Sharks, absolutely deadly as they are known to be, have also been found out that they are sort of dumb. The Last Breath is a cheesy new thriller which is even dumber than an actual shark. Not that it has any real sharks— the predator creatures here are CGI ones and paradoxically enough, they move through water faster than the “rage virus” zombies in ‘28 Days Later’ do on land.
They don’t show up until about halfway through the Joachim Heder-directed movie, which begins during World War II, and the shelling of a ship that results in a wreck that’s apparently legendary in the present day. That’s according to old salt Levi (Julian Sands) whose rickety boat is playing host to a group of self-proclaimed “certified divers” who are also kind of pushy, to say the least. At least the males in the group are. There’s peroxided wannabe Alpha Brett (Alexander Arnold) and entitled stoner Logan (Arlo Carter), who wonders aloud at the dock whether a local ten-year-old would sell him weed. Very rarely has there been presented such immediate presence of two characters whose deaths you will actively root for. But I’ll keep it spoiler-free.
On board trip these include Noah (Jack Parr), grizzled Levi’s younger mate and also ex thus good doctor Sam –as in Samantha- (played by Kim Spearman), who’s stuck in lout party taking boat out. A rapprochement then? Again, no spoilers. While Levi happens upon this wreck he has spent his life looking for but now intends to report it though it used to be his obsession — “forty years I’ve been looking for her,” — finance bro Brett has other ideas and quite frankly a lot of money speaks here. So off go Levis et al., dropping their adventure-wannabes into drink. Where they find skeletons, claustrophobic settings and lastly a broken guideline. Did a barracuda do that? No, of course not did a barracuda.
As soon as there are multiple huge speed-of-light sharks their oxygen tanks drop dangerously low. Levi mostly stays at the helm knitting — “a dexterity exercise” to calm his dive-wracked nerve— but his earliest mention about the old red scuba suit he used to wear and this name it gave him back then sticks out like Chekhov’s first-act gun.
Julian Sands’ performance as Levi is his final film appearance; he died in 2023 while hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains of California and is characteristically dry as he first tries to avoid being heroic and then loses no time in surrendering himself completely.
The The Last Breath movie lifts from Jaws so blatantly that they may be read with nothing else but loving imitations. This is why, despite its often goofiness, one does not feel like getting mad over The Last Breath. It goes down even better if you see it under very well-air-conditioned conditions.
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