History Film / OrcaTheKillerWhale

** A year later, ''Film/{{Jaws 2}}'' took a shot at ''Orca'' in which the great white has killed an Orca. Ironically, the scene in ''Orca'' is actually more accurate to RealLife. Killer whales have been witnessed hunting and killing great whites in the wild, and more recent studies have shown that great whites actually do tend to actively avoid areas where orcas are known to be present, even withdrawing from them completely if an orca makes a great white it's prey.

* AwardBaitSong: "We Are One" by Carol Connors hasn't held up well over the years, but it still qualifies as a guilty pleasure to some.

* DownerEnding: By the film's conclusion [[spoiler: a town is crippled from devastation, five people are dead, one is left maimed for life]], and the whale [[spoiler:apparently commits suicide by swimming beneath the ice and drowning itself]].

* {{Revenge}}: The Orca's motives.

* {{Novelization}}: A novelization based on an early version of the script that seems to hint that the movie at one point was meant to be much larger than what ended up on screen, including a similar but different ending as well as a scene in which the townspeople held a hunting party not unlike the one in Jaws that ends in chaos. The novel also gives the impression that the whale is so so maddened with revenge that it has gone INSANE....

* DownerEnding: By the film's conclusion [[spoiler:five people are dead, one is left maimed for life]], and the whale [[spoiler:apparently commits suicide by swimming beneath the ice and drowning itself]].

* AwardBaitSong: "We Are One" hasn't held up well over the years, but it still qualifies as a guilty pleasure to some.

* BloodlessCarnage: Averted, as films in the 70s were allowed to show some (often substantial)amounts of blood and gore.

* AwardBaitSong: "We Are One" is a very bad example of one.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Turns out orca males don't stay with their mates or have much, if anything, to do with their own offspring, making its PapaWolf behavior unlikely.

* DuelingMovies: With Jaws and a number of "When Animals Attack" films that were released in the 70s.

* StockFootage: Similar to the Jaws films, stock footage was used to fill in the blanks between the animatronic killer whale effects. The same people who provided the shark stock footage in ''Jaws'' also provided the shark footage in the beginning of this film.

** A year later, ''Jaws 2'' took a shot at ''Orca'' in which the great white has killed an Orca. Ironically, the scene in ''Orca'' is actually more accurate to RealLife. Killer whales have been witnessed hunting and killing great whites in the wild, and more recent studies have shown that great whites actually do tend to actively avoid areas where orcas are known to be present, even withdrawing from them completely if an orca makes a great white it's prey.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Had the film been a success at the box office, audiences would have been treated to, OF ALL THINGS, King Kong vs Orca. Yeah, maybe we're lucky that didn't get made.

* DownerEnding: By the film's conclusion [[spoiler:four people are dead, one is left maimed for life]], and the whale [[spoiler:apparently commits suicide by swimming beneath the ice and drowning itself]].

* DownerEnding: By the film's conclusion [[spoiler:four are people dead, one is maimed for life]], and the whale [[spoiler:apparently commits suicide by swimming beneath the ice and drowning itself]].

* AnArmAndALeg: The whale bites off Annie's (Bo Derek's) [[ForTheEvulz already injured leg and is shown sadistically swimmingly off with it.]]

* BloodlessCarnage: Averted, as films in the 70s were allowed to show some amounts of blood and gore.

** The second in which [[spoiler: The orca bites off Bo Derek's character's leg]]

* SuperPersistentPredator: Though not for prey, rather the Orca wants revenge on the people who are responsible for the death of its mate and uborn child.

* TakeThat: The scene in which the orca kills a great white can be seen as one against Jaws
** A year later, ''Jaws 2'' took a shot at Orca in which the great white has killed an Orca.

'''''Orca: The Killer Whale''''' is a 1977 horror film released by Paramount Pictures during the "When Animals Attack" phase set in motion due to the release of ''Jaws''. In the film, A hunter squares off against a killer whale seeking vengeance for the death of its mate. Also The ''SuperiorStergeon'''s first film review.

'''''Orca: The Killer Whale''''' is a 1977 horror film released by Paramount Pictures during the "When Animals Attack" phase set in motion due to the release of ''Jaws''. In the film, A hunter squares off against a killer whale seeking vengeance for the death of its mate.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Turns out orca males don't have much, if anything, to do with their offspring, making its PapaWolf behavior unlikely.

* {{Novelization}} - A novelization based on an early version of the script that seems to hint that the movie at one point was meant to be much larger than what ended up on screen, including a similar but different ending as well as a scene in which the townspeople held a hunting party not unlike the one in Jaws that ends in chaos. The novel also gives the impression that the whale is so so maddened with revenge that it has gone INSANE....
* PapaWolf - Both ways actually.
* {{Revenge}} - The Orca's motives.

* {{Squick}}: While the death of the orca's mate is incredible gruesome, what happens to the uborn baby is....unpleasant.