LandxSea, the annual eco-film festival hosted at the Playhouse each year in September, features films made in Scotland surveying the environmental and ecological challenges in our own part of the world. It was a great surprise that “Last Breath” (Focus Features) showing now at the Montrose Playhouse, is about as local as it gets, set (as it is) 130 miles to the east of Aberdeen.
A subsea gas pipe is leaking and a crew of three divers has to go down and fix it. A ship sets off from Aberdeen, and, after the necessary preparations, the men (Duncan, Dave and Chris, played respectively by Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole) are dropped into the North Sea inside a “bell”, similar to a very small submarine, to find the leak and effect repairs. But the weather changes. A huge storm damages the ship’s complex technology and diver number 2, Chris, catches his “umbilical” (the cord connecting him to the bell) on part of the scaffold surrounding the heavy equipment that they are trying to repair. The umbilical rips and his oxygen supply is cut off. Rescue operations are hampered by the terrible weather, the need to steer the ship manually (the autopilot is malfunctioning) and simultaneously repair the technology, and the deep darkness of the void below (“here we find ourselves at the bottom of the world”).
The film is a Scotland/Malta coproduction, and the closing credits reflect sponsorship and significant production responsibilities for the Maltese government. Much of the action is filmed in Malta, for instance. Somewhere along the line, a decision was taken to cast heavyweight international actors in the three divers’ roles. This perhaps serves the commercial interests of the project by attracting a broader and more global audience, but the connection to north-east Scotland in the preamble (in descriptions online, advertising, and the official trailer) is so muted as to be inaudible. The people involved and the life lived have far more resonance to those of us who live in this community than to much of the world: these men are our neighbours, our family, our customers in our shops, our audience at the Playhouse. The Scottish shore in the closing scene could be anywhere around the Angus or Aberdeenshire coastline. The windy soundscape and grey-palate sea are captured exquisitely.
I should pause briefly at this stage to consider what can be inferred more broadly from the work. Perhaps all good project management is like this, but I was impressed by the methodical, sequential thinking of the team: problem solving by exclusion (if we have found that the leak isn’t caused by x, then that leaves y or z, so let’s explore y next). It would be a great movie to use to demonstrate this kind of skill to teenagers for instance. And I suppose it is obvious that underwater gas pipelines need measuring, monitoring and maintaining on an ongoing basis. But, again, it told a thousand words to actually see the banks of screens, robots, remote-controlled equipment. At times it reminded me of keyhole surgery. It follows naturally from these observations that stupendous amounts of money (“fossil capital”) are invested in the North Sea.
Played with steely perseverance by Mark Bonnar, the dive supervisor is particularly keenly observed. He has a nervous habit of using his fingers to draw his headset microphone right up close to his mouth as the tension mounts. The camera moves in perilously close to his face. Despite being up at sea level, he wants to feel closer to his stricken men. He silently asks, tell me how I can help you.
The production design is very well done: the bridge of the ship suitably bedecked in tech, the living quarters sparse and frugal. The underwater production crew do a really nice job with the umbilical ripping on the one hand and the darkness of the deep on the other.
The one serious fail is the music, which is far, far too loud, like the experience of sitting in one of those restaurants where people at the table next to you have to shout at each other to be heard. It doesn’t help that the score feels so algorithmic: repeated basic chords, predictable drumbeats and crescendos appearing like clockwork every time some good news is coming. Better without any musical soundtrack at all, such that the storm, the wind and the sea could have done the talking.
It is very easy not to actually see the people who make up the workforce for the offshore industry local to us. To the London-based media they are numbers losing jobs as oil fields are run down, those who cannot accept their fate, cannon-fodder to support some preconceived and desperately partisan political position on green energy. Their corporate middle-managers packed up and moved out of Aberdeen, depressing house prices. This film shows us these individuals as composites. We can finally sit together and feel the danger: the split-second decisions, the tiny mistakes, the sudden moments of fear despite all the training. We can feel real empathy. I learned more about life in the offshore energy world of my own geography in 90 minutes than I have in years. It also allows a truly deep understanding of the overwhelming power we are up against when we propose dismantling the fossil fuel industry and the capital with which it has been built.
Adam Poole
17 March 2025
If you are interested in viewing this screening, please book your tickets here
