A true story that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface.
Chuck says:
There are a great many moving parts necessary to keep an undersea pipeline operational. A job many don’t think of is that of the saturation diver. When repairs are needed on the pipeline, it falls to them to fix it, sometimes requiring dives of up to 1,000 feet. Not only are they working in conditions where the pressure of the environment can kill you, the temperatures are frigid, while the darkness is oppressive.
Assigned to the support vessel “Bibby Topaz,” divers Chris Lemons, Duncan Allock and David Yuasa set out on a routine repair on a bitter spring day in 2012. Operating off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea, a storm was on the way but nothing to be concerned about. However, unusually large swells caused the ship to drift while the diving bell, which is attached to the large vessel, containing the three men was submerged. Lemons and Yuasa were in the water when this occurred, unable to reach the bell as it was being drug away, the two ultimately separated during the chaos.
One part “Apollo 13,” one part “Gravity,” Alex Parkinson’s “Last Breath” recounts these events, a gripping and at times terrifying account that puts us in the shoes of the divers. Utilizing a documentary-like approach, the director captures the intimacy that existed between the men as well as the claustrophobic nature of their environment. As a result, Parkinson creates not only a white-knuckle thriller but also a fascinating examination of the divers’ world as well as those aboard the support vessel.
The script by David Brooks, Mitchell LeFortune and Parkinson is a construction of narrative efficiency. Though background on each of the men is dispensed with quickly, it’s enough to allow the three principal actors to flesh out their characters. Allock (Woody Harrelson) is the veteran of the group, having seen many changes to the job over his lengthy tenure. This is to be is his last job, something he keeps from his colleagues until they’re submerged. Yuasa (Simu Lu) is all business and doesn’t suffer any fools. Deadly serious, he has his doubts about Lemons (Finn Cole), who only has a handful of dives under his belt. Allock’s assurances that he’s capable do little to assuage his concern. The three actors accord themselves nicely, each subtly allowing their characters’ stoic demeanor to slowly crumble as the situation becomes more dire.
What occurs aboard the “Bibby Topaz” is no less tense, as Captain Andre Jenson (Cliff Curtis) and his crew scramble to arrest the listing ship. Continuing to drift away from the drop site, dive supervisor Craig Wilkins (Mark Bonnar) and 1st Officer Hanna O’Connor (MyAnna Buring) are forced to abandon protocol and think outside the box in an effort to quickly solve the problem at hand. When Jenson decides to manually steer the ship, this introduces a new set of difficulties as vessel is run by computers. Shutting them off would then require a ten-hour reboot of the system, preventing them from using the necessary rescue equipment.
Parkinson does a masterful job weaving real footage from the dive and rescue efforts into the film, creating an immediacy that, at times, is difficult to sit through. The ticking clock element is introduced once the divers are lost, the viewer informed they only have just so much oxygen left in their tanks. While Christopher Nolan would likely have put a countdown in the corner of the frame, Parkinson’s approach of providing periodic updates proves more effective, the mystery of not having up-to-the-second information increasing the suspense.
How this situation turns out is nothing short of miraculous. What Allock, Lemons, and Yuasa endure is beyond comprehension and as such, it speaks to the power of maintaining faith even when all seems lost. “Breath” certainly doesn’t suggest that divine intervention played a hand in what occurred, yet there’s no question something inexplicable was a play. It’s a mystery nearly as unfathomable as to why these men would do this job in the first place.
