To paraphrase and/or utterly misquote Karl Marx: Historical past repeats itself first as documentary, then as a mid-budget survival thriller. “Little Dieter Must Fly” was tailored into “Rescue Daybreak.” “The Rescue” was tailored into “13 Lives.” And now, in that unusual custom, an incident that was first expressed by interview testimony and harrowing surveillance footage has been smoothed right into a easy however suspenseful style train, as Alex Parkinson adapts his 2019 documentary “Final Breath” right into a mid-budget survival thriller of the identical title.
Creatively redundant? Maybe. However some issues are so unbelievable that they solely appear to make sense as a Hollywood (or Hollywood-adjacent) film, and the hole between truth and fiction can sometimes be too huge to cross with no middle-man to assist launder the reality. The story of saturation diver Chris Lemons is certainly certainly one of them.
In September 2012, the younger Mr. Lemons was making an attempt to restore some pipeline alongside the ground of the North Sea when catastrophe struck on the floor 300 ft above, finally severing the “umbilical wire” that linked the diver to his ship and stranded him within the pitch-black deep with solely seven minutes’ price of oxygen in his reserve tank. A worst-case situation in a job that already appears too horrifying to fathom, Lemons’ state of affairs was like a nightmare having a nightmare of its personal. In fact, that didn’t cease the remainder of his workforce from risking their very own necks in an try and rescue him, because it stands to cause that anybody loopy sufficient to work as a sat diver for a dwelling — industrial scuba varieties who put together for every job in a pressurized chamber that permits them to carry out a number of shifts with out having to decompress — can also be loopy sufficient to look the ocean flooring for a colleague who’s all however assured to be useless already.
All however! It’s unlikely that Parkinson would have made a documentary about this catastrophe if Lemons had died; it’s unthinkable he would have tailored that documentary right into a scripted characteristic except the story constructed to some sort of miracle. In fact it does. And but, predictable because it is likely to be within the summary, “Final Breath” is so taut — and the story it tells so exceptional — that you just would possibly simply begin to doubt even the obvious of assumptions.
That’s all of the extra spectacular in a film that’s this completely satisfied to be hackneyed. Co-written with David Brooks and Mitchell LaFortune, Parkinson’s ultra-functional script feasts on the truth that Chris Lemons — a baby-faced younger diver with a apprehensive fiancée ready for him again house — was one thing of a catastrophe movie cliche on the time of his fateful plunge. He’s performed right here by a cherubic and positively buoyant Finn Cole, and the emotional stakes of this story relaxation on the shoulders of a gap scene through which he and his beloved Morag (Bobby Rainsbury) sit of their trailer on the windswept Scottish shoreline and speak about his job as if for the very first time. “It’s like going into house, however underwater,” he reassures her. Morag isn’t reassured. The look in her eyes is affirmation sufficient that Chris will probably be on the coronary heart of the disaster that’s about to unfold.
This 93-minute gasp of a film doesn’t precisely have a ton of slack, but it surely advantages a fantastic deal from our normal unfamiliarity with sat diving, and Parkinson delights in all the unusual little particulars that issue into the job. The large helmets, that are considerably bigger than the copper domes related to basic aquanauts. The colourful braided wires that join the divers to their diving bell like an uncovered LAN wire. The cube-shaped energy buildings that sat divers must wriggle their means by in an effort to repair a busted valve or whatnot.
To a a lot lesser extent, we study in regards to the persona varieties who is likely to be compelled to do it. Specifics are few and much between with regards to self-proclaimed “sat daddy” Duncan Allcock, however the truth that he’s performed by a chortling Woody Harrelson tells us all the pieces we have to know. It wasn’t Duncan’s concept to retire on the finish of this rotation, but it surely was his concept to rent Chris for his final swim; he’s labored with the child earlier than, and feels assured in his means to get issues executed with out dying.
Maybe simply as importantly, Duncan is assured that he can spend 4 straight days with Chris in a small steel tube with out desirous to kill himself as their our bodies are step by step saturated with inert gasoline. How both of these males will survive their stone-faced third wheel is a special story altogether, as the very first thing David Yuasa (Simu Liu) tells his co-workers is that he doesn’t wish to hear any sentimental chit-chat about their lives again on land; he’s received two daughters again at house, and he’s satisfied that he’ll solely get to see them once more if his colleagues stay laser-focused always. “Jaws” this isn’t, however Harrelson is affable sufficient to maintain David from sucking up all of the oxygen within the room, and it isn’t lengthy earlier than the logistics of the dive itself start to drive the dialog.
Duncan stays within the diving bell whereas Chris and David plunge into the darkness beneath, and whereas there isn’t precisely a complete lot to see down there, “Final Breath” credibly sells the phantasm of watching Shang-Chi and one of many Peaky Blinders skulk across the backside of the North Sea. There’s a workman-like rigor to the transient scenes of the sat divers spelunking by all of that watery nothing, and Parkinson makes positive that we have now a transparent sense of the geography even when there’s nothing to have a look at in addition to how little there may be to have a look at. However we don’t have to have a look at nothing for lengthy, as a software program malfunction up on the floor causes the crew’s ship to float simply sufficient for Chris’ line to get snagged on a construction — after which sever.
From there, the remainder of “Final Breath” unfolds roughly in real-time, as David races again to the diving bell whereas the individuals aboard the primary vessel above — led by a stoic however criminally underused Cliff Curtis — scramble to repair the issue. It’s a course of that takes roughly 40 minutes from begin to end and entails minimal issues past the truth that Chris is misplaced within the void with no single molecule of oxygen left in his activity, however Parkinson squeezes each second of the disaster for all that it’s price, and the state of affairs is at all times as clear because the water is murky.
The film doesn’t have to carry us in its grip for a very very long time as far as these items go, however each second is pulled tighter by the truth that Chris seems to be to this point past saving; that is the uncommon survival thriller in which you’ll’t assist however aspect with naysayers like David, who insist that each one hope is misplaced at the same time as they double down on their efforts to save lots of the day. And the “truth” that the rescue mission appears futile makes it all of the extra heroic to observe Duncan and David danger their very own lives simply to retrieve Chris’ physique from a watery grave the place nobody else would ever discover him. There might not be lots happening below the floor, so to talk, however “Final Breath” — at all times successfully aggravating when it must be — does a high quality job of conveying simply how miraculous it will be for anybody to outlive this ordeal. It feels just like the sort of factor that might solely be doable within the motion pictures, and the sort of factor you solely consider may be doable since you’re watching one.
Grade: B-
Focus Options will launch “Final Breath” in theaters on Friday, February 28.
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