There’s an enduring appeal to the survival thriller. Stories of daring adventure, freak accidents and the sheer endurance required to survive are reminders of the resilience of the human spirit. But in “Last Breath,” a new film based on the true story of a 2012 diving accident in the North Sea, the humanity of the story is subtly pitched against something more threatening to life itself: mechanized automation.
“Last Breath” is directed by Alex Parkinson, who co-directed the 2019 documentary of the same name about the same event. In 2012, a team of saturation divers in the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland, were repairing underground oil rigging when one of the diver’s “umbilical” cables snapped in rough weather, stranding him on the seabed, 300 feet underwater, with only a few minutes of backup oxygen.
The narrative feature adaptation doesn’t need much dramatization with such urgent, tense material, and Parkinson, along with co-writers Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks, brings a meticulous approach to this lean re-creation, focusing on the complex, multilayered systems that make such an endeavor as this work. First and foremost, it’s the people operating these systems that make this task run smoothly, during normal day-to-day activity (which is already one of the most dangerous jobs in the world), and times of crisis.
Parkinson introduces us to this unique world through the people: Chris (Finn Cole) is a relatively new local diver eager to work, and eager to start his life with his fiancee, Morag (Bobby Rainsbury). We’re quickly introduced to Chris’ team, the warm, quirky, experienced old codger, Duncan (Woody Harrelson), who calls himself a “SAT Daddy” (for saturation diving) and the stern, taciturn Dave (Simu Liu).
As it turns out, you want both a Duncan and a Dave on your side when things go haywire, as they do when the ship’s computer system goes down in the middle of a night dive during a storm. Dave, the other diver, delivers strict, direct orders to Chris as he panics, his cable snagged on an underwater structure, his body serving as an anchor to the out-of-control ship. Duncan, who monitors the divers from the “bell,” dangling below the ship, is the person to remind Dave that Chris is worth going back for, even if it’s just a body recovery.
As Chris is stranded with only 10 minutes of backup oxygen, and a ship with no controls battling rough seas, the entire team has to collaborate, quickly. The entire incident is only about 40 minutes, and with such a lean structure, Parkinson is ruthlessly efficient in his storytelling, but never heavy-handed. Performance and casting does much of the work here, with a strong ensemble playing the ship’s crew, from Cliff Curtis as Captain Jenson to Mark Bonnar as the dive supervisor Craig. Every character is palpably felt as a real person deeply invested in Chris’ rescue.
It’s in this simple showcasing of the teamwork going into this rescue, and a well-placed line from Dave about how all of their jobs might be automated in 10 years, that Parkinson underscores the film’s thesis about the importance of people in these kinds of crises. When the computers go down, who can you rely on? A machine would let the ship drift for days, leaving Chris behind. A computer might calculate that one “diver” is not worth the Herculean effort.
Parkinson lets the human decision-making play out in front of us, with Captain Jenson weighing the risk of environmental disaster, and the pivots on which they decide instead. In every moment, “Diver #2” becomes more human, more important, as they work together to save him. If you don’t already know the ending of the story, Parkinson delivers a film in which it feels like we genuinely don’t know how this will end, with certain sequences that are sickeningly suspenseful.
Stunning underwater photography in the brackish depths gives the sense of “Last Breath” as a kind of “Gravity” underwater, as Chris is untethered from safety. But crisp, clear photography aboard the ship (and inventive use of the utilitarian cameras used for communication) constantly reminds us of the many people working to retrieve him. A computer can let you down abruptly, and it will never drag you off the seafloor. This sturdy, solid thriller underscores that at their core, survival stories are always stories of humanity’s best, and the impossible things we can achieve when we work together.
Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service critic.
“Last Breath” — 3 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: (PG-13 for brief strong language)
Running time: 1:33
How to watch: In theaters Feb. 28
