This new movie directed by Ron Howard is an amazing and inspiring story based on a real-life incident from 2018, which we all probably remember (it was only four years ago), where the boys on a Thai youth soccer team and their coach were accidentally trapped deep in a cave, and were rescued under harrowing conditions in by an international volunteer effort that combined with the Thai governmental response.
There was enough coverage of this near-tragedy that turned out so well that any of us who followed it in the news probably know the outlines of the story. What Ron Howard has done is to provide us with a brilliant “you were there” docudrama, showing us an inside view of the boys, their families, the Thai governmental officials and Navy SEAL special operators, and especially the small group of foreign rescue divers (led by two late middle-aged British divers portrayed perfectly by Viggo Mortenson and Colin Farrell) who provided the expertise to devise and carry out the dangerous and improbable rescue, which ultimately saved the lives of all 12 boys and their coach.
In an event that went on for about two weeks, and involved more than 5,000 volunteers as well as legions of international press, it’s hard to capture all the dimensions of what it took to save the trapped boys, and how they got so stuck in the cave in the first place, but this film does a thorough job of revealing added dimensions of the story which I didn’t recall from the news coverage at the time. I will discuss some of them below, so if you'd prefer not to know in advance, you can stop reading now, and just see the movie (i.e. spoiler alert!).
I didn’t realize (or maybe remember), for example, that it was the torrential downpours of the Thai rainy season that caused the boys to become trapped, as a massive storm flooded the cave behind them right after they headed into it. This rain continued to flood the cave throughout the incident, causing treacherous rivers of water to flow rapidly through the cave so that only divers could pass through narrow tunnels that are ordinarily accessible by walking and crawling.
I definitely didn’t recall that there was a massive team of volunteers on top of the mountain, led by a Thai-American hydrology expert, who worked on plugging and diverting the continuous flow of rain water away from the cave, and into the surrounding agricultural fields. This ruined the crop for the local farmers, who were later compensated by the government for their losses, but who agreed to the flooding in the moment, in order to help save the boys' lives.
Most thrilling, though, are the scenes of the divers, including the international volunteer divers and the Thai SEALs, who repeatedly fought their way into and out of the cave to a depth of more than 3 kilometers, through narrow, dark passages full of sharp rocks and fast-moving water, to bring the boys food, medical aid, batteries and hope.
The scenes of the rescue itself are absolutely astonishing and terrifying, since the divers believed the only way to bring the boys out was to sedate them, put them into full-face scuba masks, and tow them in a sleeping state, so they wouldn’t panic underwater and accidentally kill themselves. It was an incredibly risky approach, which they took because there was no other option open to them that seemed to have any chance of success.
I love a good story about courage and heroism, and people banding together to accomplish something decent and worthwhile for others in the face of incredible adversity and danger, especially outside the context of war. With all the trauma and darkness of the past few years, it’s uplifting to see whole communities of individuals from around the globe come together, and in some cases risk their own lives, to help others in distress. This is one of the most miraculous such true stories told in film I’ve seen in a while. Highly recommended.
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