Is 'Free Willy' a true story? Find out real life story of Keiko who played Willy

Free Willy is popular 1993 film where a young boy befriends an Orca whale (also kwn as killer whales) who has been kept in captivity. Eventually, ir friendship grows deeper and young boy Jake sees pain of her captivity. He helps killer whale named Willy escape into free waters. film received highly positive reviews and became a big hit. Many people who have seen film have asked this question: Is Free Willy a true story?

Is 'Free Willy' a true story?

After release of film, people wanted to kw Free Willy real story. Yes, Free Willy is a true story based on life of incredible Keiko, killer whale. It's actually Keiko whale who plays part of Willy in Free Willy. So, story is about a whale kept in captivity. 

story of Keiko begins when she was just a 3-year-old whale pup who was captured off coast of Iceland in 1970s. Keiko was trained to join a group of whales who performed tricks at Marine and was sent to a Marine Park in Mexico. When film became really popular, public came to kw that Keiko who played Willy in film was actually kept in captivity in a marine and her living conditions were far from decent. As per an article by New York times, Keiko was kept in a 12 ft long enclosure, where he was forced to swim in endless circles. As a result, his muscles atrophied and he became seriously underweight. Keiko also developed a skin virus as a result of being kept in contaminated waters. 

A massive campaign was launched by animal rights activists to free Keiko from his enclosure and give him freedom from captivity. After months of campaigning and fundraising, a new rehabilitation pool which was four times larger than his existing pool was made for Keiko where could swim freely and could start learning things to eventually one day go back to ocean. Keiko had even started to learn to hunt for his own food and was slowly adapting to being sent out into ocean. In 2002, Keiko was finally set free from his enclosure and swam away to freedom. Sadly, Keiko died in 2003 in rway due to pneumonia infection.