Giant Squid: The Ocean's Elusive Leviathan

The complete natural history of the Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux). From ancient Kraken mythology to the first live deep-sea encounter."

Visual note: This film uses stylized cinematic reconstructions; the primary sources and real photo/footage references are linked below.

For centuries, sailors told stories about something rising from the deep—tentacles thick as ship masts, eyes like lanterns. The kraken.

But the ocean eventually began to leave evidence on shore.

This is a 23-minute contemplative documentary tracing Architeuthis dux—the giant squid—from sea-monster legend to scientific specimen… and the long pursuit to see one alive in its natural habitat.

We follow the arc:

• The kraken myth and early “natural history” accounts that treated the creature as real.
• The Newfoundland strandings of the 1870s, when multiple giant squids washed ashore and forced science to take notice.
• The 1861 Alecton encounter near Tenerife—an early close contact that ended with only a fragment recovered.
• The 2004 breakthrough: the first photographs of a living giant squid at depth, plus a recovered tentacle that confirmed the scale.
• The 2012 milestone: an extended deep-water encounter—face-to-face in the dark—for 23 minutes.
• The evidence of deep-sea battles: sperm whales with circular sucker scars, and stomachs packed with squid beaks.

Even now, the giant squid remains an animal we’ve only glimpsed—alive—only a handful of times.

— Atta, The Quiet Observatory

Sources and further reading below.


GIANT SQUID BASICS (ARCHITEUTHIS)

Encyclopaedia Britannica — Giant squid (genus Architeuthis)
https://www.britannica.com/animal/gia...

Australian Museum — Southern giant squid (Architeuthis dux)
https://australian.museum/learn/anima...

KRAKEN / LEGEND → EARLY “NATURAL HISTORY”

Royal Collection Trust — Pontoppidan’s Natural History of Norway (English translation; first published in Danish in 1752)
https://www.rct.uk/collection/1090500...

NEWFOUNDLAND STRANDINGS (1870s) + EARLY DOCUMENTATION

Wikipedia overview (with primary references) — List of giant squid specimens and sightings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Primary historical paper (PDF) — Addison E. Verrill (Transactions of the Connecticut Academy; includes Newfoundland specimens and the Thimble Tickle account)
https://archive.org/download/biostor-...


THE ALECTON ENCOUNTER (1861, NEAR TENERIFE)

French corvette Alecton (overview + encounter summary)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_...

Watercolour reproduction of the Alecton encounter (historical illustration source info)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...


2004: FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS OF A LIVE GIANT SQUID AT DEPTH

Kubodera & Mori (Proceedings of the Royal Society B) — First-ever observations of a live giant squid in the wild (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2005.3158

Science News (context + summary)
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/b...


2012: EXTENDED DEEP-WATER FOOTAGE (630m) + 2006 SURFACE VIDEO CONTEXT

Phys.org / AFP report — filming near Chichi Island (Ogasawara), depth details, and 2006 surface footage mention
https://phys.org/news/2013-01-giant-s...

Smithsonian Magazine — “Elusive Giant Squid Captured on Film for the First Time” (NHK/Discovery footage context)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...

Reuters — “The Kraken wakes: first images of giant squid filmed in deep ocean” (NHK/Discovery release context)
https://www.reuters.com/article/lifes...


SPERM WHALES, SCARS, AND BEAKS (EVIDENCE OF PREDATION)

Smithsonian Ocean — Giant squid sucker marks (circular scars on sperm whales)
https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/inver...

NOAA Technical Report (1987) — Cephalopods from the Stomachs of Sperm Whales
https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/Technical%2...


BONUS: MORE RECENT “RARE GLIMPSE” CONTEXT (FURTHER READING)

NOAA Ocean Exploration — Filmed a giant squid in U.S. waters (Medusa / e-jelly lure; Widder & Johnsen)
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/expedi...