Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a Drama,
Mystery, Sci-fi film from 2018, titled A Breath Away. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
The movie starts with a dream: it shows an ultrasound, then a newborn baby and a girl
running on an open field. We suddenly cut to our protagonist, Mathieu, who is waking up from
this dream in a plan currently in the process of landing in France. On his way out of the airport,
he calls his twelve-year-old daughter, Sarah, to check on her and tell her he'll be there soon.
After a quick drive through the highway, he arrives at his apartment, where he gets a call
from Sarah through the walkie-talkie. She asks him to come over to her mom's place. After taking
a box out of his bag, he leaves his apartment and crosses the street to enter a different building
as one of the neighbors, Mr. Belkacem, who is also making his way inside. Mathieu helps him
with his oxygen tank then quickly goes upstairs and knocks on her wife Anna's door. She welcomes
him with a kiss and tells him she's in the middle of teaching an online class, so while waiting,
Mathieu goes to see his daughter in another room. Sarah is living in a hermetically sealed capsule
that filters her air because she has a total allergy auto-immune syndrome. After saying hi to
her and asking her about her crush, he gives her the box he's brought as a gift. Sarah opens it and
finds natural scents from Canada, which is weird because her dad supposedly went to Marseille:
Mathieu asks her to check under the bottles, and when she does, she finds an SD card that
she quickly moves to put in her virtual reality set. Mathieu recorded the Rocky Mountains for her.
We next cut to Anna, who is finishing her online class. Mathieu comes to talk to her
then - he tells her he didn't go to Marseille for an interview, he went to Canada because a
new treatment has been discovered and they have room for Sarah. Anna is skeptical since she never
heard of it from their doctor, Mathieu explains it's new and it hasn't been published yet. They'd
just need to move to Canada, which Anna doesn't like. She thinks Mathieu is complicating things,
they've already been lucky enough to get Sarah out of the hospital and she has a life.
But Mathieu doesn't think that's a life. Meanwhile, Sarah is having a videocall
with some friends that have the same condition as here, including a girl named Charlotte and Sarah's
crush, Noé, who refers to their little group as "goldfishes in a tank". Back to Mathieu and Anna,
they're still discussing this new treatment. Mathieu wants Anna to think about it, Anna
says they can go when there are real results, but Mathieu replies it must be decided now.
He wants these doctors to get Sarah out of the capsule so he can finally hug her.
Anna asks for more time, so Mathieu leaves the apartment and returns to his own.
While Sarah continues to chat with her friends, the tv shows important news:
an earthquake of a magnitude never seen before has isolated Sweden and Denmark.
Mathieu hears this from the shower, and it's at that exact moment that an earthquake hits
Paris as well. The power suddenly goes out and Sarah's capsule changes to battery mode.
She calls her dad, who is hurrying to get dressed, to ask what's going on.
Mathieu tells her he'll be over soon. When he makes out he hears alarms and sees people running
on the streets. Sarah tries to contact him again, he tells her she and her mom should stay put.
He walks down the street and, after noticing a flock of birds desperately flying away,
he finally finds the problem: there is a thick mist coming out of the ground and killing anyone
that breathes it. It is expanding and taking over the city, so Mathieu immediately starts
running back to his family. Once inside, he finds Anna by the window so he quickly drags her away,
telling her not to breathe the mist. To Sarah, he says that they'll have to leave her there,
but promises they'll come back for her soon. As the mist also makes its way up inside the
building, Mathieu and Anna rush upstairs until they make it to the highest apartment where an
elderly couple, Lucien and Colette, live. Lucien lets them in and Mathieu runs to
the window to check on the fog: it has stopped at roof level. Mathieu then asks for some rags
which he uses to cover the spacer under the door while Anna contacts Sarah with the walkie-talkie.
Sarah tells them the fog has invaded her room but she's fine because the capsule protects her.
Afterward, both couples go out to the balcony to look at the city, which is now completely covered
by the mist, leaving only the rooftops visible. Colette gets scared, so her husband comforts her
by saying their son is fine and takes her back inside. Mathieu and Anna wonder if the fog is
toxic and where it came from, and they see two helicopters fly by. They decide to also return
inside before the fog kills them. In the capsule, Sarah watches the fog get thicker around her.
Back in the apartment, Lucien and Colette are checking their food while Anna looks at
the capsule battery on her phone app. There are four bars left, which Sarah confirms on her side.
This means she still has ten hours of battery. While they chat, Mathieu finds some binoculars,
which he hangs on his shoulder as he goes out to the balcony and climbs the wall to reach
the rooftop. There he uses the binoculars to look farther at the city: the mist truly is everywhere.
He returns to the balcony to find Lucien trying to use his phone,
but there is still no signal. His son lives two blocks from there on a low floor,
but he's smart so Lucien is sure he's safe. Colette shows up then, saying they should go
visit their son, and Lucien has to remind her of the mist. She has memory problems. They all
go back inside and after she ends her talk with Sarah, Anna asks Mathieu for an update,
but he hasn't seen any rescue teams. Anna is worried about the capsule battery life.
Meanwhile, Lucien searches his closet to find an old radio and brings it over to the table.
While the others take a look at it, Lucien goes out to the hallway to check the fog.
He puts his hand in it and nothing happens, he sniffs his fingers after but there's no smell.
He decides to go back inside, where Anna is working on the radio because it doesn't work.
Mathieu wants to go check on Sarah, Anna points out he wouldn't be able to hold his breath for
so long. An idea comes to Mathieu then: he remembers Mr. Belkacem and his oxygen tank.
He could hold his breath long enough to get the tank then visit Sarah freely,
since he is only living one floor under it. Mathieu opens the window,
gets a hammer and flashlight from Lucien and some tape from a drawer and climbs out,
taking a deep breath before entering the fog. When he makes it to Mr. Belkacem's, he enters
it after breaking the window with the hammer and starts looking around with the flashlight.
First he finds Mr. Belkacem's body on the floor, and his search thankfully comes to end quickly
when he finds the oxygen tank a moment later. He puts the mask on and covers the holes with
the tape and when hears his wife calling out, he peeks out the window to tell her he's fine. While
grabbing a bag to put the tank in and carry it on his back, he hears some noises coming from another
room: when he opens it, a puppy runs out, and Mathieu notices the body of the dog parent inside.
He leaves the apartment and goes to see Sarah, who is scared. Mathieu leaves her food, a flashlight
and some batteries for the walkie-talkie before changing the battery of the capsule.
When he's done, he tells Sarah rescue will come soon but she still must make the food last.
He leaves after promising he'll return soon. Instead of going up, he decides to go outside,
where he finds bodies everywhere on the streets. He's in the middle of taking the batteries from
various cars when he hears a whistle and goes to check where it comes from: he's surprised to
find some soldiers leading a group of survivors, everyone is wearing masks. When he asks what's
going on, the soldier tells him they're taking the people to Montmartre, which is a hill so the fog
hasn't reached it. He also says they don't know where it comes from or how far it reaches either.
After giving Mathieu one of his masks, the soldier tries to take him with him,
but Mathieu turns down the offer, explaining his family situation and asking for one extra mask.
The soldier gives it to him before leaving. In the meantime, Sarah and Anna chat through
the walkie-talkies. Sarah is worried about her dad, Anna tells her to do her exercises and starts
guiding her through them when Mathieu arrives. As the elders come closer, he tells everyone about
what he found and informs them they'll have to spend the night there. He also asks Anna if she
wants to go see Sarah, but she's against the idea: she'd rather save the oxygen for an emergency.
Later at night, Anna continues to work on the radio while Lucien and Colette ask her
questions about Sarah's illness, remembering the day the family arrived at the building with the
big capsule. Meanwhile, Mathieu goes out to the hallway once again to check on the fog and notices
it's raising. He makes a mark on the wall with the time to keep track of it. He goes back inside as
the elders are leaving for bed, and after Anna asks, he tells her about the mist going up. They
realized services aren't coming back soon and it'll only get worse from now on. Mathieu goes
to sleep, but Anna can't. So she decides to visit a sleeping Sarah after all, and takes the chance
to change the capsule battery before leaving. We cut to the dream of a girl running through
an open field again, which is interrupted when Mathieu wakes up in the morning. He finds Anna
working on the radio with tools she's brought from her place and she finally manages to fix it,
but all the channels are transmitting the same emergency recording on repeat. Suddenly they hear
an exploding noise from outside, so Mathieu and Anna go out to the roof to see what's going on:
there's fire on Montmartre, the riots have started. Once they return to the apartment,
Anna says they should go to stay at Charlotte's because they live on a hill and Sarah could
share her friend's capsule. Lucien thinks Sarah shouldn't leave her capsule, but Mathieu explains
there are special suits they can use to move her, but they're in a lab in the middle of Paris. Anna
says it's easy to get lost to reach that place so she should go because she's been there before,
Mathieu decides to go with her to protect her. They stop by Sarah's first, to tell her of their
plan and that they left the walkie-talkie with Lucien in case she need anything. Sarah asks them
to check on Noé, who lives nearby. A moment later, Mathieu and Anna are out on the streets, and they
quickly reach Noé's building. They aren't able to make it inside though, because an angry dog shows
up and starts chasing them. They start running away and after some blocks, accidentally get
separated while dodging cars. Anna's calls for his husband distract Mathieu, who ends up falling into
the Seine river. Anna manages to hide behind a car at first, but when she accidentally makes a noise,
the dog finds her again and resumes the chase. Desperate and afraid, Anna gets on a bus and the
dog closely follows her, but its leash gets stuck on a suitcase which stops him from moving farther.
Anna takes the chance to escape through a window and runs to the bridge to look at the river
to find Mathieu, but he isn't anywhere in sight so she goes back to the streets.
Turns out Mathieu has swum to a set of stairs that allows him to get out of the river.
While Anna checks the city map, Mathieu takes off his wet jacket and puts on a dry one he's
taken from a random body. He also notices there's a hazmat suit inside a fallen van. Back to Anna,
she's finally reached the lab and when she's about to enter, she finds Mathieu running toward her.
After checking on each other, they get inside. Meanwhile, Sarah is playing battleship with Lucien
through the walkie-talkie, and Lucien is cheating. Inside the lab, Mathieu and Anna find more bodies
and a small fire in one of the rooms, but they keep going until they find a suitcase with the
suit they need. On their way out, they pass by the room on fire again but this time it explodes,
pushing them back against the wall. They survive, but Mathieu is on fire.
Anna searches for an extinguisher and puts it off. When he checks on his husband she realizes
he's having trouble breathing and they soon find the cause: the explosion broke the oxygen tube
of his tank. Mathieu takes his mask off and Anna starts sharing her own oxygen with him
as they go upstairs to find a room that fog hasn't invaded yet. Once they make it to one,
they discover Mathieu has a nasty burn on the side of his body, so while he takes off his
jacket and throws some water on it, Anna searches for a first aid kit. She takes it to Mathieu as
soon as she finds it and carefully bandages the wound while teasing him for his tattoo.
When it's time to go, they realize the tank doesn't have enough oxygen left for both of them.
Mathieu tells Anna to go with it, he'll find a way by his own, like maybe taking the rooftops. At
first Anna refuses, but Mathieu reminds her Sarah needs her and that he trusts her girls to find
some oxygen later with the help of the suit. The couple shares a passionate kiss before separating.
While Anna runs through the streets with the suitcase, Mathieu makes his way through the roofs.
Anna's tank is running out of oxygen, so she has to take the mask off before entering the building.
She manages to hold her breath long enough to return to Lucien's place,
where she discovers the explosion has damaged the suitcase and its contents. Meanwhile,
Mathieu finds some provisions and a rope on one of the rooftops. After giving the rope a tug to test
it, he climbs it to reach the roof of a parking lot. In there, he finds more bags with supplies
and a trail of blood that takes him to the body of a cop. Then he enters the building and finds
a little camp that holds an oxygen tank and a rifle. He takes the tank for himself and when
he's about to leave, a different cop shows up that tells him the fog is rising faster by the hour and
asks him to put down the mask. The cop takes out his gun to kill him as he did with the other guy,
but Mathieu puts on the mask and pushes him off the edge of the platform. They fall on top of the
car and struggle for control, the officer tries to get off Mathieu to reach his gun but Mathieu
grabs him from behind and keeps him with him long enough for the fog to have its effect on him.
Back in the apartment, Sarah and Anna are once again chatting through the walkie-talkies.
Sarah asks if there's anything after death and that she believes things can't just end here.
Anna mentions she's a scientist so she can't believe the fog is divine or magic,
it must be a reaction to something. Their talk is interrupted when Anna's phone alerts her that the
capsule battery is running out. After a quick look at Mathieu running through the streets,
we see Anna getting ready to go change the capsule battery, which is dangerous but she
has no other choice since there are only ten minutes left. Lucien offers to go himself,
since he thinks it's fine if a man his age doesn't make it back, but Anna refuses. After another
short talk with Sarah where his daughter confesses her crush, Anna rushes out of the apartment and
into the capsule room, where the battery has already died. Sarah notices her mother isn't
wearing a mask and worries, but Anna concentrates on changing the battery and getting the capsule
running again before leaving. A short moment later Mathieu arrives and Sarah tells him what happened,
he wastes no time climbing the stairs only to find his wife couldn't make it.
Sarah hears him cry out in agony and calls him on the walkie-talkie as he returns to the apartment,
he takes the conversation to the balcony to privately tell her the bad news.
Sometime later, the adults are passing time in the apartment when another earthquake shakes Paris.
Mathieu goes to the balcony and confirms the fog is finally reaching their floor, they can't stay
there any longer. He remembers the hazmat suit he saw in a van and intends to go retrieve it to
fix Sarah's, he also wants to bring oxygen for Lucien and his wife, but Lucien turns it down.
He and his wife had a good life and don't want to continue living without their son, so they'll stay
there and let the mist take them. After offering some words of sympathy, he leaves the place and
checks on Sarah, who ignores him until he mentions he's leaving. Sarah gets angry because she thinks
he'll end up like her mother, but he explains this is the only option and promises he'll come back.
Back in the apartment, the elderly couple lays down on the bed, holding hands and reassuring
each other that they're happy with the life they've lived together. Then they close their
eyes as the mist makes its way into their room. Outside, Mathieu has no trouble finding the van
with the suit. After retrieving it, he starts running back and on the way, he finds a scooter
with the keys still on, so he decides to ride it. When he's getting close to his building, however,
a boy suddenly appears in front of him, so Mathieu turns abruptly to dodge him and crashes.
In the capsule, Sarah is trying to call him on the walkie-talkie to no avail and she freezes
when a mysterious someone enters her room. On the street, Mathieu is slowly regaining
consciousness and notices he has quite a wound on his head. He retrieves the suit
and the walkie-talkie and limps his way back to the building while trying to get in contact with
his daughter. He barely manages to take a couple of steps before he must stop to rest on the floor
because the pain is unbearable, but he forces himself to stand up when he sees two shadows
approaching him: it's Sarah and Noé. Sarah runs to him and for the first time since she was born,
Mathieu finally gets to hug his daughter. Sarah explains that Noé came pick her up because the
mist doesn't affect youngsters. Mathieu is so happy that he takes off his mask for a second
so he can kiss Sarah's head while hugging her again. He tells her she's finally free.
We cut to the dream one last time, this time we clearly see it's Sarah the one running on
an open field with Noé and her other friends. Mathieu wakes up then, showing us some time has
passed and things have changed: it's now Mathieu that stays inside the capsule waiting while Sarah
is outside taking care of him and getting in touch with the walkie-talkie. Their roles have reversed.