This review contains spoilers.

The movie Last Breath tells the true story of a diver who gets stranded on the ocean floor while his team works against time to try and save him. After a storm-induced technical disaster cuts the cords connecting him to his ship, the diver begins to lose his oxygen supply and gets cut off from communication, light, and warmth, leaving the audience questioning whether he will survive.

Last Breath gained substantial criticism from viewers who enjoy longer and more complex plots. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the movie managed to capture my attention, despite the plot revolving around one major event that happened in a short, thirty-minute time frame. Its focus gave it a lot of breathing room to flesh out core concepts and avoid the rushed feeling associated with many thrillers.

In the beginning of the movie, the writers successfully established context, defining the relationships between the characters without bombarding the viewers with information. For instance, the danger behind saturation diving and underwater infrastructure examination is drilled in through surrounding characters’ reactions and conversations, as well the incredible acting of Finn Cole, who plays the main character, Chris Lemons. Cole portrays his character’s nervousness leading up to the dive, highlighting Lemons’ lack of experience while also subtly foreshadowing and building up to his inevitable accident. In my opinion, swimming around these key ideas instead of being force-fed a massive amount of exposition at the beginning of yet another overly intricate thriller was a nice change of pace. 

Aside from his relationship with the other divers, Lemons’ connection with his fiancé is also a great point of emphasis in the film. I often find romance side plots unnecessary, as they tend to be forced into the fabric of the story without any real rhyme or reason. However, Lemons’  relationship with his fiancé has all the ground for said rhyme and reason. Constantly being reminded that the man in danger has a life to return to, including a wedding and family, most definitely fuels the thrill of the film.

The constant issues that arose whenever the crew was so close to getting Lemons out really planted a seed of doubt in me as a viewer, especially watching the clock tick to near half an hour of no oxygen supply for our main character. Without knowing the true story behind the film, combined with the spectacular acting of the surrounding characters, I began to question if the directors of the movie would actually kill off their main character and have the rest of the movie focus on the fallout, sealing the movie as a retelling of a tragedy. For context, the average person can only survive at most nine minutes without air, meaning that Lemons outlived his odds by an obscene miracle. 

Last Breath has also gained criticism for its “lackluster ending,” and although it does slow to a rather generic plot plateau, I appreciate the insertion of real-life footage, especially of the real Chris Lemons’ wedding as it paid homage to the true story.

As someone with a terrible attention span and a judgmental view of films, Last Breath kept me engrossed throughout its entire duration. Even if I’ve spoiled it for you, I would still definitely recommend watching it ⏤ I promise it will still be breathtaking. No pun intended.

5 out of 5 crabs.