No Limit ending explained: Do Pascal and Roxana break the world record?

No Limit is a French sports drama film about a young woman, Roxana, who quits college to pursue freediving when she falls in love with her instructor. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.

Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers

Plot summary

No Limit follows Roxana, a young woman as she begins free diving lessons, and falls in love with her instructor in the process.

She deals with certain mental health issues, and has stopped visiting her therapist as well, which her mother points out with a great amount of concern. 

With the help of visually stunning shots, the narrative portrays a relationship that develops between Roxana and Pascal, who is also a big star in that field.

She joins the classes by piecing together a very tight budget, leaving no funds for accommodation. One of the other instructors, Tom, finds her asleep on the beach, and forms a quick friendship with her, inviting her out for dinner with the freediving group that evening.

She ends up going to the restaurant and gets introduced to Pascal, and things escalate pretty smoothly and quickly from there. The two quickly get together amidst escapades in washrooms and freediving lessons. 

Pascal soon attempts to break a depth record for freediving, and tries to go down 172m below the surface, which he successfully completes. However, one of his teammates placed underwater to ensure his safety suffers a cardiogenic shock, and dies.

In this scene, the film also sheds light on how dangerous the sport is, and the multiple safety requirements that must fall in place and be followed for a successful diving adventure.

The group decides to reattempt the challenge to honour their dead teammate and Roxana volunteers to be a part of the surface rescue group.

Pascal and Roxana’s relationship develops further, and with great speed. He asks her to return back to school, her family and her life but she refuses, wishing to be a part of the free diving crew instead.

They reattempt the world record, and he successfully completes the challenge this time around. 

Roxana calls her mother and tells her that she’s staying on with Pascal, and dropping out of college for the time being. Her mother does not take this news well, but Roxana cuts the call before she can say much.

Soon enough, another freediver breaks Pascal’s record and he tries to regain his title as the world record holder through more practice, but ends up passing out during one such session. His doctor advises him to discontinue freediving, but he refuses.

Roxana also starts competitively freediving now, and sets out on competing at a greater level than what she was used to and sets a record for French women. 

At the same event, a woman freediver breaks the world record for deepest dive, and this infuriates Pascal as he didn’t compete due to his health and the organising committee.

Thus begins a downward, toxic spiral in their relationship as the couple starts arguing, and their personalities and egos begin to clash.

No Limit ending explained in detail:

Does Pascal try to live his dreams of freediving through Roxana?

After he randomly disappears for a while and comes back after Roxana has competed a bit more, Pascal proposes the idea of giving her the chance to dive with no limits and attempt to break the world record he was previously aiming for.

The rest of the crew doesn’t think she is ready for it just yet, and Roxana loses her temper. All the men were making decisions for her, without even consulting her about it. She takes Pascal’s idea, but states that she would try it for herself, not for him.

But later, when she brings up the idea of quitting freediving competitively, Pascal blows up, indicating that she didn’t really have a choice this far in their relationship.

What happens to Pascal and Roxana’s relationship?

Roxana meets Tom at a bar one night, and confronts him about his initial attraction to her when they first met. She also states that she knows that Pascal is cheating on her, and kisses Tom.

Pascal gets competitive and keeps trying to push himself as well as her to set the record, and refuses to take time off to take care of his health. The distance between the two grows further.

One day, Roxana gets suspicious and follows Pascal, only to witness him cheating on her with another girl. She rushes to Tom for comfort, and the two end up kissing as well.

The next day she goes back home and starts packing her things, and she tries to call things off between them, but Pascal punches a mirror and the two find themselves back together again.

The couple both know their partner is cheating but find themselves entangled, unable and unwilling to truly get out of this situation.

Does either of them set a new world record?

Unfortunately, no. The day of Roxana’s attempt at breaking the world record, Pascal has a talk with her and the two set their minds on breaking the record.

However, once underwater, Roxana attempts to go down deeper and ends up passing out due to being unable to access the oxygen tank, and eventually dies.

Tom had checked the oxygen tank, and it is hinted that Pascal was somewhere responsible for this mishap by emptying the tank.


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