Thirteen Lives

Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman, Sukollawat Kanaros, Thiraphat Sajakul, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Vithaya Pansringarm, Teeradon Supapunpinyo, Nophand Boonyai, Paul Gleeson, Lewis Fitz-Gerald
Running Time: 147 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

When a junior football team and their assistant coach were trapped in a cave in northern Thailand following a practice in 2018, almost three weeks elapse before the boys and their coach are rescued, all of them miraculously surviving. Since so many details about the event have already been covered in first-hand accounts, news reports and 2021's documentary The Rescue, director Ron Howard's job of compellingly dramatizing it in Thirteen Lives becomes all the more difficult. And as he probably knows, any recreation pales in comparison to reality or descriptions from those who were actually there. But that's never stopped any filmmaker from tackling true stories before, so in framing this for those who know exactly what happened, the challenge comes in showing it.

Howard's up to the task, and while nearly all the information concerning the rescue would emerge later, families of the trapped kids were often kept out of the loop amidst bureaucratic and political disorganization. And no matter how much we know now, the method utilized to extract all twelve of these kids and their coach is still shocking, the most dangerous of last resorts under exceedingly hopeless circumstances. If the reliable, workmanlike Howard seems to be a sturdy if unimaginative choice for this material, at least he's the right one, giving the actors and story space while delivering a no frills account that's free of the oversentimentalizing many expected going in.

It's June 23, 2018 when the Wild Boars football/soccer team consisting of twelve boys between ages 11 and 16, along with their 25 year-old assistant coach, Ekkaphon Chanthawong (Teeradon Supapunpinyo) finish practice and head to explore the nearby Tham Luang Nang Non cave. With monsoon season arriving early and torrential, heavy rains inundating the area, the team becomes stranded in the cave's tunnels, unable to exit as downpours worsen and waters continue to rise. With day turning to night, parents express concern that their kids haven't returned home, and when the head coach is unable to contact the rest of the team, their whereabouts are soon confirmed by a teammate who stayed behind. 

Upon discovering the kids' muddy bicycles and belongings outside the cave, a team of Thai Navy SEALs divers are called in to find them, but their attempts are thwarted by continuous precipitation. It's only when local caver Vernon Unsworth (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) suggests to the Thai Governor (Sahajak Boonthanakit) they call in the British Cave Rescue Counsil (BCRC), that divers Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) arrive on the scene. The two men make it far, overcoming poor visibility, rising waters and dangerous debris to make a heroic discovery. But that's only the beginning, as the far tougher challenge lies ahead.

The kids are in the cave for an absurdly long amount of time before anyone comes close to reaching them, with the days and hours ticking down until it's well over a week before they're even located, with Thai divers negotiating their way through narrow crevices and rising waters in search of the team. Not as enthralling, but no less important, is the controversy involving how much the families should know and when, as well as an elaborate strategy to redirect at least some of the rain away from the cave onto the fields. Essentially destroying local farmers' crops and livelihoods to give the children a better chance of survival elicits a response you wouldn't expect, reminding us that while William Nicholson's screenplay doesn't sidestep criticisms of the rescue's handling, the Thai people came together and sacrificed when it mattered most. 

Overcoming scrutiny and skepticism, former firefighter Stanton and IT specialist Volanthen prove themselves invaluable in not only locating the kids, but somehow coming up with a plan to get them out. Mortensen and Farrell give the kind of non-showy performances that are easy to for granted because they're so efficient at conveying the skills and demeanor of two professionals who know what they're doing, but could still easily fail. Aiding them in the rescue are Australian cave diver and medical doctor Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton) and fellow divers Chris Jewell (Tom Bateman) and Jason Mallinson (Paul Gleeson), each of whom are necessary to carry out a plan that has no business working, yet somehow does. Without giving too much away, its potential side effects carry its own set of entirely different risks, and watching it be done multiple times is about as suspenseful and nerve-wracking as it gets. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom also excels at taking us inside this underwater hell, creating an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia both above and below the surface.

One of Howard's more impressive outings in a while, it's kind of surprising Thirteen Lives hasn't gotten much attention, but that could be chalked up to just how closely he sticks to the task at hand. Appropriately lacking in directorial flare, there isn't a large amount of character development for the kids and their families, resulting in a relatively straightforward survival tale that doesn't exactly demand a rewatch. The action really kicks into high gear during the film's last forty minutes, as we hold our collective breath in disbelief at the impending rescue. That this was their best option is what's scariest, regardless of how familiar audiences are with how it all turns out.