The Cast & Characters of Last Breath, Explained
The film tells the true story of three deep-sea divers in the face of a terrifying life-threatening situation.
**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers below for the true events dramatized in the film Last Breath!**
In September 2012, saturation divers Duncan Allcock, Dave Yuasa, and Chris Lemons were on a routine job to fix a pipe hundreds of feet below the North Sea when a computer error suddenly disconnected Lemons from oxygen, electricity, and communication. Racing against time, Allcock and Yuasa sprang into action to try and save their endangered colleague.
The incredible true story was chronicled in Last Breath, the acclaimed 2019 documentary from co-directors Alex Parkinson and Richard da Costa. Parkinson has now returned to the subject matter to direct and co-write a dramatized feature film named after the documentary starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole.
RELATED: Last Breath: Everything to Know About Deep-Sea Thriller Starring Woody Harrelson & Simu Liu
Allcock, Yuasa, and Lemons were actually able to visit the set of Last Breath during production and offer up their firsthand knowledge of the ordeal. “It’s been great to meet the real-life characters from the documentary and see them next to our actors," producer Norman Golightly says in the film's production notes. "It’s always interesting taking a documentary or a piece of source material and then recreate it in a creative way where you want to stay true to the real people and the real stories."
With the film set for a wide theatrical debut on February 28 via Focus Features (tickets are on sale here), let's take a quick look at the cast and the characters they play, based upon their real-world counterparts.
Who plays who in the cast of the deep-sea thriller Last Breath?
Woody Harrelson as Duncan Allcock
At the time of the incident, Allcock had already been a professional diver for close to 20 years and, according to Reader's Digest, served as an "unofficial mentor" to Lemons, who had qualified as a saturation diver (divers who live in pressurized chambers while working deep below the ocean's surface) 18 months beforehand. When Lemons was finally recovered from the seabed, Allcock provided CPR and miraculously revived his colleague after just two breaths.
“Well, it was a cool thing to meet the real Duncan,” Harrelson says in the press notes. “I had already heard that he was literally just one of the most beloved people. Everybody loves him. Then you meet him, and you get why, because he is really such an interesting, funny, cool, smart guy.”
Where you've seen Woody Harrelson before: Zombieland, The Hunger Games, Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Simu Liu as Dave Yuasa
Yuasa was working on the underwater pipe alongside Lemons when they were suddenly ordered back to the diving bell by dive supervisor, Craig Frederick (played in the upcoming film by Mark Bonnar), who realized that the ship's positional system had malfunctioned. "The boat was now drifting and would soon drag the divers with it," notes Reader's Digest. On the way back up, Lemons' oxygen line — known as an "umbilical cord" in the world of diving — snagged on a piece of metal and snapped. Yuasa desperately tried reaching for Lemons' hand, but was unsuccessful. Thankfully, Yuasa got a second chance when the positional system was brought back online; he dove down, found Lemons, and hauled the man up to the diving bell.
“There’s such a stoicism about him, and a very pragmatic, almost emotionless side of him," Liu says. "I was really excited to meet him because, knowing what he went through, knowing what he did on the day and in real life, I knew that there was just an incredible person behind this facade of a stoic, seasoned veteran. And it was such an incredible honor.”
Where you've seen Simu Liu before: Kim's Convenience, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Barbie
Finn Cole as Chris Lemons
Once his umbilical cord snapped, Lemons drifted down to the seabed, with a mere eight minutes worth of oxygen. He'd end up spending over 30 minutes on the bottom, but by some miracle, did not suffer any brain damage from severe lack of air. Reader's Digest postulates: "The oxygen in divers’ gas is about four times richer than normal air, so his body may have been saturated with enough to keep him going. Hypothermia could have put him in shut-down mode, too, sending oxygen to his organs." Three weeks later, Lemons was given approval to finish the repair job with Allcock and Yuasa. And he did!
“It’s cool to see exactly how the real guys do this," states Cole. "Of course, we tried to talk a little bit about the more emotional side. It’s harder to grasp what really these guys go through on a daily basis, especially after an incident like this."
Where you've seen Finn Cole before: Peaky Blinders, Animal Kingdom, F9: The Fast Saga
Last Breath opens exclusively in theaters Friday, February 28. Click here for tickets!
