Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove
| Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove | |
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| Directed by | Will Geiger |
| Screenplay by | Will Geiger |
| Story by | Cindy McCreery |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Malpage |
| Edited by | Sabrina Plisco |
| Music by | Enis Rotthoff |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Warner Premiere |
Release dates |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | Template:FilmUS |
| Language | English |
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove is a family film. It is the third sequel to Free Willy, and stars Beau Bridges and Bindi Irwin. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 23 March 2010 in the United States. It was released on August 2 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Unlike the last films, this film isn't connected in any way to the first three movies and is considered to be a reboot of the series.
Plot
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (August 2010) |
Dr. Sam Cooper is a veterinarian in Australia. After Sam, a widower, is hospitalized with a broken arm and leg for six weeks, his daughter Kirra (Bindi Irwin) is sent to stay with her maternal grandfather Gus (Beau Bridges), who operates a run-down amusement park by the sea front in Cape Town, South Africa. Upon arrival, Gus is playing poker while she is met at the airport by Mansa, one of her grandpa's employees. Kirra is initially unhappy about her new home, an old house designed like a pirate ship attached to the amusement park, but she makes friends with a boy called Silfiso. Gus informed Kirra of how he came to end up at the amusement park before the two go on a bike ride.
During a fierce storm, a baby male orca becomes separated from his pod (family), and stranded in the lagoon on Gus' property. The next morning, Kirra discovers the animal. Kirra named the orca Willy, who proves to be a big hit. However, Kirra is concerned that Willy is being over-exposed and not eating. Gus sets Kirra and Silfiso to work in the park, during which time Silfiso and Kirra get on well together. One day, Kirra goes out while her grandpa is asleep and talks to Willy about her parents, before she finally manages to get Willy to eat a fish.
Gus' competitor Rolf Woods learns about the new attraction at Gus' park, and offers to buy Willy; the sum of $500,000 is mentioned, but no deal is made. After much perseverance, Kirra persuades Gus to call the marine rescue centre, to discover that the animal had under-developed echolocation skills and needed his pod, meaning that he would eventually starve and would die if he was returned to the ocean. Kirra does much researching; she and Silfiso make several attempts to feed Willy but fail. One evening, Gus reveals how her mother, after going to college and meeting her father, returned to South Africa and gave Gus money to buy the park, which he lost mostly through gambling. Gus also revealed that he was both too ashamed and broke to go to his daughter's funeral when she died. The following day, Kirra tries again to feed Willy, and this time, she succeeds and even manages to stroke Willy.
Rolf hatches a plot to get the financially distressed Gus to sell Willy at a cheaper price. Rolf hires two men to make Willy sick by feeding Willy fish that have been in anti-freeze; he orders them to inject Willy with anti-freeze if he refuses the fish. The two men sneak into the park by night, but their splashing and shouting waking up Kirra, who comes down to the lagoon to confront the intruders. During the commotion, Gus arrives; Willy bites one of the hired hands on the backside, and the two men are chased off. Gus later goes around to Rolf’s house and angrily accuses him of sending the men to try and poison Willy. Rolf denies it but keeps offering to buy Willy.
Kirra camps out by the lagoon to keep Willy calm after the events of the previous night. Willy wakes her up, Kirra assumed he wanted feeding. He refuses a fish, Kirra strokes him but Willy pulls her into the water and lets her ride him. Kirra and Willy become a double-act at the park, attracting reporters and cameramen. After the show, Gus gives Kirra a bucket of live fish which she used to help develop Willy’s echolocation. Kirra puts a blindflold on Willy while Silfiso throws the fish into the water, hoping that Willy would start using his sonar to find the fish. After a while, Willy manages to learn to use his echolocation, and eats live fish put into the lagoon by Silfiso. In the meantime, Rolf returns to tempt Gus with a lower offer for Willy. Faced with a mounting orca food bill, Gus agrees to sell Willy to Rolf. Gus holds out and gets the originally mentioned half-million, but insists exchange would have to take place ten days later, after Kirra's departure.
Mansa has made an underwater recording device to record Willy’s sounds, hoping use the sounds to allow his pod to locate him. After recording Willy’s sounds; Silfiso, Kirra, and Mansa work for days, but without any results. Silfiso invites Kirra to go on a bike ride to meet his Uncle Rudy, who is a ranger. On their way back, they see a billboard for Rolf’s amusement park, advertising Willy as a new attraction. The pair hurries back to Gus’s amusement park, but not before Gus has signed the agreement selling Willy to Rolf. Kirra is heartbroken, but makes Gus promise her to make sure that Rolf takes good care of Willy. Later, when Kirra goes down to the lagoon to tell Willy that she is leaving for home, she sees Willy’s pod. The pod has gone by the time Gus arrives; a skeptical Gus said she had perhaps imagined it.
While Gus has gone out, Kirra and Silfiso go to see Uncle Rudy with a plan to put Willy back into the ocean. However, he is not around, and the two children manage to steal a crane truck and return to the amusement park. Back at the park, Gus agrees to help them get Willy back into the ocean if his pod can be found. With Mansa’s help, the four of them get Willy onto the truck. Kirra and Silfiso head for the harbour with Willy, while Gus and Mansa stay to distract Rolf, who they know is on his way over. Eventually they find Willy's family, Willy is lowered back into the water and is joined by Kirra, who jumps in to say goodbye.
At the day of Kirra's departure, she says goodbye to Mansa and Silfiso and at the airport, asks Gus if she can come back next summer. As she gets on the plane, Gus wipes away a tear. Kirra smiles as she takes a final look on Cape Town while in the ocean below, Willy and his pod swim off into the depths.
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