In every great drama there is a moment when the opposing forces seem to be insurmountable. In which the enemy knows no more mercy, in which time is too short and the risk is too great, in which even the most powerful have to admit their powerlessness. During the rescue operation in the Tham Luang Cave in Thailand, there was not just one of these moments.
And yet, as we know, it did not turn into a tragedy. Because even in those fateful moments there were a few people who couldn’t give up. Who refused to accept the end. Which, contrary to all reason, went a step further. And then the next one, and the one after that.
The fact that you can now relive and tremble as if you were there yourself in the cave passages is the great triumph of the documentary “The Rescue” by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. A triumph that is all the more astonishing because you think you know the story. It was all three years ago, In June and July 2018 it was on the news, in the end it was reported around the clock worldwide.
Twelve soccer boys and their coach, then, who do not return from a cave tour underground because heavy monsoon rains have flooded the corridors. The world with no signs of life for nine days. Then the boys’ discovery, emaciated but unharmed, in an almost inaccessible cavity inside the mountain. And finally, after nine more days, a complete rescue. It’s all still fresh in my mind.
We also know that the Thai military took over relatively quickly, the news pictures showed camps with uniformed men in front of the cave entrance. And that a highly decorated marine diver died in the middle because he ran out of oxygen. Only the background information and testimonies in “The Rescue” make it clear how lost even the best marine divers are – and must be – in such cave systems.
Two older British nerds as the last and best hope? Great
You understand that when John Volanthen and Rick Stanton come into the picture. One in his late 40s, an IT specialist, the other in his late 50s and already retired, formerly a firefighter. Nobody would call the two beautiful or radiant. They seem a bit awkward, shy in front of the camera, almost apologetically they try to explain the deep inner peace that their strange hobby brings them. As evidenced by several depth and distance records, they are the best cave divers in the world.
When two nerds like that are the last and best hope that we as humanity can offer, that’s great. But it is made even better by the unmoved British sobriety and honesty with which Volanthen and Stanton now comment on the further course of events. The rebreather diving devices, for example, with which you can stay under water longer than any Navy Seal soldier, they built themselves through years of handicraft work. These, like all their equipment, don’t look particularly trustworthy.
But even these two soon notice the challenge they are facing. Four adult Thais, who they first dive out of the front part of the cave, thrash about underwater – with the children, if they are still alive, this type of rescue will not be possible. Then it pours more and more, the subterranean current becomes insurmountable and rapid. The English are already looking for return flights, and the surface team is successful. A complete mountain stream is diverted, the current in the cave diminishes.
After nine days, the two divers dare to venture deeper into the cave than in the days before – further than the thick unwound pulley that has to lead them back to the exit, even further than their safety reserves for oxygen actually allow. This is the moment when even these bone-dry Brits become mystics.
“Suddenly I had the strong feeling that we shouldn’t turn back now,” recalls Volanthen. And lo and behold, in an air cavity at km 4.2 it suddenly smells really strong. Then the two of them look into thirteen emaciated but lively faces in the light of the flashlights. After nine days of being locked up without food, the calm and friendliness of these kids is simply breathtaking – a fundamental lesson for all of us, who we see in a few inconveniences in everyday life as the license to go nuts. “Believe!” you can hear Volanthen say on the soundtrack. He wants to convince himself of the miracle.
The first pictures of the boys who went around the world after their discovery in the cave showed them emaciated but alive.
(Photo: Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center / AP)
The film shows this moving moment in real time because the divers had a small camera with them and cameras from the Thai military were also wearing their helmets. After long negotiations, the filmmakers were given access to these recordings, including those that had not yet been seen. However, they show the dives underwater in an illumination that allows each step to be followed precisely. How can that be?
These recordings are subsequent reconstructions – in the muddy water of the cave you couldn’t actually see your hand in front of your eyes. So the real cave divers re-enacted every step they took for the documentary team’s camera – in a large water tank in Pinewood Studios with cave decorations. They were very careful with the details.
After the boys’ discovery, the pressure grows immeasurably
The question of how authentic that can be, however, hardly arises because one has long been completely, well, immersed in the story. The news of the boys’ discovery goes around the world, and as beautiful as it is – now the pressure on everyone involved is growing almost immeasurably. How on earth do you get those precious human lives out there under the eyes of the world media?
The diving route, which lasts several hours, has bottlenecks through which only a person can fit, you need years of experience in cave diving in order not to panic there. Food and warming blankets can be brought to the children, more experienced cave divers from all over the world are now arriving, but the oxygen content in the cavity drops. It is already at 15 percent, the mark where the danger of suffocation begins … and the weather report announces new torrential rains in a few days.
There is food and blankets, but the oxygen is running out: How can the trapped be dived out of the cave?
(Photo: Reuters)
How does this arc of tension, which no thriller grandmaster could have devised more ruthlessly, finally dissolves? The Australian doctor Richard Harris, whose hobby is also cave diving, a drug called ketamine, some special positive pressure masks that are part of the equipment of the US military, which also helps out, the Thai Navy Seals and the Thai Navy, will play a major role Minister of the Interior, who finally gives the go.
In the end, you get the feeling that mankind has really worked together on something here, instead of just engaging in egomaniacal self-destruction. It is infinitely good to watch. And yet everything is so close to the limit of improbability and madness that there was even an escape car ready for the rescuers: if it had gone wrong. If the kids hadn’t survived. If public opinion in Thailand suddenly changed, against them. But you have to see that for yourself in “The Rescue” to believe it – one of the great film experiences of this year.
The Rescue, UK / USA 2021 – Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin. Camera: David Katznelson, Ian Seabrook. With Rick Stanton, John Volanthen. National Geographic documentary on Disney +, 114 minutes. Streaming start: December 30, 2021.