Is Last Breath based on a true story? Details explored

Alex Parkinson's 2019 documentary Last Breath is getting a proper feature film treatment, and we'll get to see it on February 28, 2025, with Now You See Me's Woody Harrelson, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' Simu Liu, and Peaky Blinder's Finn Cole in the lead.

Movies that explore the ocean need a deep dive; take In the Heart of the Sea for one. We have to do the same here, as Last Breath, too, has a true story at its core. The event happened in 2012 when three saturation divers were left with a few minutes of oxygen, making them not sitting ducks but sunken ones.

Richard da Costa and Alex Parkinson brought us a documentary that included original footage filmed during the incident. The Financial Times called it a "powerful" documentary, and we hope that the new iteration of the story will be a powerful one, too, especially when we consider the actors in it.

So what happened back there?

Chris Lemons (Finn Cole in the film) was just going about his daily routine, fixing oil rigs under the sea, unbeknownst to what lay ahead that day. The weather wasn't going easy (you know how it can be when in the middle of a sea).

While he was carrying out the repairs with his colleagues Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson in the film) and David Yuasa (Simu Liu in the film), they were in a constant line of communication with their supervisor. But something happened.

Their supervisor was asking them to abort whatever they were doing and get back to the diving bell quickly. It was something serious, as far as Chris could tell; he told this to BBC Scotland in an interview.

What happened next was basically a nightmare for Chris. Imagine this: you are drifting and falling underwater with nothing but darkness surrounding you. That is essentially what the diver felt. But he could have hoped that his colleagues would save him.

That’s because we saw Simu Liu's David telling Finn Cole's Chris what to do next in just a nick of time before the 30-minute nightmare begins for the latter in the trailer. All that was left was oxygen worth around five minutes. It's still a mystery how that lasted 30 minutes, which is indeed a miracle.

A little bit on Last Breath documentary

So, above is essentially a brief of what you are about to see in the 2025 film. But fans need to know that the 2019 documentary of the same name may serve as a raw version of the Woody Harrelson movie, and it is highly recommended, not just by us but by the critics, too.

2019's Last Breath synopsis (via Rotten Tomatoes) reads,

"A commercial diver is stranded on the seabed with 5 minutes of oxygen, but no chance of rescue for more than 30 minutes. With access to amazing archive, this is the true story of one man's impossible fight for survival."

Last Breath will keep the fans on their toes, as they can already feel the tension in the trailer. The scene where Chris is just lying down wearing the heavy suit is both terrifying and a moment to cherish, given that it's all over now and Chris doesn't have to take his last breath while under the sea.