''Last Breath'' is a 2019 British

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Richard da Costa and Alex Parkinson. It relates the story of a serious

saturation diving Saturation diving is diving for periods long enough to bring all tissues into equilibrium with the partial pressures of the inert components of the breathing gas used. It is a diving mode that reduces the number of decompressions divers working ...

accident in 2012, when diver Chris Lemons had his

umbilical cable An umbilical cable or umbilical is a cable and/or hose that supplies required consumables to an apparatus, like a rocket, or to a person, such as a diver or astronaut. It is named by analogy with an umbilical cord. An umbilical can, for example, ...

severed and became trapped around under the sea without heat or light, and with only the small amount of breathing gas in his backup tank. Parkinson directed an upcoming feature film version of the documentary.

Plot summary

The documentary uses genuine footage and audio recorded at the time of the accident on the divers' radios and body cameras, supplemented with interviews of several of the individuals involved, as well as some reconstructed footage, to tell the story of the accident. Chris Lemons, along with his colleagues Duncan Allcock and David Yuasa, were carrying out repairs below the surface of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

, supported by the support vessel ''Bibby Topaz''. The vessel's dynamic positioning system, supplied by

Kongsberg Maritime Kongsberg Maritime (KM) is a Norwegian technology enterprise within the Kongsberg Gruppen (KOG). Kongsberg Maritime deliver systems for positioning, surveying, navigation, and automation to merchant vessels and offshore installations. Their most ...

, failed. This caused the vessel to drift in rough seas, dragging the divers away from the area they were working and eventually snapping the umbilical tether that provided Lemons with

heliox Heliox is a breathing gas mixture of helium (He) and oxygen (O2). It is used as a medical treatment for patients with difficulty breathing because mixture generates less resistance than atmospheric air when passing through the airways of the lung ...

to breathe, as well as hot water to heat his suit, power for his light, and a communications link to the surface. He was left with only five minutes of breathable gas contained in the cylinders he wore on his back. For reasons that are unclear to Lemons and his colleagues, but attributed in part to the cold water and having been breathing a gas mix with a high partial pressure of oxygen, Lemons survived for around 30 minutes while he was located by a remote underwater vehicle and then by Yuasa, who was able to pull him back onboard the diving bell.

Release

''Last Breath'' was distributed in the UK by Dogwoof and was released simultaneously in cinemas and on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on 5 April 2019. In France the documentary was distributed by

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

on 11 September 2019 with the title ''Le survivant des abysses''.

Reception

Reviews of the documentary were mixed. ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' gave it 3 stars, describing it as 'a great story' but comparing it unfavourably to similar survival documentaries such as '' Touching the Void''. The ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' awarded 4 stars, and called it a 'powerful documentary'.

References

External links

{{IMDb title, 9056818 2019 documentary films 2010s British films 2010s English-language films British documentary films Documentary films about underwater diving English-language documentary films Films about survivors of seafaring accidents or incidents Films scored by Paul Leonard-Morgan