The True Story Behind 13 Lives

The film “13 Lives” is a couple of group of 12 boys and their soccer coach who discover themselves trapped deep in a community of caves after flooding blocks their approach out. The group is ultimately rescued by a staff of divers who undertake the harmful journey to search out and rescue them.

The movie’s plot relies on a real event that occurred not too way back. On June 23, 2018, 12 boys between the ages of 11 and 16 and their assistant coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, went lacking whereas exploring Tham Luang Nang Non, a fancy of caves stretching between Thailand and Myanmar. They deliberate to have a good time a participant’s birthday within the caves, which they usually explored, however the staff discovered themselves stranded as an alternative when a torrential rainstorm led to a flood that blocked their exit.

Throughout their time within the cave, the staff survived by consuming the water dripping down the partitions and by digging a gap the place all of them huddled collectively to maintain heat. Their coach, additionally a monk, taught them meditation techniques to assist them preserve calm as they waited to be rescued.

After their bikes and luggage had been discovered close to the cave’s entrance, Thai Navy SEALs and a British diver who lived within the space performed a preliminary search of the cave, concluding the waters had been too murky for them to maneuver ahead. A world name for assist introduced in rescue divers from the US Air Drive, the Australian Specialist Response Group, and the Beijing Peaceland Basis, amongst others. After a number of failed rescue makes an attempt, British Cave Rescue Council divers Richard Stanton and John Volanthen lastly discovered the boys on July 2, about 4 kilometers from the mouth of the cave.

That was solely the beginning of the journey, which required divers to swim towards sturdy currents, generally in channels solely three ft vast. A number of the boys didn’t know the right way to swim, and even when they did, the mission was treacherous even for knowledgeable divers. Finally, 18 divers had been despatched in, armed with a mixture of ketamine, Xanax, and a drug referred to as atropine designed to knock the boys unconscious to forestall them from panicking in the course of the harmful journey out. The divers rigorously carried every of the boys by way of the labyrinthine tunnels, not understanding whether or not their passengers had been alive. “If a masks’s seal broke from being knocked round in these cramped tunnels, it’d begin to flood with water,” wrote Matt Gutman, writer of the 2018 ebook “The Boys within the Cave.” “The divers possible wouldn’t discover it as they navigated the darkened exit route. There could be no technique to know whether or not they had been towing a sedated child who was lifeless to the world or a child who was really lifeless.”

Miraculously, on July 10, after 18 days within the cave, the boys all made it out alive due to the efforts of the divers and the 1000’s of others who volunteered and arranged, resembling native Thai individuals who labored to divert rising waters within the caves onto rice paddies. Sadly, one cave diver, former Thai Navy officer Saman Gunan, died whereas on his approach out of the cave as a consequence of an absence of oxygen. Another diver died a 12 months and a half later after an an infection he contracted in the course of the rescue unfold to his blood.

The rescue mission was a large worldwide effort, requiring pumping greater than a billion liters of water out of the cave and coordinating tens of 1000’s of individuals. It understandably made worldwide headlines, and “13 Lives” is one in every of many onscreen adaptions of the occasion to this point, which embody the Thai drama “The Cave” and the documentary “The Rescue.” Netflix can even be releasing a six-episode drama referred to as “Thai Cave Rescue” in September.

“13 Lives” will likely be launched on Prime Video on Aug. 5.

Picture Supply: Getty / Jittrapon Kaicome