Movie Review: 'Last Breath'

The 20K miles of underwater gas lines resting on ocean floors need periodic maintenance, something AI or robots can’t do. Aberdeen, Scotland is the center for ships and their teams of repairmen maintaining the North Sea gas lines. Finn Cole (Chris Lemons) is a new recruit to this line of work.

After his first mission, he plans to marry and settle down in a cottage overlooking the sea and, of course, continue working as a repairman. He will be part of a three-man team. David Yuasa (Simu Lim) is an experienced repairman and will be Finn’s partner. The third team member is Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson), their supervisor.

After boarding the transport ship that will take them out to sea, the team is sequestered in a gigantic cigar-like decompression chamber. Here they will remain for the three days necessary for their bodies to adjust to the pressure they will experience hundreds of feet below sea level.

After stashing their belongings in their “new home,” the three men begin socializing. Duncan jokes about his being the senior member with 20 years of service working with a first- timer. David quietly performs his weight training exercises. Duncan reviews the procedures they will follow in the coming days.

When their bodies are ready, the three will enter a diving bell then be lowered to a staging platform which will be the base of operation for the two-member repair team. Duncan will supervise from the bell, as will the captain and his staff onboard the surface ship.

It’s show time! Duncan secures the diving suits and helmets on David and Finn, gives them a final good word then lowers them onto the platform in the deep, dark quiet sea. The sea is not so quiet on the surface, however. A raging storm has moved the ship from its required position above the diving platform. They need to get back to the divers.

Their return becomes more urgent when Finn encounters a problem. Trying to move along with David in the wake of a huge swaying piece of equipment, his umbilical cord becomes caught and is eventually severed. He is left without his oxygen supply, any communication or his connection to the bell.

David briefly returns to the bell to strategize with Duncan and consider their options. Finn has 18 minutes of emergency oxygen from the tank attached to his suit; but after that, nothing. Everyone is watching the oxygen timer as it slowly clicks away Finn’s minutes of life. “He has ten more minutes of oxygen left,” announces Duncan. Then eight, five and finally nothing.

The ship sends down a remote-controlled subversive robotic camera device to help secure Finn’s release.

All the camera is able to do is show the lifeless Finn lying on the top of the platform, his umbilical cord swaying with the movement of the sea. Science tells us the brain can survive only five minutes without oxygen. Finn has survived 18 minutes, then 22, 26, 28.-

Directed by Alex Parkinson (credits: Living With Leopards, Lucy the Human Chimp), “Last Breath” runs 93 minutes and is a “must see” for an exciting recreation of true life story brought to life by a skilled director and his team. The music is compelling, the actors skilled and the ending totally unexpected.