If you are a disaster movie fan or love rescue movies then Last Breath is a good one. The story of a pipeline maintenance diver who was cut off and had to be rescued by his team after having been deprived of oxygen for over 30 minutes. It is an intense claustrophobic thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat especially if you don’t know the true story. Will the diver survive or will he have to be left IN the dark seas because the other divers can’t get to him in time while the ship is being ravaged by huge waves? I admit that I didn’t know anything about this story going into the movie and I’m glad that I didn’t because I got to find out what happened in the 90 minutes the story is told within the film. The movie was a lot better than I thought it was going to be and it was intense, especially for somebody that does suffer from claustrophobia to the point that I don’t even go scuba diving or have never wanted to serve on a submarine. But for rescue films, this movie is right up there with Apollo 13 and Gravity.
Starting Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole, they portray the divers who are sent to repair a gas pipe below water. Woody Harrelson plays the seasoned diver who has seen it all while Finn Cole plays the young diver who has to be rescued. All three actors did a great job and help keep you close to the action much like Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton did in Apollo 13. It’s easy to compare this movie to one of the great astronaut rescue movies because a lot of the shots are done in a small space, this one being a divers capsule compared to the Lunar Capsule in Apollo 13. The best part about this movie is it does not linger, the pacing is great. You only need 90 minutes to really tell the story So it’s an easy movie to watch. What also makes it worth watching is you’re up close and personal with the action and the underwater sequence says especially in the dark gives you that intense and claustrophobic feeling that puts you right in the middle of the action. I also praise the actors who are on the ship trying to mount the rescue operations. You know me, some of my biggest complaints is always about pacing where a movie is too long or sometimes too short, but 90 minutes was perfect.
There isn’t much to complain about because with it being a short film and the pacing being perfect to match the intensity of the story, you don’t have time to be bored or wonder what’s going on within the story. But within 90 minutes it’s easy to connect to these characters and what they will go through to rescue the diver. I wish we had had more backstory among all the characters except for the main character who has some great scenes with his fiance. Great stories always have added scenes that give you more background on the characters so that you really can connect to them, we don’t really get that with this film because it’s not so much about their backstories as it is about the rescue, but it is a small complaint of mine and this is one of those areas where maybe an extra 10 minutes of flashback scenes would have been fine. But all in all, the movie is a great watch, and it does make it better if you go in blind not knowing the backstory. Because of this, it may only be a one-timer for you, but it’s definitely worth watching. And, I recommend watching Last Breath on the big screen because watching it in a darkened movie theater will add to the intensity of the dark underwater scenes. With great performances and a short, concise, pacing this movie does not disappoint as it tells the story of one of the most heroic rescue missions underwater. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Go see Last Breath, you will not be disappointed!
