Thirteen Lives (Amazon Studios, PG-13)

Knowing how something is going to end is generally a source of comfort going into a movie based on events that took place in the real world. If Ron Howard has made anything clear in his approach to these types of films, nothing could be further from the truth. The veteran of Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, Everest, and Rush knows full-well how to make a movie gripping, regardless of the audience’s understanding of how events would play out. So there I was, walking into Thirteen Lives vaguely remembering the gripping story of twelve soccer players and their coach getting stuck in a cave system in Thailand during monsoon season. I knew how the story was going to end, so what did I have to worry about? It was destined to be a memorable film about a Herculean effort. Upon leaving the theater I remember looking at my plus one, sighing deeply and uttering the words, “holy shit, I am so stressed out.” Chalk another win for Ron Howard, a director who couldn’t care less if you know what happens, because he is going to make you stress-puke either way. 

So, if you remember the story or not, here’s the brief recap. Kids finish soccer practice on summer day in June of 2018 and decide to venture into the Tham Luang Nang Non caves in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Monsoon season starts early, that day, and the boys and their coach don’t come out of the caves. Over the next eighteen days a rescue effort that brings nearly 15,000 people from all over the world is mounted in record time, it would be ten days before proof of life was established. Ten days. What followed was a harrowing attempt to bring all the boys and their coach out alive. In the interest of preserving some mystery for those of you not familiar with the full timeline, I won't give away how that effort fared. There is a reality in which someone goes into this movie not having known of this event, or at the very least isn’t sure how it ended, and I want to preserve the experience of finding that out in the theater. 

Where Ron Howard focuses his energy rests in a smattering of about a dozen people involved in the rescue effort. Colin Ferrell and Viggo Mortensen play John Volanthen and Rick Stanton respectively, two British cave divers who specialized in rescues. Governor Narongsak, a soon to be replaced official in the Chiang Rai government, played by Sahajak Boonthanakit. General Anupong Paochinda, Minister of Interior, played by Vithaya Pansringarm. A bevy of international divers played by Paul Gleeson, Joel Edgerton, and Tom Bateman, and the Thai Navy SEALs, led by Thira Chutikul, Bernard Sam, and Gerwin Widjaja. Firstly, it was immediately clear that Ron Howard and the casting director did their diligences in casting Thai actors to play Thai characters, something that while expected, is often done in a manner that causes the least resistance, and therefore often isn’t exactly accurate. Thirteen Lives is full of Thai nationals, and I commend the crew for making sure that respect was paid. 

Thirteen Lives unfolds as a Sisyphusian struggle against the elements in the midst of political turbulence and general lack of preparedness. Though the latter factor isn’t illustrated as a knock against the Thai Navy SEALs or the people of Thailand in any way. The fact of the matter was, in that moment, the operational training the SEALs had was for open water rescues, as cave rescues weren’t a frequent occurrence. What transpires then is a series of small verbal conflicts and sparring matches between the more qualified volunteers, and the Thai military leadership as they debate who should go into the caves and who is willing to take responsibility for who, should one of the divers be injured. The international volunteers just want to help, but that help in the beginning is stymied by understandable feelings of personal pride and mind-numbing bureaucracy as each party dallies over who should be allowed to venture into the submerged caves. When the boys are finally found by Volanthen and Stanton, the gears begin turning as the teams outside the cave system kick into high gear trying to figure out how they are now going to retrieve twelve prepubescent boys, through more than a thousand meters of fully submerged, strongly flowing, dangerously narrow caves and winding tunnels. A journey that took the divers more than seven hours to navigate one way. As you can imagine, children wouldn’t likely fare that journey well. Stress is a real factor when you are squeezing through tightly formed cave structures, include the fact these are children with no diving experience, who have been surviving malnourished for more than a week, and fear of inevitable claustrophobia and panic becomes less a chance and more a guarantee. 

The specific historical accuracy of the portrayal of this rescue is certainly up for debate, though there are provable facts now we are more than four years beyond the occurrence of this rescue. Still, I’m positive some liberties were taken to add dramatic effect, though it is increasingly difficult to see how much dramatic effect would need to be added, as the rescue itself is, to this day, one of the most unbelievable feats in human history that has occurred in my lifetime. And now I fear that I may be giving too much away, so I’ll navigate away from plot specifics once more. The real art of this film comes from the way Howard and writer William Nicholson allow their actors to embody the compounding stresses taken on by each of these divers. Though many of them were experienced in cave rescue, this rescue was clearly above and beyond any of their expertise, so watching Mortensen and Farrell and the rest of the cast inhabit the space with such respect to the gravity of what was happening drew myself and the attending audience that much deeper into the experience. 

As I mentioned in my first few sentences, I knew how this rescue effort panned out. I knew how many kids made it out. I knew how long it took. None of those things mattered by the halfway point of the film. The sound design, the cinematography, the performances, all tricked my mind (and most importantly my body) into completely forgetting what I knew to be true, trapping me in an ever deepening sense of dread. When Mortensen’s Rick Stanton looks at Farrell’s Volanthen and says, “When we started this, I said if we rescued one boy we would be heroes. Now if we lose one…” and trails off, the fear and tension is palpable.

Thirteen Lives is a tremendous retelling of the heroic capability of humanity pushed to its limits to save our children. Something that comes as no small comfort in a time where it feels increasingly like people can’t agree on anything, this film reminds you time and time again that people know what it means to do good, and most importantly, that they are willing to put their lives on the line to ensure good is done. Perhaps not a metaphor that extends to every reach of the world, nor every situation. Still, Thirteen Lives stands to prove that when we have to, humanity can and will rise to the occasion. A brilliant recreation of a terrific and mesmerizing event in recent human history, that so many people couldn’t have understood to this level of detail. If you live in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, make your way to a theater to see this. There are few films I would think are capable of making a massive open theater feel as close walled as a coffin, and that experience is something that has to be felt if possible. For everyone else, catch it on Amazon Prime on August 5th. Turn the lights off, turn the stereo up, and maybe pop a TUMS or two in. Stress heartburn is no fun if you can avoid it. 

@LubWub
~Caleb