Fun, excitement and the whale that captured the world's imagination add up to big family entertainment. A lonely boy understands the plaintive cries of the orca confined to an aquatic park's too-small tank and does something about it in Free Willy. Watch and understand why audiences have loved Willie. The boy rejoins Willy in his new ocean home and together they confront a burning oil spill in Free Willy 2. In Free Willy 3, the best of the Free Willy pictures, the plot has a grittier edge with a story about an illegal whaling operation.