Based on an inspiring true story, seasoned deep-sea divers battle the raging elements to rescue their crewmate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface. A film by Alex Parkinson, starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, Mark Bonnar, MyAnna Buring, Josef Altin, Bobby Rainsbury, Connor Reed, and Cliff Curtis.

20,000 miles of pipeline sprawl across the bottom of the world’s oceans. They are maintained by saturation divers working at depths of up to 1,000 feet. It is one of the most dangerous jobs on Earth.

Chris Lemons (Finn Cole) returns to his mobile home on recently purchased seaside land in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where he lives with his fiancée Morag Martin (Bobby Rainsbury). He tells her about his upcoming job as a saturation diver at Clipper Quay. Morag expresses concern about Chris’s safety working at the bottom of the North Sea and worries about him being away for a month on his new rotation.

The next day, Chris arrives at Aberdeen Harbour, the staging point for North Sea diving operations, and boards the support vessel Tharos. Dive Supervisor Craig (Mark Bonnar) briefs the divers that their rotation will last 28 days, during which they’ll be pressurized to 300 feet to replace a section of pipeline. After completing the job, they’ll undergo four days of decompression. Craig divides the divers into three groups: Group C with Nick (Brett Murray), Alex (Kevin Naudi), and Paul (Claudiu Baciu); Group B with Stu (Nick Biadon), Kirk (Riz Khan), and Brad (Aldo Silvio); and Group A with Duncan Allock (Woody Harrelson), Chris, and legendary diver Dave Yuasa (Simu Liu).

Duncan, Chris, and Dave enter the chamber where they’re pressurized to match the water depth they’ll be working at, breathing a specialized gas mixture as the support vessel carries them to their destination. While confined in the pressurized chamber, Duncan reveals this will be his final rotation with the company. Chris suggests Duncan could take a Dive Supervisor position like Craig’s, but Duncan dismisses the idea, insisting he’s not cut out for management.

The pressurization process helps prevent decompression sickness by ensuring the body’s tissues are saturated with the gas mixture at the same pressure as the surrounding water.

Despite stormy weather on the ocean’s surface, Dave and Chris exit the diving bell lowered from the support vessel and descend to the seabed. There, they work on an undersea gas line manifold while Duncan remains in the bell, monitoring their status and managing their umbilical lines that provide communication, power, and oxygen.

A diving bell is a specialized underwater vessel used in deep-sea diving operations, particularly in saturation diving. It serves as a pressurized chamber that allows divers to safely descend to and ascend from great depths without having to undergo decompression stops.

The support vessel Tharos suddenly experiences a malfunction, losing its hydroacoustics. While the crew attempts repairs, all thrusters unexpectedly go offline, making it impossible to maintain position. The vessel begins to drift, dragging the diving bell and everything attached to it along with the current.

On a support vessel, hydroacoustics plays a crucial role in utilizing sound waves in water for various operational purposes. The vessel often employs sonar systems to detect and map underwater objects or features, such as identifying obstacles, locating underwater equipment, or monitoring the seafloor. Hydroacoustic systems also aid in precise positioning of the vessel or underwater equipment by using sound waves to measure distances and depths. During subsea operations like pipeline laying or offshore construction, hydroacoustics helps monitor the placement and condition of underwater structures. Additionally, hydroacoustic sensors can be used to monitor marine life or detect changes in the underwater environment, which is important for environmental impact assessments. While hydroacoustics might not be commonly used for direct communication with divers, it can help track their location during operations.

On the seabed, Dave notices the diving bell moving, indicating the ship has drifted. He quickly alerts Chris, who’s working on the pipeline inside the manifold, to get out immediately. Craig broadcasts an urgent message to abort the operation, warning Duncan about the runoff and instructing him to give the divers as much umbilical line as possible.

As the ship drifts farther away, Dave and Chris scramble to climb to the top of the manifold. Suddenly, Chris’s umbilical line snags, becoming entangled in the manifold structure. Dave desperately tries to reach him, but there’s no slack left on his own umbilical as it’s pulled away by the moving diving bell. Just as the tension on Chris’s line increases to its breaking point, he begins to suffocate, gasping desperately as he’s suddenly unable to breathe. Dave calmly instructs Chris to switch to his bailout tank, which will provide him with just ten minutes of air.

Saturation divers use a helium-oxygen gas mixture, commonly known as heliox, to breathe during deep-sea operations. This mixture is preferred because it helps prevent nitrogen narcosis and reduces the risk of decompression sickness, both of which are significant concerns in deep diving. Helium is used instead of nitrogen because it is less soluble in blood and tissues, which reduces the risk of decompression sickness, and it does not cause narcosis, which can impair judgment and coordination. Oxygen is added to the mixture to support breathing, but its concentration is carefully controlled to avoid oxygen toxicity at high pressures. The exact composition of the heliox mixture can vary depending on the depth and specific requirements of the dive, typically including a small percentage of oxygen (around 1-4%) with the remainder being helium.

Dave warns Chris about what’s coming next – his umbilical line will snap, pulling him off the structure. Dave promises he’ll come back for Chris, but urges him to climb back to the top of the manifold once he’s free, emphasizing he won’t be able to rescue Chris if he can’t find him. Suddenly, Chris’s umbilical snaps with tremendous force, sending him plummeting to the seabed while Dave is helplessly dragged away by his own umbilical line, still connected to the diving bell being pulled by the drifting ship.

Without power from the support vessel, Chris finds himself in complete darkness on the ocean floor, his compass broken. With only eight minutes of air left, he desperately searches for his way back to the manifold. Meanwhile, aboard the support vessel, the crew races against time to fix the Dynamic Positioning System that would allow them to return to their original position and rescue Chris, who remains stranded on the seabed.

A Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) is a sophisticated technology used on vessels to maintain their position and heading in the water, even in adverse weather conditions. This system is crucial for offshore operations, such as oil rigs, wind farms, and construction sites, where precise positioning is essential. DPS utilizes a combination of thrusters that can be adjusted in speed and direction to counteract environmental forces like wind, waves, and currents. The system relies on a variety of sensors, including GPS, gyrocompasses, accelerometers, and wind sensors, to continuously monitor the vessel’s position, speed, and orientation. Advanced computer algorithms process this data to calculate the necessary adjustments to maintain the desired position and heading, ensuring the vessel remains stable and on station.

Directed by Australian-American-British filmmaker Alex Parkinson and written by Parkinson, Mitchell LaFortune, and David Brooks, LAST BREATH is a survival thriller film based on the true story of Chris Lemons, a saturation diver who survived a near-fatal accident in the North Sea in 2012. During a routine repair mission, Lemons became disconnected from his oxygen supply at 330 feet underwater, leaving him with only minutes of emergency air. His colleagues, Duncan Allcock and Dave Yuasa, orchestrated a rescue against overwhelming odds, culminating in Lemons’ miraculous survival after 29 minutes without oxygen.

During the 2012 accident, Chris Lemons faced a series of critical challenges that threatened his survival. The primary issue was the disconnection of his oxygen umbilical, leaving him reliant on the limited emergency air supply in his diving helmet. At a depth of 330 feet in the North Sea, he was exposed to extreme pressure, and the freezing temperatures posed a significant risk of hypothermia. After a short period without oxygen, Lemons lost consciousness, complicating his rescue as his colleagues had to locate and retrieve him without knowing his exact condition. The time window for rescue was extremely narrow, with every passing minute reducing his chances of survival. Additionally, the darkness and poor visibility at such depths made it difficult for the rescue team to locate him, and communication was limited, adding to the complexity of the operation. Despite these overwhelming obstacles, Lemons’ colleagues managed to orchestrate a miraculous rescue, saving his life against all odds.

The film takes us behind the scenes of a job that’s largely unseen or unknown to most people. I even thought this kind of work should be done by robots by now. The details are meticulously crafted, creating an almost documentary-like cinematic experience.

In 2019, Chris Lemons’ story was documented in a documentary titled “Last Breath”. The documentary, directed by Richard da Costa and Alex Parkinson, recounts the dramatic events of Lemons’ accident in the North Sea in 2012. The documentary features interviews with the divers involved, as well as reenactments of the incident, providing a gripping and detailed account of the accident and its aftermath. It captures the intense drama and the incredible teamwork that led to Lemons’ survival, making it a compelling and inspiring story of human resilience and camaraderie.

I’m always fascinated by thriller films based on true events, particularly when they involve inexplicable circumstances against all odds. The script is engaging, and the narrative remains compelling throughout. Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole deliver impressive performances, with the supporting cast making everything believable, as if we’re watching the actual events unfold before our very eyes.

LAST BREATH was theatrically released in the United States on 28 February 2025, by Focus Features.

What’s it like to shoot a movie underwater?
They went through an intense program led by the film’s dive supervisor, Abigail Borg, whose father had been a North Sea saturation diver. Finn Cole’s father was an avid scuba diver, so he had some experience. There’s a lot going on in the water. They’ve got to act, for one, and dive safely. There are divers around specifically to make sure the talent is safe and people making sure the “umbilical” source of oxygen stays secure. They each had communication systems with which the film’s director, Alex Parkinson, could speak with them. Underwater Cinematographer Ian Seabrook is also there with his camera rig.

Director Alex Parkinson Talks World Building Under the Sea
I wanted to do right by the real people. I wanted to honor their stories. But also I took liberties at points. Dramatic license at times. I’ll give you an example. The divers breathe helium while they’re underwater, so in real life they have these helium voices, high and squeaky. To have that throughout the film would obviously sound ridiculous. We ended up making them not exactly the same as the real people, but left enough so you recognize that they are pretty realistic and pretty honest to who they are. The characters are so key to how the story’s told: Dave with his cold nature, Chris with his sort of naïve wanting to prove himself. And then Duncan, the old timer who’s been through it all and retiring. What they were like in real life was absolutely crucial to how the story’s told. With my documentary background, I’m very used to working and reacting to things to get what I need basically. I’m always editing in my head as I’m going along. But without doubt, planning was a crucial element because there is an enormous amount of underwater footage in the film.

Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu & Finn Cole on Becoming Real-life Divers in LAST BREATH
Whether you like your co-workers or not, can you imagine spending 24 hours a day with them for weeks on end? Probably not, but that’s what saturation divers — who live in pressurized chambers for weeks while working deep below the ocean surface — do every time they take an assignment. One wild aspect of this job, even like your best friend, when they come and stay with you, it’s like ‘OK, stay the weekend, you can leave on Sunday, no problem.’ But saturation divers are together 24/7 for a month, you know what I mean, and it’s just these three guys. You gotta really have, hopefully, a good relationship with them.