50 Fun Facts About Free Willy

Which orca played Willy in Free Willy and later became the first captive orca fully released to the ocean?

Keiko became so famous through the film that fans began a worldwide letter-writing campaign to free him for real.

Which pop superstar's song Will You Be There plays over the end credits of Free Willy?

Michael Jackson was asked to write a brand-new song for the film but ran out of time, so a track from his album Dangerous was used instead.

Which Halloween comedy opened in American cinemas on the very same July day as Free Willy?

Hocus Pocus opened one place higher at the box office that weekend, with both films stuck behind holdovers such as Jurassic Park.

Where do Jesse and his helpers stop to hose Willy down during the truck escape in Free Willy?

A car wash gives the rescuers a quick way to keep Willy wet on the road, to the amazement of two homeless men passing through.

Which instrument does Jesse play that first wins over the bad-tempered orca in Free Willy?

Harmonica playing is what first bonds the two, and in the third film whalers use a recording of Jesse's tune to lure Willy.

What does Willy leap over to reach the open ocean in the famous final scene of Free Willy?

A breakwater is his last obstacle once two whaling ships seal off the marina. The leap over Jesse is the film's most extensive use of computer effects.

In Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, what disaster traps Willy and his siblings in a cove?

An oil spill from a tanker that runs aground on a reef cuts the young orcas off from their mother, and the slick later catches fire.

Which child star of wildlife television took her first leading film role in Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove?

Bindi Irwin, daughter of 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin, plays a girl sent to her grandfather's run-down park, and her brother Robert has a cameo.

What is Jesse caught doing at the marine park on the night he first meets Willy in Free Willy?

Painting graffiti on the tank earns Jesse a clean-up sentence instead of juvenile hall, which is how he gets to know the whale.

Which Reservoir Dogs actor plays Glen, the foster father who warms to Jesse, in Free Willy?

Michael Madsen made the family film a year after playing the cruel Mr. Blonde for Quentin Tarantino, a sharp change of image.

What is the name of the struggling aquatic attraction where Willy is held captive in Free Willy?

Northwest Adventure Park owed its look to a wooden backdrop, built so the real orca's tank appeared to sit in the Pacific Northwest.

What is the name of the greedy park owner who wants Willy dead in Free Willy?

Dial sees the orca only as a costly venture that has never made him money, so he lets his manager sabotage the tank.

Which Total Recall and Top Gun actor plays the villainous park owner in Free Willy?

Michael Ironside played the evil telepath in the horror film Scanners early in a career full of villains, and voiced Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell games.

Which A League of Their Own star plays Rae, the orca's trainer, in Free Willy?

Lori Petty made the film a year after the baseball hit and two years after Point Break, then took the title role in Tank Girl.

Which Oregon coastal town, whose mayor plays a fish vendor in Free Willy, hosted part of the shoot?

Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, also hosted the shoots for Kindergarten Cop and Short Circuit.

Which Indigenous people's prayer, taught by Randolph, does Jesse recite before Willy's final jump in Free Willy?

Haida stories give the film its legend of Natsilane, who carves the first killer whale from wood and orders it never to harm a human.

What do the rescuers use to lift Willy out of his tank in Free Willy?

A forklift moves him onto a trailer behind a pickup that Jesse and Randolph have taken from Jesse's foster father.

When the getaway truck sticks in mud in Free Willy, what does Jesse use to call for help?

A CB radio in the truck lets Jesse reach his foster parents, and a reluctant Glen agrees to help only when the boy pleads with him.

Why does the park owner in Free Willy secretly want his star orca to die?

To claim the insurance on a whale valued at $1 million, the owner lets his men damage the cracked tank so that the water leaks out.

Which Australian director, an Emmy winner for Lonesome Dove, made the family film Free Willy?

Simon Wincer made the whale story after the biker film Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, and later directed The Phantom.

Free Willy's orca star was filmed at Reino Aventura, an amusement park in which national capital?

Mexico City was the last stop in a search for a whale that had also taken the filmmakers to Japan, France, Spain and Argentina.

Free Willy's orca star was captured as a two-year-old calf in the waters off which country?

Iceland was also where he was flown almost two decades later to relearn life at sea, living in a pen in Klettsvík bay.

After his release into the wild, Free Willy's orca star swam about 900 miles to the coast of which country?

Norway is where he turned up about a month after leaving, seeking out people and letting children ride on his back.

Which delivery company donated a cargo flight to carry Free Willy's orca star to a new aquarium home?

UPS flew the orca, then weighing about 7,700 pounds, on a Hercules cargo plane after thousands of children turned out to see him off.

Which branch of the US military lent a C-17 jet to fly Free Willy's orca star across the Atlantic?

The Air Force plane's landing gear failed on arrival, causing over $1 million in damage, though its passenger was unharmed.

Which illness killed Free Willy's orca star in 2003, after he had returned to the open sea?

Pneumonia took him quickly at about 27, a day after he turned lethargic and stopped eating. Wild males who survive infancy average 31 years.

What did the end credits of Free Willy show that launched the campaign to free its real orca?

A phone number for whale preservation drew hundreds of thousands of calls, which pushed the studio to find its star a better home.

What stood in for the real orca in roughly half of Willy's shots in Free Willy?

Animatronic models handled the trailer scenes and the open-water swimming, and one was fired from a launcher for the climactic jump.

Free Willy's writer Keith Walker dreamed up the story while working on which 1985 adventure film?

The Goonies director Richard Donner went on to be an executive producer of the whale film, and Walker also acts in his treasure hunt.

In the original Free Willy script, Jesse was a mute ten-year-old boy living with whom?

A group of nuns raised the boy in the first draft, until a rewrite made him older and a street-tough kid to cut the sentimentality.

In Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, what is the name of Jesse's newly discovered half-brother?

Elvis turns up after the boys' mother dies in New York, and he annoys Jesse at first with constant chatter and tall tales.

Which of Willy's siblings beaches herself and needs a traditional remedy in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home?

Luna recovers only once Jesse and Randolph try the old cure, after a doctor's treatment has left her worse.

In which island chain do the Greenwoods camp when Jesse meets Willy again in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home?

The San Juan Islands are where Randolph has a new job at an environmental institute, and the sequel was partly filmed there.

Which annual ceremony named Willy its Favorite Animal Star for Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home?

Kids' Choice Awards glory came as the same sequel was nominated for Worst Sequel at the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, losing to an Ace Ventura film.

In Free Willy 3: The Rescue, Willy's newborn calf is named after which whaler's son?

Max first meets Willy by falling overboard from his father's boat, and later jumps in on purpose to stall the hunt.

Where was Free Willy 3: The Rescue filmed, with scenes shot around Howe Sound and Pitt Lake?

British Columbia hosted the shoot from late July to October 1996, and the score was performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

In which country is the 2010 reboot Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove set?

South Africa's Cape Town is where an Australian girl finds a stranded orca calf in the lagoon of her grandfather's amusement park.

In the animated Free Willy television series, what is the vengeful oil baron who hunts Willy called?

The Machine blames the whale for the loss of his arm and part of his face, a grudge that echoes Captain Ahab's in Moby-Dick.

What special ability does Jesse discover he has in the animated Free Willy television series?

Talking to animals makes him what Randolph calls a Truth Talker, which let the cartoon give Willy and other sea creatures full speaking parts.

Which R&B trio's remix of Right Here, from the Free Willy soundtrack, climbed to second place on the Hot 100?

SWV built the remix on a sample of the 1980s hit Human Nature, and it peaked one place below Weak, the trio's chart-topper from earlier that year.

Willy in Free Willy is an orca, the largest member of which family of sea mammals?

Dolphins include the orca despite its 'killer whale' nickname, and in his captive years the film's star shared a tank with bottlenose ones.

Why does Willy refuse to perform at his big opening-day show in Free Willy?

Young visitors pound the glass of the observation area until he is too upset to do tricks, and he later cracks his tank in a rage.

Which Hollywood studio released Free Willy in 1993 under its Family Entertainment label?

Warner Bros. later put money into rehabilitating its whale star, moved by the fan campaign to set him free.

Which young actor, picked from more than 4,000 hopefuls, made his film debut as Jesse in Free Willy?

Jason James Richter, from Medford, Oregon, played Jesse in three films and later took a decade off acting to play bass in a band.

Jesse's stunt double in Free Willy was a voice actress who later played which animated boy?

Jimmy Neutron's voice, Debi Derryberry, doubled for the young lead in some shots with the real orca, including the rescue in the tank.

Which composer of the RoboCop and Conan the Barbarian scores wrote the orchestral music for Free Willy?

Basil Poledouris won an Emmy for scoring Lonesome Dove, and came back to write the music for the first sequel.

Which famous film critic panned Free Willy, complaining that a whale's eyes are too far apart to love?

Gene Siskel was in a minority, since audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A.

Which actor played Jesse's social worker Dwight in Free Willy a year before co-starring in Forrest Gump?

Mykelti Williamson returned as the social worker in the first sequel, and went on to roles in Heat and Three Kings.

Which Canadian actor played Willy's keeper Randolph in the first three Free Willy films?

August Schellenberg, who had Mohawk ancestry, later earned an Emmy nomination for playing Sitting Bull.

In Free Willy 3: The Rescue, what relation is the hunted orca Nicky to Willy?

His mate Nicky is pregnant throughout the chase, and the film ends with the birth of their son.