Last Breath info:
Director: Alex Parkinson
Writer: Mitchell LaFortune, Alex Parkinson, and David Brooks
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. Well, March is finally here. After a January and February that took forever, we made it. The weather isn’t any better yet, but at least we should be on the downhill drag of winter. This also marks the end of the awards season. Congratulations to all the Academy Award winners… as well as the Razzie Award winners. In case you missed it, I put out my first-ever Oscar predictions here. Check that out and let me know how it was.
But now, onto this week. I watched a couple of true-life stories this week. The first is “September 5” and the second one is my pick to review this week, “Last Breath”. “Last Breath” was directed by Alex Parkinson and tells the story of a team of deep-sea divers who in the middle of doing their jobs, had to switch to a full-on rescue mission. But before I get too deep (get it?) in the review, I know it’s a true story, but there will still be spoilers up ahead if you choose to read on.
There isn’t a lot of setup here, the movie just sort of jumps right into it. Outside of Chris (Cole) at home telling his wife (Bobby Rainsbury) about the dive he was getting ready to go on, we get right to the boat where the action takes place. Chris is put on team A with Duncan (Harrelson) and Dave (Liu) we get a few introductions and into the tubes, they go. This is a true story, I was amazed at how they put them in these large metal tubes and slowly accumulated them to the high-pressure water they would be in soon.
Duncan is obviously the seasoned veteran here as he is the one that stays dry as he assists the other two with everything else from “above”. He also lets his team know that this is supposed to be his last mission since they think he’s getting too old to do that part of the job. Right before Chris and Dave dive in and as the boat is making its final approach to the work site, there is a massive storm raging overhead.
Knowing that this actually happened, I am a little surprised that they let them dive during that bad of a storm. Even though the boat Captain (the versatile Cliff Curtis) and the Dive Supervisor (Mark Bonnar) were doing their best to keep them safe, the boat still experienced a malfunction and the storm aggressively moved them away from the work site. While this was happening above the surface, Dave and Chris were on the bottom getting pulled away. When Chris’s umbilical (the cord with his oxygen, comms, and power) gets caught and snapped, he is left behind. Thankfully with some quick thinking, the Captain and his crew were able to turn the boat around and get back to the work site, but time was tight.
After being flung back, Chris was eventually able to make it back to the work site and make his way to the top of the structure. From there, he hooked himself to it and then laid down as his oxygen ran out. Duncan and Dave were ready and waiting for the boat to finally make it back, so when it did, Dave quickly jumped back in, found Chris, and tried to climb back up with him. Even underwater, those heavy dive suits made it extremely difficult. With Duncan’s support, Dave finally got Chris back inside.
At first, he was unresponsive, but somehow woke up and ended up with no physical or mental damage even though he went without oxygen for over 29 minutes. It’s quite an unbelievable story since he should have been dead after that long of a time. Since this was a story I had never heard before, it also kept both me and my son on the edge of our seats trying to figure out if they were going to get back to him in time. It made for quite a cinematic experience. I could hear others around me whispering and making comments about what was going to happen.
Overall, it was a well-made movie, even if the beginning felt rushed, it kept you in suspense and the one hour and a half flew by in no time. Woody is great as usual, but the rest of the cast looked like they were going through some of that for real. It truly was an astonishing story and it was made even better by seeing the clips of Chris and the others from real-life footage knowing that they were all alright now. “Last Breath” pulled at my emotions and entertained me, so for that, I gave it a 7 out of 10. There are a few areas where I thought it could be improved, but I’m happy with it.
That’s it for this week’s review. Have you seen “Last Breath” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Did it keep you on the edge of your seat? Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are and I will be back next week for another mindless movie review of some sort.
