Thirteen Lives

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• 66   Metascore
• 2022
• 2 hr 27 mins
• Documentary, Drama, Suspense
• PG-13

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On June 23, 2018, twelve boys of the junior football team "Wild Boars" and their assistant coach Ekkaphon Chanthawong leave practice to explore the Tham Luang cave. When the team fails to arrive at a birthday party organized by their parents, their families head to the caves, only to find them flooded and the boys missing, their bikes left at the entrance. The parents immediately alert emergency services. Royal Thai Navy SEALs, led by Captain Arnont (Teerapat Sajakul), arrive to search for the missing boys, but find the dive too difficult to locate the team. Vernon Unsworth (Lewis Fitz-Gerald), a local British caver, shares his extensive knowledge of the complex and dangerous cave and suggests the authorities get in touch with the British Cave Rescue Council. British cavers Rick Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell) travel to Thailand and attempt the dive, finding the boys and coach four kilometers from the entrance. During an attempt to deliver air tanks to the boys to keep them alive in preparation for the rescue, former Thai Navy Seal Saman Kunan (Sukollawat Kanarot) drowns. Meanwhile, as hundreds of volunteers try to mitigate poor weather conditions, a water technician from Bangkok gains the permission of local farmers to divert water from the mountain onto their fields, destroying their crop. Realizing the boys will have to be removed through the cave, via a 6-hour dive, knowing the risks are, Stanton and Volanthen contact Dr. Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton), plus supporting divers Chris Jewell (Tom Bateman) and Jason Mallinson (Paul Gleeson). With permission from the regional governor (Sahajak Boonthanakit) and minister, the divers sedate the boys and, with one diver per boy, carry each member out of the cave safely. The coach is removed last. Removed to hospital, the parents are reunited with the team. The end scene is the boys celebrating the birthday party that was supposed to happen on the day they went into the cave. The end credits reveal that the coach and three of the boys, who were all stateless, are given Thai citizenship. The film is dedicated to Saman Kunan, the Thai Navy Seal who died on July 6, 2018 during the rescue operation, and Beirut Pakbara, a Thai Navy Seal who later died from a blood infection.