Breathe 🎥 2017 Movie Info

Plot Summary

In 1958 in Kenya, Robin Cavendish falls ill from polio at age 28, not long after meeting and marrying his wife Diana. Paralysed from the neck down and unable to breathe without the assistance of a respirator, he is given only three months to live. Robin is repatriated to Britain. Initially, he is depressed, refusing to see his wife or newborn son, Jonathan, and wishing to be removed from life support. However, Diana is persistent, and slowly his spirits improve. When Diana realises she can provide for his daily care and suggests they move Robin and the respirator home, Robin brightens considerably.

Over the strenuous objections of the hospital consultant Dr Entwistle and with the help of some of the other doctors and nurses, Robin is brought home and meets his son. While Jonathan is playing with his dog, the dog knocks out the plug of the ventilator. Robin realises, but unable to move or speak, he cannot get Diana’s attention, so instead makes clicking noises with his tongue. Eventually, she finds him unresponsive and plugs the ventilator back in. Seeing his son push a pram gives Robin the idea for a mobile chair with a built-in respirator. So, he enlists the help of his friend Teddy Hall to build one. Using the chair, and with the help of Diana and her two brothers, Robin is able to travel away from home for the first time.

And, with a specially constructed van, the family begins to venture out further, even flying the van on a cargo plane to Spain. Teddy makes various improvements to his design over time and eventually Robin teams up with Dr Clement Aitken to produce more of the chairs. Robin returns to his original hospital with more of Teddy’s chairs, and the rest of the patients in the ward leave with him. After observing a German hospital’s prison-like confinement of their severely disabled patients, Robin then appears at a conference and appeals to doctors to treat their patients more humanely.

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