the Bumpo encounters a pod of Orcas. From the boat's pulpit, Nolan fires a harpoon, nicking the largest killer's 10-foot dorsal fin but striking another smaller whale. A near-human cry shatters the silence. Novak ties a line onto the whale's tail and starts to haul it aboard. As the whale, bleeding from the prop cuts, swings in on the working boom, a fetus plops out of it onto the deck. It looks exactly like a human embryo. Nolan goes berserk as he grabs a fire hose and washes it off into the sea.

They cruise toward port that night when the boat lurches from several hard shocks. Nolan sees the female's mate, Nickfin, zooming in on the Bumpo. He gets a rifle and takes a bead as Nickfin slugs the boat with a violent whack, upsetting gear and crew, Annie breaking her leg. "Zigzag!" Nolan orders. The boat takes blow after blow, rocking, churning. Novak climbs the boom to cut the line holding the female whale. The Bumpo heels over with the release of the weight and Novak hangs on for dear life, dangling from the boom. A black shape leaps from the water at him. The searchlight gleam catches huge teeth chomping Novak. Whale and man drop into the depths.

After services for Novak, Nolan goes to South Harbor pier to check repair work on his boat. Al Swain (SCOTT WALKER), fishermen's union chief, approaches Nolan, advising that whales in the area drive fish away, "Our livelihood, you understand?" As divers work underwater on the Bumpo, Nickfin glides into the harbor, slams into a boat smashing its hull and sinking it.

That evening, workers bulldoze a beach area to bury the female whale which died. Rachel reads passages from Job in the bible. Nolan tells her he refuses to hunt Nickfin, but she says that the whale seeks revenge for the killing of its mate. He can't believe this and emphasizes he's not going after the whale. Umilak (WILL SAMPSON), an Indian, advises Nolan that the townsmen have organized, concerned about their boats being sunk and the fish being driven away by the whale. He advises Nolan to hunt the whale.

Rachel goes to Nolan telling him that Nickfin intends to fight him on the ocean. "Why else did he not smash your boat in the harbor?" she asks. He accuses her of wanting to see them fight each other. She denies this; then he tells her he understands Nickfin much better than she. He explains a similar experience, the death of his pregnant wife and unborn child at the hands of a wrong-way drunk driver. Now she understands and sympathizes.

That night Nickfin glides into the harbor and smashes two more fishing boats, at the same time wrecking a pier and breaking a fuel line. The shock knocks down a lighted lantern in a pier shed. Before long the pier and other boats are aflame, fire sweeping up fuel lines to huge storage tanks at the edge of town. Volunteer firemen quell the blaze, and now the townfolk want the Bumpo to leave immediately. Nolan receives a phone call: "Go after the whale at 6 in the morning or you ain't seen nothing yet!" Nolan turns to Paul and Annie, whose leg is in a cast, and says they have to leave town in the morning, in the pickup truck. He'll send for the boat later. Nolan tells Paul to fill up the pickup's tank.

Rachel phones Nolan and warns him that a mob is gathering in the square and that he has to leave. He goes outside to pack up his gear, leaving Annie inside. Paul is not allowed to buy gasoline in towr~, and is told there are no bus tickets either. Umilak advises him there is one way out-by boat, and as a friend he will sail with the Bumpo if Nolan wants him.

In the house, Annie pours a glass of wine when suddenly the house sways and tilts crazily. Nickfin has slammed into the pilings. Nolan runs to see Annie hopping toward him on her good leg. There is a splintering, crushing sound and the house tilts even more with Annie crawling up the floor. Nolan reaches for her as another strong tremor hits. She slips down and Nickfin leaps through the wreckage in the water, chomping and disappearing quickly. Annie's leg is gone! Nolan aghast, shouts: "I'm coming, you son-of-a-bitch! I'm coming after you!"

The next morning about a thousand townfolk watch the Bumpo cruise out of South Harbor. The crew consists of Paul, Umilak, Ken and Rachel. The main cabin is an arsenal-two rifles, a .45 pistol, a sawed-off shotgun and a stack of dynamite sticks among the firearms. At sea, the Bumpo cruises along as Nolan prepares dynamite bombs.

Nickfin following, slams the boat, the lurch knocking the dynamite out of Nolan's hand, sending it skittering on deck. Rachel kicks it, the bomb bouncing back into a hatch. She grabs and throws it, diving for cover.

There is a tremendous blast above water. The whale, staying hundreds of yards ahead, leads the Bumpo northward. Several days later they reach ice floes, large icebergs. Nickfin continues leaping a good distance ahead, beckoning on a northerly course. Determined, Nolan follows. The Bumpo uses so much fuel there is no return . . . .