The survival thriller “Last Breath“Based on true events that actually occurred in 2012. The Alex Parkinson's (“ Life with Leopard ”), which was actually specialized in documentary films, tells in the approximately $ 24 million production of a real incident on the basis of the icy, cold North Sea in front of Scotland, in which a professional diver was cut off from the air supply and his colleagues tried everything to save him despite the most adverse circumstances. Already in 2019, Alex Parkinson's documentary “The last breath – trapped on the sea floor” was released, which reconstructed the course of the accident using archive recordings, interviews and actors.
Usually it is not the kind of film starts to not advise you to watch a film – at least not if it is as good as “the last breath”. In this case, however, you should actually refrain from providing for the time being, at least if you are thinking about looking at “Last Breath”. Because the documentary is made as intensely and atmospherically, it would completely spoil the even more gripping feature film, as Alex Parkinson's adheres closely to the real processes. And that would be really a shame, because it could hardly be much more exciting and more dramatic.
When Chris (Finn Cole), Duncan (Woody Harrelson) and Dave (Simu Liu) were on their bet in the diving bell, then the calm is literally calm before the storm.
The young Chris (Finn Cole) has already completed a few deep -sea dives with his maintenance team for underwater pipelines. Compared to his mentor Duncan (Woody Harrelson), who can look back on decades of experience, he is still a bloody beginner. This is one of the reasons why Chris' fiance Morag (Bobby Rainsbury) reluctantly let him go when he opened with anticipation for a four -week mission. Before you can pursue your work at a depth of 100 meters, Chris and Duncan, together with the very professional, but also quite self -bodied, have to bring Dave (Simu Liu) in a narrow chamber of decompression for several days. This is in the belly of the ship Tharos commanded by Captain Jenson (Cliff Curtis).
But while they still persevere in the metal tube and slowly get used to their bodies to the conditions necessary for this, a heavy storm over the North Sea. Nevertheless, the trio is lowered at the planned time with its modern diving bell as a kind of base station onto the sea floor. At first everything goes on schedule. But when the weather on the surface becomes even more brutal, parts of the Tharos positioning system give up their minds and the dive must be broken off. Dave and Duncan are already in the bell when it is moved away by the ship that has been out of control. The supply line tears with Chris and he remains with a small emergency tank with oxygen for a maximum of ten minutes alone in the ice -cold darkness of the sea …
You can literally feel the freezing cold on your own body
Only the very most cinema goers should really be familiar with the processes, details and special features of the saturation diving. Therefore, a lot has to be explained in “Last Breath”: Why do the three protagonists sit on board their ship for days in a decompression chamber for days? How does the diving bell work with which they are being drained down? What is the supply hose called the “umbilical cord” on which the life of men hangs like on a silk thread? How exactly does the technology of the apparently predominantly computer -controlled ship work? And why does this fail in the most inappropriate of all moments?
Once a tension film has to convey such a wealth of essential information, it can quickly lead to the audience feels mentally overwhelmed and therefore switches off emotionally. However, director Alex Parkinson's, who was also decisively involved in the script, manages to bring all of these facts over efficiently and understandably without having to accept cuts in relation to the intensity of his action. Sometimes the opposite is even the case: if we learn how cold it really is down there, thanks to the icy, clear pictures of chief cameraman Nick Remy Matthews (“Hotel Mumbai”) and the swelling score of Paul Leonard-Morgan (“Boston Strängler”), we start slotting even in the well-tempered cinema. And so it doesn't take long for our breath to become flatter when the tragic hero threatens the last oxygen.
Woody Harrelson particularly protrudes from the cast and delivers one of the strongest achievements in his career.
We feel with the figures. And not only with Chris, but also with the Stoian Dave and above all the older, much more extroverted Duncan. After all, he threatens that he was forced by the employer in his last effort! – retirement, still loses a real friend. However, so that we can build this bond at all, the film familiarizes us in the first few minutes in unobtrusive but efficient way with the divers, which are slightly fictionalized compared to the documentary,. Finn Cole (“Peaky Blinders”) and Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi”) play their parts withdrawn, but continuously credible. So it is on Woody Harrelson (“Triangle of Sadness”) with the warmth broadcast by his figure to ensure that the whole hair -raising story will soon be perceived primarily through the eyes of Duncan. We don't learn that much about the rest of the staff on board. And yet the concern and despair of men and women can be felt on board.
Because here, too, we are always clearly clear to us what is going on and with how much effort and ingenuity the crew is simply not ready to give up the comrade in need. Even if – after 20 minutes without air – there seems to be no really realistic chance of getting it alive to the surface.
“Last Breath” sometimes uses original recordings that were also used in the documentary. In conjunction with the newly filmed material, there is a similar atmosphere as James Cameron already produced it in “Abyss – abyss of death” – only that everything even more terrifying, because even more tangible, even more real. The fiancé of the accident was probably right when she expressed at the beginning of the film that people on the bottom of the North Sea had lost nothing. But then we couldn't have enjoyed this fascinating and exciting film.
Conclusion: tension, intensity, authenticity and emotionality – you will take your breath and you will run down your back ice cold. The strongly occupied survival thriller “Last Breath” works best if, if possible, you no longer know about his story based on real events than what we have already revealed in this meeting.