Last Breath ending explained: Does Chris Lemons make it out alive?

For those who have watched Alex Parkinson's 2019 documentary Last Breath or have read about the actual incident that took place on September 18, 2012, they already know this answer. Chris Lemons made it out alive. He was there, lying on the seabed, hoping that he'd see the light again; it was indeed a miracle.

It is safe to say that the film presents everything that happened originally with clinical precision and with more vivid colors to take us down with Chris Lemons (Finn Cole), David Yuasa (Simu Liu), and Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson). Think of it as a clearer version of the 2019 documentary if you would like to.

The film is already being praised by the fans and the critics alike and is already sitting fresh with a 77% approval rating, based on, coincidentally, 77 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. Add that 91% Popcornmeter score to it.

This post contains spoilers for Last Breath

How did Chris make it out alive in Last Breath?

Thanks to his colleagues David Yuasa and Duncan Allcock, who kept working for his rescue despite the psychological toll the situation had given to the ship's crew. Following the snapping of the umbilical cord, Lemons cannot do anything but lie on the seabed until his bodily functions last; thankfully, they did.

The boat has lost contact on the seabed, and the dynamic positioning technology has failed, which is needed to keep it steady. However, Mike (Josef Altin), who is the dynamic positioning operator, manages to fix it just in time, and Yuasa is sent underwater again.

It's been almost thirty minutes now, and given that he was left with a few minutes of oxygen, Lemons was likely to have taken his last breath already. However, though unconscious, the crew managed to locate him and pull him up inside the boat.

However, we see in Last Breath that Lemons hasn't regained consciousness yet, so it takes a couple of CPR sessions and a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before the saturation diver comes back to life after experiencing a near-death experience.

Last Breath is basically how karma works

Chris Lemons had that will to survive; we have to give him that, and it is no short of a miracle. Maybe there was some divine energy in play too, which helped him give the much-needed time for his crewmates to return and rescue him. But the film and the original event show that this is how karma works, and it's not some divine energy; it's the efforts.

Throughout the film, you'll see that all the crew members basically began functioning like a giant organism working towards one single objective: rescue Lemons.

Woody Harrelson's character in Las Breath is especially praiseworthy, as he was supposed to be in his final days of work and be waiting for retirement. Instead, we see him thinking and working about Lemons' rescue every passing second.

On the other hand, Simi Liu's Yuasa is more about the 'doing the deeds and keeping the emotions aside' type of guy and does what's needed to be done. Even during the scene where Chris's umbilical cord is about to be snapped, he is seen telling his fellow what's happening and what he should do until he is rescued.