Reel Review: Last Breath is an Anxiety Inducing Look at a Harrowing True Story
Seasoned deep-sea divers go on a routine route to mend some underwater pipeline when things suddenly go awry. Due to a large storm and depleting resources, one of the crew members gets stuck hundreds of feet below the surface with only ten minutes of oxygen supply.
Duncan (Woody Harrelson), Chris (Finn Cole), and David (Simu Liu) are the elite trio of the ship, taking first shift to repair the underwater pipe. Things all seem to be going according to plan until a storm rolls in, moving the main ship off course. This shift causes a chain reaction pulling the divers away from their planned working area. Chris gets caught on some of the underwater structure and David attempts to save him. The pull of the ship is too strong, snapping Chris’ oxygen cable and forcing David to return to the bell. Duncan and David concoct a plan to rescue Chris after telling him to stay on top of the structure.
The set up of the film wastes no time. You get a small peek into each individual as well as their dynamics with each other and then jump into the action. Seeing what some people do for a living, putting their lives at risk every day, is terrifying and powerful. These men trust one another with their lives.
The climax of the movie comes when David returns to the structure he last saw Chris, who has been without oxygen for thirty minutes. Assuming it is a body retrieval, David works his hardest to bring the diver back to safety, even if it is just for his fiance to have a body to bury. Much to their surprise, after returning to Duncan, they are able to resuscitate Chris with seemingly no injuries. A true miracle before their eyes, their fellow diver survived conditions no one has ever been able to before.
After returning to his ship and family, we get a peak into the life that the story is based on. The real diver survived the exact conditions detailed in the movie. While this is clearly a success story, much of the celebration at the end was unnecessary and drawn out. Much of that footage was better held off for a credits montage. Even crazier than the story itself is the fact that only weeks later, Chris went back down to finish the job he started.
Last Breath is a harrowing tale of a real life story that doesn’t dwell too much on set up but dives right into the action. While the third act drags along a bit, it doesn’t take away from the true heroism and miracle that took place. Peppering real life footage from the documentary of the same name, this story takes form in a really authentic way. Sometimes it is possibly to defy the odds and survive unimaginable things.
Last Breath is playing in theaters and available to buy digitally.
