“The Rescue” spins the wild saga of a Thai soccer team that turned monsoon season into prime time.
It’s like Apollo 13″ meets “Touching the Void.
I rank “The Rescue” #1 in my list of “Best Survival Documentaries” (I’m up to 15 of them!).
Thx to John Anderson of the WSJ for first recommending it.
Trailer for “The Rescue”
You Can’t Make this Shi*t Up
- British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen were the first to discover the twelve missing Thai boys and their coach alive, astonishingly two miles inside the flooded Tham Luang cave after more than a week with no contact.
- A monk, Kruba Boonchum, arrives. Predicts survival, but also loss. It’s not just a rescue; it’s a prophecy.
- The final rescue plan—deemed “insane” even by its designers—involved sedating each boy so they could be safely maneuvered, unconscious, through miles of pitch-black, underwater passages
Watch “The Rescue”
You can stream “The Rescue” on:
It had been on Hulu too (at https://www.hulu.com/movie/ae90e0f3-4adb-4de1-8c9c-c4fc3ccf0479) but it wasn’t there when I last checked (9/13/24).
Ratings:
- My Rating: 98/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 99/100 (Users); 95/100 (Critics)
Watch Netflix’s Version of “The Rescue” (“The Trapped 13”)
If you are partial to Netflix and want to watch a documentary like “The Rescue”, then Netflix streams a doc called “The Trapped 13: How We Surived the Thai Cave”.
You can watch that 2022 doc here: https://www.netflix.com/title/81306195
“The Trapped 13” (143 minutes) is a solid doc though I give “The Rescue” the clear edge.
It gets an IMDB score of 7.4; Rotten Tomatoes scores of 92/100 (Users) and 100/100 (critics).
Jimmy Chin directed this doc and Free Solo, a doc about the first person to ever free solo the 3,000-foot Freerider route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. And directed Meru about a trio of climbers who risked it all.
Review of “The Rescue”
Picture this: Thailand, 2018. A soccer team goes missing.
Local authorities? Insistent. “We’ve got this,” they say.
But as waters rise, so do doubts. The world holds its breath.
The story’s not just about a rescue; it’s about a clash. A clash between hope and despair, between tradition and necessity.
Enter the unsung heroes. Not your usual rescuers, but a patchwork team of the best.
Think Avengers, but underwater. There’s Richard “Harry” Harris, with his anesthetic wizardry.
You’ve got Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, the dynamic diving duo to the rescue.
And let’s not forget Captain Mitch Torrel, flying in with tactics straight out of a movie.
And Ben, from Belgium, because why not?
The plot thickens when Rick and John, expecting to find kids, find four volunteers instead. Lost, but not the ones they’re looking for.
Imagine that moment. The heart drops, but hope? It flickers.
Here’s where it gets mystical. A monk, Kruba Boonchum, arrives. Predicts survival, but also loss. It’s not just a rescue; it’s a prophecy.
And then, the unthinkable. Thai Navy SEAL Sam perishes. It’s a blow, a sobering reminder of the stakes.
The mission? More perilous than ever. Yet, the team pushes on.
They concoct a plan so bold, it borders on fiction. Anesthetize the kids, ferry them through waterlogged corridors, a gamble against time and nature.
And as monsoons loom, as oxygen wanes, they do it. They pull each child from the jaws of the abyss, against every odd.
Later, as the cave swallows itself in monsoon’s embrace, the magnitude of their feat settles in. Thirteen lives saved, a town flooded, and a cave, sealed for months, stands as silent witness to human courage, to hope.
“The Rescue” is more than a film. It’s a testament to human spirit, to the power of collaboration across cultures and disciplines.
It showcases not just the rescue, but the resilience, the heartbreaks, and the sheer audacity of hope.
It reminds us, in the darkest of caves, under the weight of the earth, light finds a way.
So next time life’s waters rise, remember Tham Luang.
Remember the cave, the kids, the divers, and the spirit that binds us, even in the deepest of waters.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc