Last Breath is a tense, compact survival thriller set largely in one of the most isolated places on Earth: the bottom of the ocean. One of two movies based on true stories that have previously been documentaries in theatres this weekend (the other being Superboys of Malegaon), Last Breath is as straightforward and unfussy as these types of race against the clock narratives tend to get. That’s not a knock against what director and co-writer Alex Parkinson is trying to do here, as the film is certainly effective in its aim to keep the viewer captivated. But beyond doing the one thing it sets out to do really well, there’s not much else to expect from Last Breath.
Last Breath is set among the world of saturation divers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: inspecting oil and gas pipelines that are located at upwards of a thousand feet below sea level. They are shipped out to the middle of the sea in a pressurized pod, dropped to around three hundred feet beneath the surface of the water, and then asked to plunge themselves into the black nothingness of the depths for six hour shifts. Needless to say, there’s a lot that could go wrong and the margin for error is slim to none.
Setting out for a 28 day trip to the North Sea off the coast of Scotland to repair a section of pipeline (including four days of decompression at the end to keep their organs from exploding on return) are veteran diver Duane Allock (Woody Harrelson), straight-faced professional Dave Yuasa (Simu Liu), and well trained rookie Chris Lemons (Finn Cole). Shortly after reaching the section of pipe they’re supposed to be fixing, a storm on the surface causes the ship to which their pod is tethered to lose power and start drifting. It’s a catastrophic failure and in the chaos, the umbilical that provides both oxygen and a lifeline to Chris snags on some metal and breaks, giving Duncan, Dave, and everyone on board the ship approximately ten minutes to save their partner’s life.
Last Breath is all about tension and problem solving. Those looking for character development will get just enough to care about the situation at hand and not much more. Harrelson plays the old timer on his last voyage. Liu gets to play the brilliant workaholic without a sense of humour. Lemons is tasked with being the young guy who has a fiancee, his whole life ahead of him, and the most to lose. Everyone working from the surface – including the captain, played by Cliff Curtis, and the dive leader, played by Mark Bonnar – are just there to fill in the technical details and walk everyone through the steps towards saving the stranded diver. The story wrinkles and twists are unique to the specific situation (they can’t drop an anchor to keep from drifting because of all the pipes beneath the ship, once they get to Chris the next challenge is to figure out how to deadlift him back to the pod), and that propels Last Breath to being successful. The cast is good, and they display the proper amount of “brothers in arms” chemistry to make for a rousing “no man left behind” mission, but they’re all pretty much a means to an end.
Last Breath also plays a lot differently if you – like myself – have already seen the documentary, which was co-directed by Parkinson and Richard da Costa. While accomplished and boasting some tremendous underwater cinematography, Parkinson’s fictionalized version has less suspense when held up against its predecessor. Granted, the documentary builds itself around a big reveal and is edited in such a way that it feels like great drama, but it also takes a bit more time getting to know the people involved and garnering more emotional reactions. This version of the story is just trying to be a mainstream movie that gets in and gets out without much fuss.
The pacing of Parkinson’s work is also off here. The set-up where the viewer gets introduced to the ins and outs of saturation diving is interesting, but once it comes time to shift into thriller territory, everything moves so quickly that the story pretty much wraps up in less than an hour. Then, Parkinson and co-writers Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks have to quickly find ways to kill time and bring this thing to feature length, something the documentary version of the same story with the same beats didn’t have to do. The lack of character depth throughout Last Breath ends up coming back to bite the film in the backside during the final act, but the film remains agreeable to the end. It’s clear that Parkinson knows the entertainment value inherent in this story of survival against tremendous odds, and he delivers a good movie from it. But in cutting a lot of depth that was there the first time he tackled the same material, the fictionalized version suffers in comparison.
Last Breath opens in theatres on Friday, February 28, 2025.
