A Toxic Mist Starts Rising in The Streets of Paris Killing Everyone That Gets Caught in it

Welcome back to Movie Recaps.  Today I will show you a Drma, 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.