Thirteen Lives

Thirteen Lives review: The new Amazon Prime Video film directed by Ron Howard is an intense and well-made survival drama, which should surely be an Oscar ...

The USP of the film is the setting. Almost half the film is in Thai language, a big challenge for the director who does not speak or understand a word of it. One can easily follow the action even when the dialogue is in Thai. And the action is breathtaking. The cinematography is clear, the dialogue is coherent. It is so easy to cast white actors in a film about a tragedy in the Third World and turn it into a ‘white saviour’ tale. Despite the Thai military’s best efforts, the kids remained trapped for days and it took the efforts of expert cave divers from UK and Australia to finally reach and save them.

Amazon Prime Video's Thirteen Lives tells the story of the divers that saved the Wild Boars football team from a cave in Thailand.

They were quickly bundled off to hospital, with blankets and sunglasses on to protect their vision, their eyes having adjusted to the gloomy surroundings of the cave. By this time, Navy Seals and cave divers, who had established a route to the boys, were relaying food, medicine, torches and oxygen, as well as allowing letters to be passed on between them and loved ones. Harry warned the other divers – 14 in total, all a mix of nationalities – that they would have to readminister top up doses of drugs to each boy to get them through the winding cave system. It could also take months for the cave to become traversable again – and more rain was expected during the monsoon season. Having previously trained as a monk, Ekkaphon Kanthawong also taught the boys to meditate, to stave off feelings of hunger and keep them calm. ‘While there was joy, and relief, at finding the boys alive, we honestly didn’t expect them to be,’ he recalls at the press conference for the Thirteen Lives film, where he served as a consultant. Other volunteers donated food and money to the family of the missing team. ‘First, we had to get the water out of the cave,’ Thanet explained to one American news outlet. As experienced as the Thai Navy were in water, they were not particularly skilled at cave diving – especially in an environment as enclosed, dark and unforgiving as Tham Luang. Volunteers also offered their help, with food stalls on site to ensure the people devoting their efforts to save the boys were fed and watered. Swallowed up by the suffocating darkness, they had no choice other than to sit and wait in the hope of help coming to get them out. The monsoon season had arrived uncharacteristically early, and the intricate cave system was quick to fill with water.

The narrative follows a Thai junior soccer team and their coach who get trapped for 18 days in a system of underground caves that starts to flood during a heavy ...

Additional portions of ‘Thirteen Lives’ were also taped on location in Thailand. Since the movie is set in Thailand, it made sense for the production team to, at least, get in a few shots of the locales of the country. A majority of the sequences for ‘Thirteen Lives’ were lensed in and around Queensland, an Australian state located in the northeastern part of the country. Due to the restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the production team could not tape the entirety of the biographical movie on location in Thailand itself.

Director: Ron Howard Writers: William Nicholson Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Paul Gleeson, Tom Bateman.

The body language Mortensen imbues Rick with speaks to a lifetime of experience in the water, but little knowledge of how to act when on dry land. Thirteen Days repeatedly reminds audiences of the ticking clock, through conversations between the characters, a detailed timeline of the day the boys went missing and onscreen text noting the time elapsed each time the rescue team dives in. The leanest and most tense portions of Thirteen Lives are the underwater scenes, with the immersive sound design capturing the constant gurgling of the water, the clank of the divers’ metal cylinders against the rocks and the rasp of their oxygen intake. The implication is that of the several miracles required to pull off the intricately plotted mission on a technical level in 2018, perhaps the biggest was that there were willing volunteers for it. As the rescue mission is put together and carried out in, it’s hard to not think of Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s superior 2021 documentary, The Rescue. Pieced together from rescue footage and recreated dives shot at a pool in England, it takes a while to get going but its biggest achievement is how it conveys the depth of generosity and selflessness of the group of rescue divers. Thirteen Lives, on Amazon Prime Video, is a straightforward recounting of the rescue mission.

Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton spoke about their experience making "Thirteen Lives," which charts the real-life Tham Luang cave rescue in ...

"I mean, the two lads being there on the set, just for my comfort levels, personally, and also constantly going to them as reference, like, 'what did you think here? I remember what Rick said and I was like, 'Okay, I have the other tank' so just tried to get over here and reach it and switch to the other mouthpiece, do it calmly. "And we had two tanks, you know, and if something went wrong with one [they'd tell us] just be calm don't freak out because you can drown in a few seconds. And also, there's situations where you get snagged or something goes wrong you want to be able to think calmly, and that has to do with breathing. So yeah, it just reminded me you have to be really sharp and really look after each other." When asked if they had ever panicked while underwater, Egerton said of his experience diving: "I did have one moment because, you know, not only were we going, I was a relatively novice diver, well completely novice, getting through these stages...

Based on the harrowing story of the Tham Luang cave rescue, the movie features an all-star cast including Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton. It ...

In the end that tiny bit of hope became reality." By July 10, all the boys and their coach had been rescued after 18 days trapped in the cave system. It was on July 8 that a team of 18 divers went in with one assigned to each boy and others to assist. It's why the movie shows the continuous checks on the sedated boys at every stage out to safety. If that weren't enough, more than a billion litres of water was being drained from the caves – the equivalent of 400 Olympic-size swimming pools. But what really went down in 2018 when divers from around the world tried to rescue a young soccer team?

Wondering if the film Thirteen Lives starring Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen is available on Netflix? Don't worry, we've got you covered!

No matter how hard they search, no one will find Thirteen Lives on Netflix because it isn’t one of the many options ready to stream now, and it doesn’t seem likely this will change since it is an Amazon Studios movie. But if subscribers are looking for films that take their inspiration from actual events that happened, then the streaming powerhouse is the place to check out some fascinating titles. Thirteen Lives is based on an incredible true story of how a group of individuals came together to perform an impossible rescue attempt of a junior football team consisting of 12 players and their coach, who were all trapped in a flooded cave for 18 days.

“Thirteen Lives” is a dramatization of what happened in July 2018 when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in a flooded limestone cave in Thailand for ...

“They’re packages and we’re just the delivery guys,” one rescuer says. The overall effect is a more inclusive storytelling — no white savior narrative, great — but the cost is a flattening of the narrative. Much of the film was shot in Australia, not Thailand. (That’s a spoiler if you’ve been in a literal cave for the past four years.) “Thirteen Lives” is available Friday on Prime Video. There is also some clunky dialogue and daft Hollywoodization, like the heavy use of cellos when things get dramatic and the appearance of slo-mo ambulances. Twenty-seven years ago, Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13” saluted men with the right stuff — quiet courage and grace under pressure.

Thirteen Lives, starring (L to R) Colin Farrell, Paul Gleeson and Thira Chutikul, tells the story of the astonishing rescue (Picture: AP).

‘It seemed like a long time, but it was only a matter of seconds. Each of them had a different cave and tunnel system to recreate the real-life situation. Of course, it would have been impossible to film in a real cave system, so the cave had to be replicated exactly. ‘So we had a couple of weeks where they were in the water with them every day, emulating it and for that reason, because they’ve done that work — they also volunteered to work on the weekends and whatever was required, so that all of the shots are them — they learned the cave diving techniques and the personalities of the men that they were playing.’ I panicked’ Rick Stanton, who Viggo plays in the new film and who was an essential part of the rescue mission, had a hand in teaching the actor how to cave dive for real.

For Ron Howard's retelling of the 2018 ordeal, Pattrakorn Tungsupakul not only played the mother of a stranded boy, she also made key script contributions.

“I feel proud,” said Rugeradh Tungsupakul, who goes by Waen. “I know how hard it’s been for her to get where she is today.” He died before her first television show ran and had not been happy when she abandoned law for the unpredictable life of an actress. “She introduces femininity and the soft side of energy,” Ruetaivanichkul said. Early success on a 2013 series in which she played a rural girl forced to move to Bangkok after her father is murdered made her a star in Thailand. When asked if she was famous, Tungsupakul demurred with a quiet “Yeah,” before adding, “But if I say ‘yes’ then maybe ‘Oh, I’m too much.’” The tears came so easily because the world the production team had recreated in Australia felt so close to home. She graduated from law school, but instead decided to move to Bangkok to pursue a career in acting. “She shows the empathy within the group. (The producer P.J. van Sandwijk worked on both “Thirteen Lives” and “The Rescue.”) Tungsupakul brought the idea of the bracelets to the production as another example of paying attention to the local customs. “I asked my friend who studies northern culture at Chiang Mai University, and he said this is a must-have item,” she said. Her character’s arc involves finding her voice in the quiet moments: She challenges the governor directly (“How can you understand? “Dramatically, she’s the most heartbreaking.”

Ron Howard's biographical survival film about the Tham Luang cave rescue stands out for how realistic it is and how it feels.

The criticism that I have for this story is the same that I had for the documentary, which is where is the perspective of the children? Without spoiling too much of the rescue for those who managed to dodge the news on the news as it was developing, Howard's no-frills approach to Thirteen Lives is what makes it such a success. This is barely touched on, so it's difficult for the audience to truly understand the fear that the parents had for their children who had no nationality or citizenship. On its own, the story of this rescue is inspiring, and the 18 day story kept the world at the edge of their seats. It makes a good pairing with Farrell's Volanthen who is much warmer, and as a father himself, can keenly imagine the pain that the parents of the children feel. Back in the summer of 2018, a group of kids between the ages of 11-16 decided to go into a local cave.

Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen star as cave divers in the new movie.

Simply put, it is one of the best films I’ve seen this year.” Thrilling, intense and claustrophobic, with some of the most nerve-wracking underwater sequences I’ve seen in recent memory. The ingenuity and teamwork shown to rescue the young boys is amazing.” Another fan wrote: “What a brilliant, brilliant film #ThirteenLives and what a rescue. What a gripping example of humanity, courage, prayer and determination.” Farrell recently revealed that he experienced panic attacks while filming underwater scenes for the film.

An exclusive look at how the heartracing film was made, from building huge tanks in a warehouse to sifting through nearly 400 hours of footage.

Then, equal time is dedicated to life just outside the cave, as the efforts of locals—from family members to government officials to spirited volunteers—prove vital in the mission’s success. An international rescue effort of more than 10,000 people resulted in every one of them being delivered to safety after over two weeks of careful, tricky planning—though not without lives lost along the way. But instead of launching into space, this time he’s diving underwater.

“Thirteen Lives” is a dramatization of what happened in July 2018 when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in a flooded limestone cave in Thailand for several weeks. Like his space flick, it will take a lot of on-the-fly can-do to get them ...

“They’re packages and we’re just the delivery guys,” one rescuer says. The overall effect is a more inclusive storytelling — no white savior narrative, great — but the cost is a flattening of the narrative. Much of the film was shot in Australia, not Thailand. (That’s a spoiler if you’ve been in a literal cave for the past four years.) “Thirteen Lives” is available Friday on Prime Video. There is also some clunky dialogue and daft Hollywoodization, like the heavy use of cellos when things get dramatic and the appearance of slo-mo ambulances. Twenty-seven years ago, Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13” saluted men with the right stuff — quiet courage and grace under pressure.

How accurate is 'Thirteen Lives,' Ron Howard's new movie about the Thai cave rescue of a boys' soccer team and their coach? We fact check the film.

And then the anesthetic was ketamine, and it was a lot. ("I reckon you did the hardest part," Harry tells him. Although Ploy's character is a composite of many parents, the bracelets themselves were real: "That was a wonderful discovery," Nicholson says. It's true that "the parents never knew," Nicholson says. Before the rescue gets underway, a trapped boy's mother (Pattrakorn "Ploy" Tungsupakul) gives Rick and John a bag of red beaded bracelets for good luck. Although it was initially just referenced in the script, Howard says he wanted "an opportunity to see this meditation."

"Thirteen Lives" on Prime Video, starring Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman, will have you on the edge of your seats.

He was pronounced dead at 1 a.m. on July 6. The time took to retrieve each boy and their coach was three hours per individual. The rescue operation could have gone down very different routes. Volanthen and Stanton were overseen by BCRC diver Robert Harper and later assisted by the Thai, U.S., Australian and Chinese diving reams. The incident saw a junior football team aged 11 to 16 and their 25-year-old assistant coach, Ekkaphon Chanthawong, trapped in a cave for a total of 18 days. They weren't found until July 2 at 10 p.m., almost two weeks after they first entered the cave.

The movie is inspired by the real-life rescue of 13 people who were trapped in a cave in Thailand. You can stream "Thirteen Lives" on Prime Video.

If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. You can find a list of supported devices and televisions on the Amazon website. Prime Video is also included as part of a full Amazon Prime membership for $15 a month. Twelve children and their soccer coach were trapped over two miles deep in the Tham Luang cave system in Thailand. However, that free trial period is a one-time deal, and if you don't cancel when the 30 days are up, you'll be looped into the monthly rate. You can sign up for Prime Video as a standalone streaming service for $9 a month.

The perilous journey of a junior soccer team trapped in a cave by floodwaters captured the world's attention in 2018 and is the focus of this new film by ...

When Howard sticks to the action beats, Thirteen Lives is satisfying. It's a six-hour-plus dive from the cave where they're marooned and back to safety, a journey that wends its way through treacherous underwater tunnels that only a skilled diver could possibly navigate. "I didn't come here to kill kids, Rick," Harris protests, a line of dialogue that yields the movie's biggest unintentional laugh.

Thirteen Lives stars Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen as two of the heroic divers. Is it accurate?

The tunnels are so murky that even with headlamps, the only way the rescue divers can find their way out and not get lost in the cave network is by keeping hold of a guide rope installed before the boys are swum out from Cavern 9. It was in fact the Thai military who called in Thanet Natisri (Nophand Boonyai), a Thai restaurant owner and self-taught groundwater storage expert from Marion, Illinois who happened to be working on a project in Thailand building wells for farmers. With the attempt to reach the boys suspended because of the constantly-rising water level, a Thai-American water engineer points out that unless the water pouring in from above is diverted, the divers will never be able to get in. In fact, hundreds of rescuers formed a ‘daisy chain’ to slide, carry, and even zipline the boys on stretchers over a complex network of pulleys previously installed by rock-climbers (also not shown). Some stretchers were placed on an impromptu slide made of hoses installed to pump out water. The two British experts were indeed the first to navigate the difficult narrow tunnels past Cavern 3 and find the boys alive in Cavern 9, and they did bring on two more British divers plus Harris. However, possibly in the name of not overwhelming the audience with more characters than they can possibly keep track of, the film has omitted from the core team another Australian and another lead diver, Jim Warny from Ireland, who joined on the final day of the rescue. They bring the “packages,” anesthetized boys in wetsuits and scuba gear on light stretchers with hands and feet restrained, to a staging area in Cavern 3, where the stretchers are guided through the rest of the network to the cave entrance by a team of Thai SEALS and divers. Also not shown are the 90 Thai divers and the foreign dive shop owners who were stationed along the route to perform medical check-ups and resupply air-tanks for the main divers, and the team who installed the oxygen tanks, cables, lighting system, communication devices, and the water drainage pipes and pumping system used to drain water from the tunnels. In the film, the mother of one of the boys tells the assistant to the area’s governor, Narongsak Osatanakorn (Sahajak Boonthanakit), that her family is from Myanmar and so don’t have any official ID cards. The film’s version of the rescue itself shows only the four British cave dive experts guiding each unconscious boy (one diver per boy) between Caverns 9 and 3 over the course of three days. The film depicts about 20 Thai Navy SEALS beginning the rescue operation, but, trained for open water diving and not work in narrow cave tunnels, they can only get about halfway down the tunnel network to Cavern 3. The confusion may arise from the fact that all four were from the ethnic minority hill tribes that populate both sides of the porous border in the notorious Golden Triangle, a hotbed of drug smuggling, between Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, where Thai authorities estimate the “stateless” population with no documented nationality may be as high as three million. The bad news: The story was covered so exhaustively at the time that much of the core audience is already familiar with all the details and will notice any fudging for dramatic effect.

The Ron Howard-directed film, based on the incredible true story of an international rescue, is now streaming on Prime Video.

Join Prime for a free 30-day trial to stream Thirteen Lives for free. Thirteen Lives is streaming on Prime Video at no additional charge to Prime members. The story follows the rescue of a Thai soccer team who got trapped in the Tham Luang cave during an unexpected rainstorm.