The Last Breath

Director: Joachim Hedén
Screenplay: Andrew Prendergast, Nick Saltrese
Starring: Jack Parr, Kim Spearman, Julian Sands, Alexander Arnold, Arlo Carter, Erin Mullen
Country: USA
Running Time: 96 min
Year: 2024
BBFC Certificate: 15

A treasure hunting team (Parr & Sands) discover a long-sought after wreck in the Caribbean, and reluctantly take some tourist friends down to investigate. Lost in the labyrinthine wreckage, their dwindling oxygen supply turns out to not be their only cause for concern when unexpected sharks are also interested in exploring this newfound location.

Over the past few years I’ve become something of the resident shark movie connoisseur here at Blueprint: Review, coincidentally ever since I started Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast and have been reviewing every shark movie I can get my fins on. Over these years I’ve noticed that not every shark film is overflowing with originality, in fact many share near identical premises. You’ll often find a group of people in their twenties, sometimes pretending to be teenagers, with at least one member being utterly insufferable, all out on some ill-advised aquatic adventure, becoming stranded in some fashion and getting picked off one by one and fairly rapidly leaving a lone survivor to take on the shark singlehandedly, learning to recover from some previously established past trauma. Whilst The Last Breath does a little more than paddle in these familiar waters, it also offers enough innovation and surprises to make for a compelling addition to this flooded genre.

The premise is practically identical to 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, with an unlisted location, an unregistered diving expedition, a young, attractive and occasionally foolhardy cast getting trapped underwater, there’s even a veteran actor stepping in to help out, with Julian Sands (RIP) in the John Corbett role, and doing a stellar job too as the salty sea explorer whose years of diving have left him unable to continue underwater, having to continue his dogged quest up on deck, with assistant Noah (Jack Parr) leading the diving side. Where Uncaged offers innovation in the form of blind sharks (or Descent-sharks, as we call them on the podcast), The Last Breath has a scene midway through, in the ship’s sunken medical bay, the likes of which I’ve never seen before or since. It’s akin to the part in Meg 2: The Trench when Jason Statham willingly fills his body with water – AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MARIANA TRENCH – so he can briefly swim around unaided, but where I will never get over the ridiculousness of that situation, here I was immediately engaged when a character started to perform urgent underwater surgery on another. It’s gripping, and tense, and incredibly well performed by all involved, especially given how little of their faces can be seen throughout. The opening World War II crash sequence is also excellently accomplished, offering a nice bit of immediate gore and horror to tide you over until the real meat of the plot kicks in later.

Alexander Arnold revels in the unrepentant arsehole role of Wall Street wannabe Brett, throwing his cash around and belittling our heroes until you’re longing for his limbs to be torn asunder, and the rest of the cast play their roles well too. Erin Mullen in particular shone in an otherwise thankless role as the most frightened member of the party, but she was able to convey this impressively through her very expressive eyes. Director Joachim Hedén is a former cinematographer, so everything looks as beautiful as you’d expect, right down to Julian Sands hanging out and cooking peppers up on deck, and the layout of the sunken wreck is well directed, with a clear sense of location throughout.

If you enjoy a good monster movie then, frankly, you’ll enjoy this. Am I biased because I love shark movies? Almost certainly, but of the ones I’ve reviewed for this site in the past, The Last Breath is easily my favourite, leaving the likes of Shark Bait, The Reef: Stalked and The Black Demon at the bottom of the sea.

The Last Breath is available digitally and on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 1st from Signature Entertainment.