Based on a documentary based on a true story… this is level 3 of the Last Breath drama. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a movie credited as being based on a documentary but that’s ok since its an example of how the two forms of storytelling can be hammered into a unified whole. Not that I’ve seen the documentary version, I suppose.

Last Breath is a story of deep sea compression divers who descend to the ocean floor to fix thousands of miles of pipeline. On one such expedition, two divers get into a pickle when their surface ship loses power and flounders while they are hooked to a diving bell hooked to the ship.

This film tries to make us care for its characters before lowering them into the abyss and it does a fair job. The main character is played by Finn Cole and he’s backed up by Woody Harrelson and Simu Lieu. Everyone does a good job at portraying competency and professionalism and, as the survival story moves along, desperation and concern.

As a survival movie, the film doesn’t slow down to explain its mechanics but we (hopefully) are able to go along with it. And, as such, I was deeply engrossed by the technical aspects of the dive, especially when things go wrong and I found it easy to track but less easy to resolve. I get that’s going on but am at a loss how they can save these divers. But that’s core skill in a competency porn like this. These are smart people working at the top of their game.

Which is partly what makes this movie really cook. It’s smart, its dedicated, and it lets the story tell itself. And when it needs to get emotional, it works. We don’t get a lot of character beats, but we get enough. And since the job they are doing is obviously dangerous and difficult, we can glom onto that as well. This movie really worked for me.

Score: 86