Last Breath (2019)

A deep sea diving mission goes horribly wrong when the umbilical cable carrying oxygen gets severed, stranding one of the divers underwater.

This is such an amazing documentary compared to its cinematic counterpart. The most incredible part is all the footage captured prior to the incident that served as inspiration for the film and made this story worth telling. Do they always shoot this much coverage for such a routine job, or was it fortuitous timing? Recreated events are also included, which blur the lines even more.

There comes a moment where you understand why they take certain dramatic liberties in film. One detail is the fact that everyone underwater speaks in high-pitched squeaky voices due to the heliox they're breathing. It's almost completely impossible to take any of it seriously when they sound like Yakko from Animaniacs.

3 diving bells out of 5

Last Breath (2025)

Why don't they ever make movies about true stories where things go right? They only make them when things go terribly wrong. In this tense survival thriller, we're primed to see a deep sea diving mission gone awry. Ironically, it moves very slowly, even in moments where time is of the essence and every second counts. It's a concise film, but somehow still ends up feeling too long.

Director Alex Parkinson adapts the events from his own 2019 documentary.

2½ oxygen reserves out of 5