Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Last Breath is an underwater Apollo 13. The film, in theaters Friday, is based on a true story of a deep dive rescue as perilous as the historic space accident.
Chris (Finn Cole), Dave (Simu Liu) and Duncan (Woody Harrelson) are divers who conduct repairs on a deep sea pipeline off the coast of Scotland. When an accident strands Chris 1,000 feet underwater, his teammates work with the surface crew to rescue him.
The film does a good job introducing the procedure of diving crews so layman audiences can understand when things go wrong. Alex Parkinson directed the movie, an adaptation of the documentary he co-directed about the real incident.
One such scene is when dive supervisor Craig (Mark Bonnar) reminds Chris, Dave and Duncan of the rules of pressurization and the perimeter to which they are confined. The veteran divers already know this, but the exposition is for the audience.
Duncan and Dave go through the steps to load Chris into his diving suit, double checking and confirming everything is in order before sending him out from The Bell, the station they live in during dive missions.
When warning signals flash all over the tanker supervising the dive, it's not clear exactly what is wrong, but the characters seem to understand, allowing their alarm to be a cause of concern for the viewer.
A storm causes things to shift underwater too, so Chris has to maneuver out of a tight space while narrow corridors close in on him. One need not understand the technicalities to comprehend the physics of that.
It's when Chris's "umbilical" lifeline to The Bell gets tangled that the storm pulls him further under. Rescuing Chris becomes one problem after another, much like the three astronauts on Apollo 13 had to work with the ground crew to solve crisis after crisis.
A counter on screen ticks down the 10 minutes of backup oxygen Chris has. When it reaches zero, another counter begins ticking up the minutes he spends with no oxygen, which is even more harrowing.
One need not have a medical degree to understand that if Chris spends too long without oxygen, he will be brain dead by the time he's recovered.
The widescreen frame captures the vastness of the deep void of the ocean. Divers are small figures with limited light sources, but Parkinson, who co-wrote the adaptation with Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks, always conveys the proximity of divers to the ocean floor, pipes and The Bell.
For example, the frayed umbilical cable floats past Dave, indicating that Chris was nearby, and the volatile storm has parallel impacts below the surface.
The crew on the tanker instructs Dave and Duncan while using their equipment to assist. Captain Andre Jenson (Cliff Curtis) convinces 1st Officer Hanna (MyAnna Buring) to employ manual controls to locate Chris.
This results in characters turning lots of knobs and dials, but they appear to have a plan. They have also made it clear that manual controls are primarily for docking, so using them in open water is a major risk.
At only 91 minutes, Last Breath wastes no time committing to its suspenseful rescue efforts. The storm conditions continue to require the rescuers to adapt their protocols to the evolving situation.
There are still occasional Hollywood moments. Dave remains the practical one about Chris' chances until Duncan makes an emotional plea that motivates Dave not to give up on him. Chris has a fiance (Bobby Rainsbury) worrying about him on the surface, but she was a person in the real-life story too.
Some of the dialogue between crew members serves as shorthand to introduce everyone in the early scenes, but it is worth it to help expedite the first act. Duncan shows off how much he knows about all his colleagues to get the information out.
Chris Lemons' rescue may be a less famous story than Apollo 13, or even the 33 Chilean miners who also had a movie made about their rescue. Nevertheless, Last Breath is both a remarkable story of human beings defying the odds and a suspenseful thriller at the movies.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
