Thai cave rescue brilliantly captured in gripping ‘Thirteen Lives’

Many people have heard about the 12 boys and their coach who were trapped inside a cave in Thailand in 2018, with rising monsoon rains threatening to drown them. We paused, sent prayers and wondered why they didn’t swim out?

The saga has been made into a film, Thirteen Lives. I didn’t initially feel compelled to rush to see it.

Fast forward a few months to find me gripping my seat, my body squirming into an unconscious emulation of the awkward angles of the divers as they clawed their way through hours of claustrophobic positions in impossible conditions, traversing the compressed spaces of underwater tunnels.

The re-enactment of the ordeal made me forget what I had known about the outcome, and instead made me hold my breath for the on-screen divers to rescue the boys (aged 11 to 16) from the submerged caverns. Some of the boys didn’t know how to swim, and none  knew how to  dive.

The audience’s anxiety was understandable.  The film was made by Oscar-winning director, Ron Howard, who also made Apollo 13,  another true story about air running out and getting home, that time to earth, which garnered a slew of award nominations.

The pedigree of Thirteen Lives is impressive. Cinematography is by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me By Your Name) and the screenplay by William Nichoilson (Gladiator).

Starring Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell as the cave-diving hobbyists who are called on to accomplish what navy seals can’t, the film is a taut escalation of constricted air, gripping human courage and the play of politics.

It also celebrates  the best in humans as 10,000 people around the world pulled together for almost two weeks in an effort to rescue 13 people who had gone to the caves on a post football game jaunt and were trapped in the bowels of a mountain during the unexpected flooding.

The action of the film centres on the race against time as the flood waters rise. They must plan the underwater journey the children must navigate in conditions so hazardous that even seasoned divers become disoriented. The ordeal that ensued resulted in at least one death.

Thirteen Lives streams on Amazon. The film also stars Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, James Teeradon, Poo Sahajak and Weir Sukollowat.

“It was important to create relatability with the audience,” explained the Oscar-winning director when describing ratcheting up the tension.

Talking on Zoom, Howard gets to the heart of the miracle: “The divers were volunteers with a hobby for cave diving. Rick Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and the others put their lives on hold and put themselves at risk physically and emotionally.”

Howard gives credit to his actors for acquiring the skills to execute the underwater rescue.

“I didn’t say, ‘You guys must do the diving’.”

He gives his famous freckled, lopsided grin.

“Viggo said, ‘The diving is so much a part of our characters. Please schedule it so we do it all ourselves’.  

“It was a complicated production,” explains Howard, former child star in The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days and Oscar-winning director of A Beautiful Mind. He was also concerned about the extra time that would be needed to shoot the actors in tricky underwater situations and the running costs of  the production.

The actors pushed back, insisting they would do whatever it took, including foregoing overtime and working on Saturdays.

“They worked so hard,” said Howard, “because that mentality is part of those who cave dive and it was innate to their characters.”

Letting them do their own diving allowed for close-ups  of the actors’ faces underwater, in tight spots, twisting, turning, moving their tanks, reaching up and pulling themselves along the rocks.

“They didn’t take our faces and put them on stunt men,” confirmed Mortensen.

“Yes, we were in a controlled environment, but that was with the fast-tracked training, the madness of underwater cave diving in zero visibility and with all the extra equipment. It was exciting getting to a point where we could carry stunt people pretending to be unconscious through difficult obstacles.”

The training took place in the northern mountains of Spain, said Mortensen.

“The rock is the same as it is in the caves in Thailand and the conditions are the same. The water is a bit colder because it was winter. I thought, ‘Wow, this is harrowing. Why would someone do this for fun’?  It's crazy. Thirteen Lives is not a special effects movie. We were underwater and we were really doing these things.”

Rick Stanton, portrayed by Mortensen, star of Green Book, A History of Violence and the Lord of the Rings trilogy was a consultant on the film.

“I see the rescue and the film as a celebration. I’m proud of what we did in Thailand,” Stanton said. 

Mortensen said: “When I read the script, I began thinking back to 2018 when the real events happened. I thought about how a lot of the world is in a state of anger today. There’s polarisation. It seemed like a good time for a film about something positive, a story that transcends boundaries and is about how people came together to save the lives of 13 ordinary people in the north of Thailand.”

Edgerton, who portrays one of the divers who must make a difficult choice about how to rescue the soccer players and their coach, said: “I was curious whether a fictional telling of this story would be as compelling as the real life one, but it turns out everything I thought I knew about the rescue operation was just the tip of the iceberg. It was a high-wire act and the measures the rescuers took were extraordinary.”

• ‘Thirteen Lives’ is streaming on Amazon Prime

• Entertainment journalist Margaret Gardiner is a former Miss SA and was the first South African woman to win the Miss Universe Pageant. Follow her on YouTube or Instagram.

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