Terry Cafolla wrote the film about the Essex incident in 1820, which also formed the basis of Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick.

[2] Thomas Nickerson (Martin Sheen) recalls his past as a cabin boy on the Essex whaling ship.

The Whale used underwater shots and specialist equipment to create storm scenes for Essex, the whaleship the film is based on.

[3] The television film was made by BBC Factual Productions with Animal Planet as co-producer, with Eamon Hardy and Ruth Caleb as executive producers for the BBC and Mick Kaczorowski as executive producer for Animal Planet.

[13] Writing in The Guardian, John Crace said it "felt like a big-screen movie epic trapped inside a relatively small-budget TV programme" and was disappointed by the whale scenes.