Even essentially the most mundane moments are riveting within the new deep-sea drama movie Final Breath.
The largest praise I may give Final Breath, a gripping, workmanlike new film about an undersea rescue, is that I might fortunately watch a model of it the place completely nothing goes mistaken. The director Alex Parkinson’s debut dramatic movie is predicated on his 2019 documentary of the identical identify; each recount an incident on the planet of “saturation diving,” wherein a technician was stranded 300 ft beneath the North Sea. It’s the sort of intense, uncommon, do-or-die emergency that’s worthy of a hefty Hollywood characteristic. However I used to be mesmerized sufficient simply watching these folks do their very odd, high-stakes job.
The heroes of each Parkinson’s authentic telling and the characteristic’s re-creation are Chris Lemons (performed by Finn Cole), Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson), and David Yuasa (Simu Liu): three deep-sea repairmen whose job is so unthinkably dangerous and bizarre, it’s laborious to think about people really with the ability to carry it out. And but, Parkinson fastidiously takes viewers by the chipper aplomb with which these males strategy their career. We see them as they’re getting on a big boat within the North Sea, residing in a pressurized habitat the place they alter to a helium-rich environment, then hopping right into a diving bell to go to the ocean flooring and work on the pipes and programs lining it—these mysterious however very important buildings that quietly underpin trendy life.
The trio’s occupation feels akin to the expertise of touring to house. They isolate themselves from their households for months on finish, relocating to essentially the most hostile environments conceivable. I’ll admit that I’ve spent roughly zero minutes fascinated with the enormous fuel strains and different such superstructures on the ocean flooring till now, however as soon as I understood what Final Breath was about, I used to be locked in. Parkinson’s background as a documentarian serves the film nicely; he lays out each side of this unusual operation for the viewers with out making his story really feel like a Wikipedia entry.
Final Breath’s story unfurls in ways in which transcend the merely factual—largely due to its charming forged. I’m not too conversant in Cole (who’s greatest recognized for his work on the TV present Peaky Blinders), however he’s appropriately fresh-faced and energetic as Lemons, the diving staff’s latest member. He’s desperate to study the ropes from Harrelson’s grizzled vet, Allcock; the latter actor can play this sort of wisecracking mentor in his sleep, however he’s a reliably humorous dispenser of exposition. As Yuasa, Liu additionally performs an archetype —the no-nonsense skilled—however he retains the character on the correct facet of curtness, underlining the acute professionalism required in such a scary job.
I don’t know how Parkinson captured Final Breath’s underwater footage, which illustrates how darkish, treacherous, and virtually immediately scary the deep sea is. This setting will not be a spot of surprise stuffed with peculiar wildlife, however a gaping, uninviting void. It’s so inhospitable that the presence of massive pipes and industrial manifolds comes throughout as traces left behind by historic aliens. When Lemons produced a wrench to begin tightening some screws, I virtually laughed: How may a pipe in such a surreal location be in want of such mundane upkeep?
In fact, issues do go mistaken, which viewers conversant in the true story know nicely. A pc error on the ship that the divers are tethered to causes it to float astray. Within the ensuing chaos, Lemons’s guideline (which provides him oxygen, energy, and a sequence to civilization) snaps, stranding him on the backside of the ocean; he’s left with only a few minutes of life assist. What occurs subsequent as his colleagues and different members of the crew attempt to save him is unimaginable and nerve-racking. However it’s additionally deeply, mesmerizingly process-oriented.
It might have been straightforward to inflate Final Breath’s motion stakes to make them enjoyable and absurd, however Parkinson’s nonfiction instincts as a filmmaker received’t actually permit for that. I’m grateful for the meticulous realism that follows as an alternative. Total sequences are dedicated to duties as humdrum as rebooting a ship’s laptop (which entails untangling a variety of wires) and shepherding slightly robotic sub to attempt retrieving Lemons, which resembles a really tense model of a fairground claw sport. Harrelson and Liu have loads of movie-star attraction, however the director tends to maintain them in stasis; they’re ceaselessly parked in impartial as they determine one of the simplest ways again to their pal.
These scenes shouldn’t be so riveting, however they’re—the movie makes an effort to speculate the viewers within the story’s human considerations as a lot as in its extra procedural parts. Final Breath is a midsize model of a large-scale thriller, one which isn’t afraid to look boring, and I imply that as a significant praise.
