Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Djimon Hounsou are set to lead the cast of a fact-based survival thriller, Last Breath. The film will be helmed by Alex Parkinson, who co-directed the 2019 documentary of the same name with Richard da Costa. Mitchell LaFortune will write the screenplay. Last Breath will launch sales at the upcoming Cannes Film Market, and with an A-list star cast, the film is expected to be fetch a substantial price at the festival.
The plot synopsis of Last Breath (via Deadline) reads:
"A diver is stranded on bottom of the North Sea, and when his umbilical cord snaps because of rough seas and an equipment mishap on the ship above, he is left with only five minutes of oxygen, in total darkness and freezing water, with no chance of rescue for at least thirty minutes."
Last Breath is based on true events, and the diver in question is Chris Lemons. In 2012, Lemons was carrying out repairs 100m below the surface of the North Sea along with his colleagues, Duncan Allcock and David Yuasa. Their vessel’s positioning system failed suddenly, causing the ship to drift into rough waters, and the divers were left stranded. While his colleagues made their way to the diving bell and were pulled along with the ship, Lemon’s umbilical cord, which supplies a diver with oxygen, light, heat, and communications, was severed in the process. Lemons was left behind in pitch black, freezing water with no oxygen for over 30 minutes. Miraculously, Lemons was found alive by his rescuers and recovered fully without any complications. He is still working as a saturation diver.
The actor to portray Chris Lemons in Last Breath will be cast shortly. Simu Liu will play Dave Yuasa, while Harrelson and Hounsou’s roles are currently unknown. Last Breath producers include Paul Brooks and David Brooks via Early Bird Productions, Stewart le Marechal, Al Morrow, Anna Mohr-Pietsch, and Jeremy Plager.
Director Alex Parkinson Describes Last Breath As A Race Against The Time Thriller
From facing certain death to a miraculous survival, Chris Lemons’ story is one of both sheer grit and pure luck. Lemons and the rest of his colleagues showed incredible composure in a tense situation and ultimately came out on top. Alex Parkinson revealed to Deadline that Last Breath will play out in real-time and will center on both Lemons and his crew’s heroic actions.
"He’s 100 meters down, he’s got five minutes of gas; it’s all about the group of people he works with, coming together as a collective, overcoming insurmountable odds to complete an impossible rescue. It touches on a lot of ideas; the strength of the human spirit, and the ability to hang on as well, this poor chap who is at the bottom of the sea bed, trying to cling on for as long as possible. It turns into this amazing race against time, which will play out in real time in the film. It’s still one of those things, where people don’t know how he survived."
There are many theories as to how Lemons survived half an hour without oxygen, and that too in grueling conditions. But as it turns out, it was those extreme factors that saved Lemons’ life. "He survived because Chris was in this sweet spot where he was running out of oxygen and became unconscious at just the right point, as his body temperature lowered to just the right mark so he could slip into stasis," Parkinson said. "If he’d had more gas, his body temperature would have lowered and he would have died of hypothermia. If he’d had less gas, he would have died of asphyxiation."
Last Breath doesn’t have a release date yet, but we’ll have more information once it gets a distributor at Cannes later this month. Until then, stay tuned.