Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Last Breath

The life of saturation diver Chris Lemons after his dramatic survival of an accident in the North Sea, as depicted in Last Breath, is almost as amazing as the survival story itself. Lemons walked away from a situation in which he spent half an hour on the seabed without any oxygen completely free of health problems, as though his accident had never happened. What’s more, he was back at the same spot at the bottom of the North Sea just three weeks later, doing the same job.

Lemons’ survival story made him famous, of course, with Alex Parkinson’s 2019 documentary spreading the word about his remarkable ordeal. Now, Parkinson has returned to the story in a dramatized form, with his 2025 version of Last Breath already receiving acclaim according to Rotten Tomatoes, for its authentic and visually striking portrayal of an underwater disaster and its unlikely survivor. Meanwhile, the life of the real Chris Lemons also goes on, albeit with certain differences, given his newfound fame.

Chris Lemons Remained A Commercial Diver After The Events Of Last Breath

He Continued In The Same Role For 11 More Years

Not one to get bogged down by the past, Lemons returned to the site of his accident in October 2012 just three weeks after it happened, to complete the job he and his colleagues had started on a drilling template. As we see in real footage shown at the end of Last Breath, his superior Duncan Allcock joked with him about the accident when he plunged back into the water. “Don’t f**k it up, this time, Chris,” Allcock told him.

Lemons continued in the same role for a further 11 years, before moving upstairs to an advisory role in the same industry in 2023 (via NBC Insider). Even after his accident, he claimed to love his job, and said he only grew more confident in what he did after what happened.

Chris Lemons Became A Public Speaker After His Accident

He Tells His Survival Story At Public Events And In Interviews

Still, working as a saturation diver repairing and testing parts for oil rigs isn’t all that Lemons has done since his accident. He’s given several lengthy interviews about his survival story, including a contribution to the Book of Role Models, and has become a professional public speaker. Lemons’ most publicized speeches include to the International Marine Contractors’ ᴀssociation, and he currently takes bookings via the speaking agency APB.

In the year following his accident, he also built his family home and married his fiancée, Morag. The events of Last Breath clearly gave Lemons a new lease of life, and in no way diminished his love of diving.

What Chris Lemons Has Said About Surviving His Diving Accident

He’s Explained What He Felt And Thought When His Oxygen Ran Out

Through Parkinson’s movies as well as his own interviews and public speaking engagements, Lemons has been able to relate his first-hand perspective on how he survived his diving accident. In the documentary version of Last Breath, which was streaming on Netflix until recently, he recalled crying out his colleague Duncan Allcock’s name moments before he ran out of oxygen and lost consciousness. However, there was very little he could do about his situation. “My thoughts were mostly of disbelief,” Lemons explained.

The movie version of Last Breath gets one thing exactly right about Lemons’ final thoughts prior to pᴀssing out at the bottom of the sea. “I thought a lot about my fiancée at the time,” he added in the documentary, mirroring the flashback his movie counterpart experiences to a video call with his wife Morag. Fortunately, within seven months of that moment, the pair would go on to marry as they’d planned. How Lemons managed to make it to his wedding after half an hour without oxygen remains a mystery.

Source: NBC Insider