The Real Deep-Sea Divers from Last Breath - Where Are They Now?
What happened to the three men who stared death in the face miles below the North Sea back in 2012?
**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers below for the true events depicted in Focus Features' Last Breath!**
It's been quite a year for Focus Features, which stunned audiences in 2024 with a pair of formidable Oscar contenders: Conclave and Nosferatu. Not content to rest on its laurels, however, the NBCUniversal-owned studio is back to deliver some more dramatic thrills in Last Breath (now playing in theaters everywhere; click here for tickets).
Based on a true story, the film recounts the extraordinary efforts of saturation divers Duncan Allcock and Dave Yuasa to recover their colleague, Chris Lemons, after he was cut off from oxygen and communications during a 2012 job several miles below the North Sea. The dramatization adapts the 2019 documentary of the same name from Alex Parkinson and Richard da Costa. The former directed and co-wrote this version, which stars Woody Harrelson (Allcock), Simu Liu (Yuasa), and Finn Cole (Lemons).
Where are the real divers of Last Breath's rescue mission now?
Well, we are happy to report that all three men involved in the 2012 incident are alive and well to this day. Not only that, but the trio was also able to visit the set of Last Breath and impart invaluable wisdom to the production.
RELATED: The True Story of Last Breath: What Really Happened in the 2012 Underwater Rescue?
On the evening of Tuesday, February 25, Allcock, Lemons, and Yuasa were photographed smiling arm-in-arm with Parkinson and their onscreen counterparts at the film's premiere in New York City (see the image above).
"We have all remained close friends," Lemons tells NBC Insider over email. "The premiere ... was fantastic fun, but mostly because we got the opportunity to get the band back together and spend time in New York. It’s a bond that it is very personal to those who were closely involved, but one which is mostly acknowledged with nothing more than a look or a nod."
“It’s been great to meet the real-life characters from the documentary and see them next to our actors," producer Norman Golightly states in the official 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."
RELATED: The Cast & Characters of Last Breath, Explained
Allcock continued to work as a diver after the incident until he retired last year. "He’s a man that genuinely loves diving and everything that goes with it," Lemons notes. "But he has finally hung up his fins — and deservedly so."
Yuasa, meanwhile, continues to dive, working for the same company as Lemons: Boskalis Subsea Services (the events of 2012 took place under the employment of Bibby Offshore).
And finally, we have Lemons himself, who remained an active diver for 11 years after his near-death experience before transitioning into a supervisory role at Boskalis. "I still work in the industry, but stay dry these days and direct the divers from above," he explains.
He also tours as a public speaker, whose keynote presentations specifically center around the Last Breath ordeal.
"In this breathtaking experience, former deep sea diver Chris Lemons will lead you on a guided tour of the relatively unknown world of saturation diving, where those involved live within the claustrophobic confines of a decompression chamber for up to 28 days at a time, commuting daily to the sea-bed in a diving bell, and working at depths of up to 900 feet for 6 hours at a time," reads his website. "Chris offers an acute, honest, and emotional testimony of what goes through one's mind when seemingly counting down the minutes to death, and how surprising and revealing one's response to such a situation can be."
Last Breath is now playing in theaters everywhere. Click here for tickets!
