Director: Alex Parkinson
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, Cliff Curtis
Screenplay: Mitchell LaFortune, Alex Parkinson, David Brooks
93 mins. Rated PG-13.

The rescue movie…it’s a staple subgenre of drama and action, one where our heroes must fight all the odds to get their friend or loved one back home. Matt Damon has cemented his entire career on getting home, and you might think that this particular subgenre doesn’t have anything new to offer. I’d argue that the new film Last Breath, based on the 2019 documentary, has a few new ideas, and a shockingly expedient countdown that makes the whole film as claustrophobic as its underwater setting.

When a group of deep-sea saturation divers, working 100 meters beneath the surface of the water, have their support vessel’s dynamic positioning system malfunction and fail, one of them, Chris Lemons (Finn Cole, F9: The Fast Saga), is trapped and cut off from his oxygen umbilicus, leaving him on the seafloor with extremely limited oxygen resources. Now, his crew mates, Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson, The Hunger Games) and David Yuasa (Simu Liu, Barbie), along with the crew of the support vessel, must do everything in their power to save him, but with only minutes of oxygen left, can they make it to him, or will they be too late?

I cannot recall such a tight timeline for a rescue film. From the moment they Chris loses his oxygen supply, he has mere minutes of air remaining, and so much of the film plays out, not in hours, days, or weeks, but in minutes, as the various crew members stranded all around the North Sea have to figure out and execute a plan with little to no chance of success and even less likely odds of finding Chris alive, the whole back half of the film play out rather quickly and give enough insight for someone like myself, who did not see the documentary or know about the story prior.

That’s the fascinating structure of Last Breath. Running a tight 93 minutes, most of the first half of the film is slow set-up, putting the various dominoes in place and providing enough character development for Chris (while somewhat shortchanging Duncan and David), before that latter half kicks the whole proceedings into high gear and leading to a satisfying and shocking conclusion that certainly had me holding my breath more than once.

Cole and Liu are both solid here, but it’s Woody Harrelson who stands out in a “old dog” kind of role, the man on what could be his last trip out before hanging it up, but the intensity he brings to Duncan at all the right times makes for a fatherly and layered characterization, often making up for the imperfect character development that he’s given in the screenplay. He’s even able to infuse a little bit of that Woody Harrelson charm as necessary, and it makes for one of the best performances in this early part of 2025.

Last Breath is not a full reinvention of the classic rescue story, but its handling of the true-life events, brisk pacing, and some great work from its cast, particularly Harrelson, make for a more unique and thrilling experience in the lower depths of our world. As a poor swimmer who can’t hold his breath so well, I was certainly enthralled at this well-shot and well-edited thriller that spends a lot of necessary time setting up its intense finale. Despite a lighter screenplay when concerning its characters, Last Breath is well-worth seeking out.

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe