Last Breath tells the harrowing story of three deep-sea divers thrust into an incredibly treacherous repair mission. Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole portray real-life divers Duncan Pollock, Dave Yuasa, and Chris Lemmons. The Alex Parkinson-directed feature (inspired by a documentary that was also directed by Parkinson) focuses on the three men who couldn’t have offered a better cast. I’ve always been fascinated by the deep blue, from Jaws to Deep Blue Sea. And this story can be just as frightening, with no monster shark or other nasty. This proves once again that the elements can be our most deadly enemy.

I recently shared a very fun chat with Harrelson, Liu, and Cole. The second I was connected to the guys, the three actors appeared to be having a great press day. I’ve had the joy of speaking to Mr. Harrelson on several occasions, and he’s easily one of my favorite guys to chat with. While we only had a small amount of time available, it was fun finding out about their influence on bringing these brave divers’ stories to life. It’s a brief but supremely engaging chat, and I can’t wait to see what all three have next.

Check out Last Breath in theatres now!

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The domestic box office could be gasping for air this weekend as moviegoers play catch-up for the Sunday Oscars ceremony at home while theater owners try to keep their heads above water. Focus Features, whose Pope-oriented thriller Conclave could give the studio its first Best Picture Oscar this weekend, is keeping its head above water at the box office with the release of Last Breath, which earned $1 million in Thursday previews. The intense underwater feature, starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole, plumbed the depths of 2,475 theaters on Thursday. However, it could remain in the single digits throughout the weekend.

Make sure you check out our review for Last Breath here.

Meanwhile, analysts expect Marvel’s latest superhero spectacle, Captain America: brave New World, to earn around $14M, as it remains in the top spot for its third consecutive weekend. Marvel’s political thriller starring Anthony Mackie as Captain America saluted $35.6M in its second week, totaling $148.6M.

Interestingly, Last Breath has a 79% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, which piques the interest of audiences who use the aggregate site as a measuring stick for what to see at the theater. Alex Parkinson (River Monsters, Living with Leopards) directs Last Breath from a script he co-wrote with Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks. The deep sea drama follows the true story of seasoned deep-sea divers battling the raging elements to rescue their crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface. Coincidentally, the Seattle, Washington-based indie rock band Deep Sea Diver released their latest album, “Billboard Heart,” on Friday, which is already one of this year’s best records. Listen to the tracks “What Do I Know” and “Emergency” to make your ears happy.

Elsewhere, Osgood Perkins’s latest film, The Monkey, ended its first week with $18.2M at 3,000 theaters after an estimated $838K Thursday preview. The family adventure Paddington in Peru ended its second week with $8.1M worth of marmalade-covered dollars, while Dreamworks Animation’s Dog Man barked at the moon with $7M in its fourth week.

Are you going to the movies this weekend? What do you plan on seeing? Will you tune in for the Oscars this Sunday? What do you think about Last Breath‘s weekend chances at the box office? Let us know in the comments section below.

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PLOT: A diver (Finn Cole) is trapped 100 meters under the sea with no light, heat and only thirty minutes of breathable oxygen – leaving his two colleagues (Simu Liu and Woody Harrelson) with only a short window of time to save him. 

REVIEW: Last Breath is a dramatization of a 2019 documentary by Alex Parkinson. The documentary used footage recorded on body cams to depict the harrowing deep sea rescue of a diver who became trapped when conducting repairs on a pipeline 330 feet below the surface of the North Sea. Parkinson has returned to direct the feature version, and it’s a taut, lean, true-to-life thriller that proves to be an immersive experience for viewers.

Running a no-nonsense ninety minutes, Parkinson’s film wastes no time getting to the meat of the story, with much of the rescue taking place in real-time. It’s extremely well-photographed, scored and edited and boasts three solid leads in Simu Liu, Woody Harrelson, and Finn Cole.

Given the nature of the story, next to no time is spent on character development, with only the bare bones of each filled in within the film’s first fifteen minutes. Cole’s Chris Lemons is a young diver on one of his deep sea jobs who’s eager to return to his fiancee. Harrelson is his mentor, a seasoned diver who’s on the verge of being pushed out of his job due to his age. At the same time, Simu Liu is a cold, no-nonsense fellow diver everyone calls “The Vulcan” due to the fact that he never shows emotion, or talks much about his personal life.

Of course, when things go awry, it’s left to the old pro and the steely professional to get things done, but the movie is careful to present everything that happened under the sea as a freak accident, with no real blame assigned to anyone. In fact, the film takes pains to show that while Liu and Harrelson’s characters were the ones who had to put themselves in physical danger to rescue their friend, the crew of the ship supporting them played a crucial role. A lack of selfishness and a team mentality ultimately prevented a tragedy.

While some may take issue with the meat-and-potatoes vibe of the film, I appreciated how lean it was. It gets the job done without any preamble and is so immersive that you actually feel like you’re in on the dive with them at times. It’s too bad this wasn’t shot with IMAX cameras, as that format would have lent itself well to the movie they’re making. It’s certainly one I regret having seen on a screener link, and it would no doubt play really well in a top-notch theatre. 

The cast is terrific, with Harrelson bringing a lot of humanity to his role as the kind of old pro who doesn’t want his career to end with a tragedy. He’s ably contrasted by Simu Liu, whose character, while initially cold and distant, turns out to be precisely the kind of guy you want around when things go south. With his imposing physique and charisma, you really do wonder why Hollywood hasn’t made more use of him in movies, especially if you consider that Shang-Chi was a pretty solid performer for a movie that came out during the pandemic. 

While Last Breath isn’t getting a massive build-up and comes out at a fairly dead time of the year, it’s well worth checking out theatrically if you want a realistic, fact-based thriller. It’s perfectly cast and well-directed by Parkinson, who clearly aimed to be as faithful to his documentary as possible. 

Last Breath

GOOD

7

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Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity showed what existential horrors could happen should an astronaut find themselves alone in the treacherous vastness of space, but Last Breath shows what has happened in the incredible true story of a diver who is trapped in the terrifyingly unknown depths of the sea. Woody Harrelson stars in the film with Shang-Chi and Kim’s Convenience star Simu Liu. Harrelson recently had Liu on his podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, where the two alluded to all the inside jokes and stories that were experienced on this film. Focus Features has now released the trailer to this dramatic new thriller.

The Last Breath synopsis reads, “A heart-pounding film that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crewmate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface. Based on a true story, Last Breath is an electrifying story about teamwork, resilience, and a race against time to do the impossible.”

Co-starring with Harrelson and Liu is Finn Cole, who plays the ill-fated diver who gets separated from his crew, and Cliff Curtis as the ship captain trying everything in his power to help from the surface of the water.

Last Breath is helmed by Alex Parkinson, whose resume includes TV shows like River Monsters and James Wade’s Mighty Rivers. He directs from a screenplay written by him, Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks. The film is produced by David Brooks, Paul Brooks, Hal Sadoff, Norman Golightly, Jeremy Plager, Stewart Le Maréchal, Al Morrow and Anna Mohr-Pietsch.

Liu would address fan concerns that a Shang-Chi follow-up doesn’t seem to be on Marvel’s upcoming schedule. They stated on Threads, “I feel like Marvel has abandoned the Shang-Chi fan base. There has been no effort by the studio to get the sequel filming or even include the character in other Marvel films. Frustrating as hell.” To which Simu Liu himself would respond, “I proooomiss it’s happening.” In the meantime, Liu is also set to star in an untitled espionage techno-thriller series for the Peacock streaming service and producer James Wan. Said to be set “five minutes in the future”, the series begins with “first-generation American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizing his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.”

Last Breath hits theaters on February 28, 2025.

What did you think of the Last Breath trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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