The Ending of Last Breath, Explained - Inside That Incredible Rescue Mission
Focus Features' deep-sea thriller starring Woody Harrelson & Simu Liu plunges into theaters this weekend.
**SPOILER WARNING!! Spoilers for Last Breath are bubbling up below!
Focus Features’ new deep-sea thriller, Last Breath, is open now in theaters (get tickets here!), and we’re betting it’s making quite the splash.
The dramatic film is based on the 2019 documentary of the same name (both directed by Alex Parkinson), and, likewise, brings to the surface the real-life and harrowing story of saturation divers divers Chris Lemons, Dave Yuasa, and Duncan Allcock, as portrayed in the film by Finn Cole (F9, Peaky Blinders), Simu Liu (Barbie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Woody Harrelson (Zombieland, Cheers), respectively.
RELATED: Last Breath: Everything to Know About Deep-Sea Thriller Starring Woody Harrelson & Simu Liu
Saturation diving, as explored in Last Breath
Saturation divers spend weeks on end together, living in pressurized enclosures within larger ships, and then taking a diving bell even deeper into the depths of the ocean to fix whatever needs fixing among all the many complex industrial undertakings going on below. It’s among the most dangerous jobs in the world, as the film most certainly makes clear (we'll get to THAT below). So much so, that it makes one wonder why anyone would want to do such a thing in the first place … beyond a paycheck, of course.
While speaking to the trio of stars about Last Breath over Zoom this week, NBC Insider asked exactly that. Granted, Harrelson, a Hollywood legend with more than a hundred acting credits, had a little trouble grasping such a concept as "beyond" a paycheck.
RELATED: The Cast & Characters of Last Breath, Explained
"I don't see what you mean... beyond the paycheck?" Harrelson joked, before adamantly defending himself, "I do indies!"
Thankfully, Cole steered things back towards the actual gravity of the job being explored in Last Breath, through the dramatization of events that occurred on a very rough North Sea back in 2012, when Cole's character, Lemons, got pretty much left for dead on the surface floor, 300 meters below, while trying to repair an oil rig.
Last Breath stars Finn Cole, Simu Liu and Woody Harrelson on what motivates saturation divers
"For me, why I was so intrigued about these guys, is they’re interested in problem-solving and figuring [things] out … that’s satisfying," Finn, who alongside Liu underwent weeks of diving training, told NBC Insider. "Like what attracts me to our job is that on a film set, there’s constant problem solving, there’s constant issues that you come across… tiny little things that you don’t foresee in the script. And that makes the job, at the end of the day, after the paycheck, makes it extra satisfying and special. So I think those guys are really kind of into that aspect of things."
"There’s quite an exploratory element to it, not dissimilar to the way I think astronauts feel. I mean it sounds amazing to go out into space, but what it is in reality is a very claustrophobic experience of tight spaces and being reliant on equipment to keep you alive in these very hostile circumstances," Liu added. "And so I imagine it’s something about being in a frontier and in a place where human beings just haven’t ventured to, being in the bottom of the ocean or the sea, where still human beings have yet to really explore in any meaningful way. I think it’s probably a really cool thing that drives and motivates a lot of sat divers."
What happens at the end of Last Breath?
Circumstances don't get much more hostile than in the rough waters of the North Sea back on September 19, 2012. As depicted in the film, a storm roils the dive support vessel Topaz above, while below, Lemons, Yuasa, and Allcock's diving bell submerges ever deeper before finally descending to about 300 feet below.
With shipwrecking waves crashing above, Lemons and Yuasa casually don their heavy diving helmets, check their equipment, and dive into the mirky depths to repair an oil rig manifold. Veteran diver Allcock stays behind in the bell to supervise and assist, particularly with the precise distribution of the complex umbilical stretching from their dive suits to the bell, and then onto the ship, delivering heat, breathable gas, light, and communication to the divers.
Well, guess what? As the storm surges above, to the tune of 18-foot swells and winds of 40 miles per hour, the ship's electronics blank out, including its dynamic positioning (DP) system, which keeps it safely above the lowered divers.
Yausa and Lemons desperately try to make their way back to the bell, but Lemons' umbilical is caught on an outcropping on the manifold. With the ship drifting, he can't get enough slack. Eventually, the tether snaps.
Before Lemons falls to the seafloor, Yausa (who's getting pulled by his tether back to the bell) tells him to get back up to the top of the manifold, so they'll have a chance of finding him when they get the ship's power back up.
RELATED: How to Watch Last Breath: Is Woody Harrelson & Simu Liu Thriller in Theaters or Streaming?
Unfortunately, Lemons doesn't have much time. With no outside source of oxygen, he needs to rely on his bailout bottles, but at such depths, they run out in about 5 minutes.
He miraculously makes his way up the manifold, but goes a full 10 minutes without breathable gas before the ship’s ROV (remotely operated vehicle) finds him there, lying on his side.
Finally, after much sweat-drenched electricianing, the ship manages to get the power back on, and Yausa's dives right back into the mirky depths to go find his buddy. Alas, most of the crew thinks it's a body recovery mission at this point.
Finally, after 36 minutes had passed since the accident, and all of Lemons' movements had stopped, Yausa gets back to the top of the manifold. He quickly swims his fellow diver back to the bell.
Inside the diving bell, Allcock removes Lemons’ helmet and gives him deep rescue breaths. Will it work? Has too much time passed? In a last-ditch attempt, Allcock administers another mouth-to-mouth....
Somehow, someway, Lemons regains consciousness! It's not his Last Breath!
We learn from postscript at the end that Lemons is still very much alive (as you can see in the photo above), and has suffered no long-lasting effects. In fact, just three weeks later, he was back in the water with Yuasa and Allcock. No one's quite sure how he survived so much time without oxygen, but the leading theory is a combination of frigid underwater temps and a high concentration of oxygen in his body tissues. Either way, it makes for one miraculous and entertaining true story.
How can you watch Last Breath?
Last Breath is in theaters everywhere now. Get your tickets now!
