What are some films where people hold their breath?
I was looking for some movies or tv series where people hold their breath (not underwater). Like Chihiro doing it in Spirited Away for instance. They tend to do it in a place full of deadly/toxic gases. Someties they try to see how long they can hold their breath for. Can anybody help me?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
27 Answers
Any movie where an actor plays a corpse. Count how many seconds the camera may linger on him to compute how long he has to hold his breath.
In the Poseidon Adventure (the old, original one), – 1972 – Gene Hackman holds his breath for quite a while swimming underwater in the capsized ship.
In the newer Poseidon (2006), Kurt Russell does much the same thing.
In the James Bond thriller The World Is Not Enough, Pierce Brosnan holds his breath seeming forever during his swim in the sinking yacht and submarine.
Apollo 13. When they calculated the oxygen for just two people, but there were three and they were running out of oxygen. Keven Bacon said, “Well, I’ll just hold my breath.”
Elaine and Kramer and Jerry held their breath while entering Jerry’s apartment while it was being fumigated. See “The Doodle” episode of Seinfeld.
Dustin Hoffman held his breath at the bottom of the pool in The Graduate.
Oh! And then there is the Right Stuff, where they blow into a tube which goes into a beaker of water with a ball in it, to see who can keep a ball up and bubbling on the surface longest. It’s a test of breath control and sustainability. They aren’t exactly holding their breath because they’re exhaling the entire time, but they never inhale. It made me dizzy just to watch them!
Response moderated
Seriously! He ripped her clothes off @Pachyderm_In_The_Room! There is no way they allowed that on TV in 1934! But it’s better than trying to run around in trees in a long flowing gown like she was.
Notice that Tarzan kept HIS clothes on. Wonder why that is.
@Dutchess_III, isn’t the clip wild? I saw it as a kid and was, er, somewhat stimulated. I deleted my post because it didn’t fit the question, but I saved the clip for, er, future reference. ;-)
Lots & lots & lots & more lots of horror movies have scenes in where the actors/characters are required to hold their breath, usually after fleeing & cowering from the bad guys.
Actually, it was quite lovely, @Pachyderm_In_The_Room! Very graceful. It wouldn’t have been so nice if Tarzan was butt-nekid tho!
When I was a weeki wachee mermaid wannabe, when I was 6 or 7, I tried to hold my breath for about 10 minutes like they did. I could only hold it for about 60 seconds, so I figured I needed to practice. I got up to 90 seconds.
It wasn’t till I was older that I realized they had air tubes under the water for them to sip on.
@Dutchess_III, yes indeed, quite lovely. I remember reading that it was filmed in a tank, and that Maureen O’Hara was wearing a skin-colored, skintight thingie specially designed for the scene. Lots of Google links on the film.
Thanks to all of you guys! please make sure you add it here if anything else pops into your head. People practising holding their breath, having a breath holding competition etc.
—That’s so funny @Pachyderm_In_The_Room. She’s wearing something that so totally looks like she’s not wearing anything, so everybody THINKS she’s naked (I certainly thought she was!), but she’s not really, so it’s OK. Perceptions are the damnedest things.—
I remember a scene in a kids’ movie where a boy on a sinking ship holds his breath and dives for a key to let a girl out of a cell as the girl almost drowns. I don’t remember the movie, but the girl’s name was Mary.
Wasn’t there something similar in Titanic?
Also, in The Perfect Storm.
Here. It’s Shipwrecked, and the underwater scene is in part 5 of the YouTube video.
I think there’s a huge number of films out there with near-drowning scenes and underwater-escape scenes. It almost seems like a movie cliche to me.
The OP did specifically indicate answers were meant to be “not underwater.”
@ucme hey it’s ok, I appreciate people for in one way or another contributing to the topic. Feel free to share anything that you know!
That’s good of you, but there are some here who are very quick to point out when folks don’t read the details & yet are guilty of the very same thing.
Paul Newman in The Drowning Pool is a very good example.
Oh, sorry, I misread that.
I always read the details before I answer any question, and I read the previous responses too, but I did misread this one as an example instead of an exception.
Well, I held my breath for 90 seconds when I was interviewing (in my mind) to be a weeki wachee mermaid, and I wasn’t underwater! That’s pretty much all I did when I was 7, was walking around, holding my breath!
Let me see….15 seconds. :(
Did anybody watch Ghost Lake? there Tatum Adair has to hold her breath underwater with a little girl who nearly drowns.
The Departed, it’s something incredible.
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
