfully pull off a whale heist that spending money on insurance against that eventuality just wouldn't be worth it. Children might not understand this nuance, but adults get a good laugh out of it — and a richer understanding of Dial's comeuppance.