[WGH]

The Rescue is a feature length film about the impossible rescue of 12 boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand in 2018. The boys and their coach entered the Tham Luang cave complex after soccer practice and were quickly trapped inside by rising floodwater after an unexpected early monsoon downpour. Despite a massive search, the boys spent nine nights lost in the cave before they were spotted by an expert diver. The rescue transfixed the world with hour by hour reports and NOVA aired a documentary in 2018 but this film is a lot more than that a dry retelling of the facts. The Rescue goes into the thoughts, hopes and fears of the people involved.




Expertly directed by Oscar winning filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who also made the tense "Free Solo" documentary, the film has all the drama of Hollywood blockbuster and even though we know the ending there was not a dry eye in the theater when the boys were found.




The rescue involved an international team of over 5000 people including expert teams from Australia, Britain, China, Israel, United States, and the Thai Navy Seals, who all dropped everything and traveled to Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province, Thailand in a race to save the boys before the monsoon rains flooded the cave. The documentary includes never before seen footage filmed by the Thai Navy Seals. Vasarhelyi negotiated for two years until Rr Adm Arpakorn Youkongkaew, a Royal Thai Navy Seal commander agreed to release the 87 hours of footage from the Seals cameras ¹.



Fresh Air has an interview with the filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and diver Rick Stanton about how an expert team of cave divers, Thai Navy Seals and an international group of special service members and volunteers pulled off the harrowing mission and got all 12 boys and their coach to safety.

Inside The Thailand Cave Rescue
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/11/1045035129/inside-the-thailand-cave-rescue


The Rescue is the most life-affirming film I have seen and guaranteed to win the Best Documentary Academy Award. This is a must see film.

Watch the trailer:
https://films.nationalgeographic.com/the-rescue

100% on RT
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_rescue_2021

 


¹ https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/2194003/new-thai-cave-rescue-movie-includes-navy-seals-footage