Aahana Swrup
Joachim Hedén’s ‘The Last Breath’ invites the viewers to dive into menacing waters where a group finds themselves trapped in a sunken ship swimming with sharks. Noah and his research partner, Levi, discover a WWII shipwreck, the USS Charlotte, in the Caribbean waters. Even though they’re meant to report the finding to the authorities, Noah ends up agreeing to take his college friends on a dive to explore the wreckage despite his better judgment. However, as the diver and his friends, including ex-girlfriend Sam, wade through the deep underwater ruins of the ship, the ocean’s most terrifying threats—Great White Sharks— come knocking on Charlotte’s walls. The film creates a high-pressure situation, confining its characters in a deadly location with an even deadlier adversary to outswim. However, does the story’s unique setting and circumstances hold any connections to reality?
The Last Breath: An Original Idea Within the Shark Movie Sub-Genre
‘The Last Breath,’ a shark movie at its core, charts a distinctive path within the genre by combining the thrill of a man vs. animal narrative with the high-pressure situation of an underwater dive. The combination of the two defines the story’s most attractive feature, instantly creating a thrilling premise. While the film’s exploration of this premise, propelled forward by the impulsive decision of a friend group, remains grounded in reality, the concept is entirely fictitious and has no origins in real life. Instead, it can be credited to the imaginations of Andrew Prendergast, who worked on the story, Screenwriter Nick Saltrese, and Director Joachim Hedén.
The film mines inspiration from the formula of the shark movie sub-genre and employs familiar elements to set the stage for its tale. Nonetheless, the story distinguishes itself within the archetype by exploring new ideas in the setting without necessarily aiming to redefine the cornerstones of a good shark movie. Noah and his friend’s entrapment within the USS Charlotte remains the most instrumental aspect in achieving the same goal. As it would turn out, the idea of sharks circling a shipwreck isn’t entirely out of the realm of reality. As per research in the late 2010s, six female sharks returned to the same shipwreck in the span of one to seventy-two months.
According to Avery Paxton, a known Research Marine Biologist, sand tiger sharks may consider shipwrecks as potentially important habitats. Sharing that the same is likely due to the height and shape of the wrecks, she expanded in a conversation with The News & Observer, “We see this pattern primarily for fast-moving predators, such as sharks, jacks, and barracuda, that live and hunt in the water column around taller shipwrecks and artificial habitats. Shipwrecks and other artificial habitats can play an important ecological role— by supporting large water-column predators.”
Thus, the film’s premise of shark-infested shipwrecks holds some truth in reality. Yet, the central sunken ship itself, USS Charlotte, has no counterparts in reality. Furthermore, there hasn’t been an instance of a lethal shark attack against divers trapped in any similar underwater wreckage. Consequently, the narrative in ‘The Last Breath’ naturally gets rendered into a work of fiction.
Director Hedén Maintained a Sense of Realism During Filming
One of the most prominent aspects of ‘The Last Breath’ that informs its sense of authenticity remains its realistic cinematography. Director Hedén previously worked on the 2020 film, ‘Breaking Surface,’ which helped him understand the nuances of the distinct development process behind underwater projects. For the same reason, his past experience enabled him to mold this project accordingly. The most notable element that the filmmaker took away from ‘Breaking Surface’ was its underwater cinematographer, Eric Börjeson.
Furthermore, Hedén also intentionally set up a joint dive training session for this project’s actors to ensure a sense of harmony can be established among the cast. “For this film, we sent them [the actors] to Malta to do all of the dive training as a group,” he told Countdown City Geeks in an interview. “[And] The level of bonding that occurred and the true friendships that were formed during this dive training really sort of cemented their ability to trust each other underwater both as actors but also as safety people.”
Hedén further expanded, “[Because] No matter how many safety divers there are present on the set, the closest diver to you in any kind of emergency is still gonna be your fellow actor. So that level of trust that was built in [during] the dive training translated into [a] true friendship[s] that then manifests on screen.” As such, through meticulous preparation and pre-existing knowledge of underwater cinematic projects, the filmmaker brings the fictional narrative of ‘The Last Breath’ to life through a realistic lens.
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