Even essentially the most mundane moments are riveting within the new deep-sea drama movie Final Breath.
The most important praise I can provide 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 flawed. The director Alex Parkinson’s debut dramatic movie relies on his 2019 documentary of the identical identify; each recount an incident on this planet of “saturation diving,” wherein a technician was stranded 300 toes below the North Sea. It’s the sort of intense, uncommon, do-or-die emergency that’s worthy of a hefty Hollywood function. 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 function’s re-creation are Chris Lemons (performed by Finn Cole), Duncan Allcock (Woody Harrelson), and David Yuasa (Simu Liu): three deep-sea repairmen whose process is so unthinkably dangerous and peculiar, it’s exhausting to think about people really with the ability to carry it out. And but, Parkinson fastidiously takes viewers by way of the chipper aplomb with which these males method their occupation. We see them as they’re getting on a big boat within the North Sea, residing in a pressurized habitat the place they regulate 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 constructions 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 possible. I’ll admit that I’ve spent roughly zero minutes fascinated by the enormous gasoline 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 facet 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 identified for his work on the TV present Peaky Blinders), however he’s appropriately fresh-faced and vigorous as Lemons, the diving group’s latest member. He’s wanting to be taught 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 proper aspect of curtness, underlining the intense 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 horrifying the deep sea is. This setting shouldn’t be a spot of marvel full of peculiar natural world, 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 historical aliens. When Lemons produced a wrench to start out tightening some screws, I virtually laughed: How might a pipe in such a surreal location be in want of such mundane upkeep?
After all, issues do go flawed, 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 off track. Within the ensuing chaos, Lemons’s guideline (which provides him oxygen, energy, and a series to civilization) snaps, stranding him on the backside of the ocean; he’s left with only a few minutes of life help. 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 could 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 enable for that. I’m grateful for the meticulous realism that follows as a substitute. Whole sequences are dedicated to duties as humdrum as rebooting a ship’s pc (which includes untangling numerous 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 regularly parked in impartial as they work out one of the best ways again to their good friend.
These scenes shouldn’t be so riveting, however they’re—the movie makes an effort to speculate the viewers within the story’s human issues as a lot as in its extra procedural components. Final Breath is a midsize model of a large-scale thriller, one which isn’t afraid to appear boring, and I imply that as a serious praise.