Chris Hemsworth fights a whale in second In the Heart of the Sea trailer

For everyone out there who has a very specific fantasy of watching Chris Hemsworth take on a giant whale (there are dozens of us), this Christmas is going to be good to you. That’s the basic premise of Ron Howard’s upcoming biographic thriller In the Heart of the Sea, which follows the exploits of George Pollard, Jr., and his crew after his whaleship Essex is sunk by a sperm whale.

In the Heart of the Sea is based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 book of the same name, which is a biographical account of events that inspired Herman Melville’s literary classic Moby Dick – which means In the Heart of the Sea is a movie based on a book based on real events that inspired a different book. In the Heart of the Sea releases Dec. 11, and stars Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Fairley and Charlotte Riley.