The boat that captures Willy in the opening scene of the film is named Pequod, a nod to Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby Dick: The infamous Captain Ahab helms a whaling boat of the same name. Coincidentally, the chief mate of the Pequod, a man named Starbuck, is the namesake of the popular coffeehouse chain owned by Howard Schultz. Schultz was also the owner of the Seattle Supersonics, who Randolph supports, and was, in fact, the man who sold the team to a new city.
In Moby Dick, the Pequod has been at sea for years, to the point that all three of its masts are replacements, and many parts of the craft that have been damaged in action have been replaced by parts of the beasts the crew has conquered. Ahab is on a mission to get revenge on the whale that took his leg, but his fervor threatens to destroy him.
Unlike Captain Ahab, Jesse's dogged quest is redemptive, not vengeful. Nor is it as steeped in symbolism as the journey at the heart of Melville's novel. But there is meaning in it all the same: Dial, the villain of Free Willy, conjures an enemy out of an animal, and, like Ahab, maintains a single-minded vendetta that ultimately costs him. Jesse, on the other hand, conjures a friend.
