Cave Rescue

Low budget production of the Thai cave rescue, The Ron Howard movie much better but the numerous documentaries out are actually better than the movie version.

IN A NUTSHELL: Four separate movies been released almost simultaneously about this story. It's a fascinating story because it's true. A boys' soccer team was trapped in the Tham Luang cave by rising floodwaters in Thailand in 2018. There's Cave Rescue by Tom Waller and Lionsgate, Ron Howard's Thirteen Lives on Amazon Prime, a National Geographic documentary called The Rescue that was nominated for an Oscar, and a Netflix limited series called Thai Cave Rescue. More than 5000 people from 17 countries participated in the real-life rescue.

THINGS I LIKED: In all of them, we get to travel to beautiful Thailand.

Thirteen Lives gives us time to get to know some of the rescuers a little bit better.

It's fun to see the food, homes, and religious culture illustrated in all of them.

In all of the films, we get to learn and watch various rescue techniques that were used to try to save the boys.

We get to see how the world came together to rescue the boys.

While Thirteen Lives was a big Hollywood production with elaborate sets and soundstages, Cave Rescue was actually filmed in Thailand near the actual locations where the events occurred. Rescue diver Jim Warny plays himself in that version.

I adore Viggo Mortensen, so that persuaded me to favor the Thirteen Lives version by Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard. Viggo Mortensen speaks multiple languages, and apparently, he's also a fix-it guy, volunteering to fix equipment rather than wait for the crew. Also in that movie are Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton. They all speak with accents and are absolutely fantastic.

It's fun to hear Thai being spoken. We also hear Chinese and English. In Cave Rescue, we also hear French and Spanish.

Ron Howard's film utilized over a thousand people to portray all of the action!

Even though we know the outcome of the story (if you paid attention to the news when this was happening in real life), all movies do a good job of building tension and suspense.

In both Thirteen Lives and Cave Rescue, we're shown a map of the cave and a time counter that tells us where the divers are and how much time has passed since the rescue operations began.

The cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom in Thirteen Lives does an excellent job of making us hold our breath and gasp for air. In reality, the water would have been extremely muddy with terrible visibility.

Many of the actors in the movie Cave Rescue were the people in real life who experienced the ordeal.

So much for superheroes...these rescue workers are the real deal.

There's a super sweet scene in Thirteen Lives that really touched me. It's when two of the divers first found the boys. The first thing the boys said was "Thank you." They were so humble and affirmed that they loved their coach, even though he felt terrible for getting the boys into dangerous trouble. They explained that the coach taught them how to meditate and be calm. I just wanted to hug the boys and was so emotional watching these films!

The boys went so long without food, which is possible, so I wondered how they were getting water. For a split second in the movie Thirteen Lives, we see one of the young boys opening his mouth to get drips of water from the cave wall. Wow.

At the end of Cave Rescue, we get to see video footage of the real people who experienced the events.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: In both Thirteen Lives and Cave Rescue, we don't get to see how the boys got stuck in the cave. Instead, we see the boys wander near a cave and then, suddenly, rescue workers are seen swarming the area. We don't get to see how the boys survived for so long.

In Cave Rescue, a lot more Thai is spoken, often without subtitles. There are also a lot of title cards that you have to read that let you know what's going on. You have to read fast because they don't stay on the screen very long. I also felt like some details were missing in this version that made it harder to understand what was going on than in Thirteen Lives.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: There is a lot of reading text in all four movies.

Boys are in a dangerous situation.

Talk of death Someone drowns.

In Cave Rescue, there is an F-bomb.

THEMES: Humanity The value of life Teamwork Thinking outside the box Hope Family Innocence Mother Nature Heroism.

Retelling one of the most extraordinary real-life rescues, Cave Rescue aims to honor bravery and hope, yet its execution never fully matches the magnitude of the actual event.

The film dramatizes the 2018 Thai cave rescue, where twelve young soccer players and their coach were trapped deep underground by rising floodwaters. With international divers, local volunteers, and Thai authorities working tirelessly, the story remains one of global unity and human perseverance. On paper, this narrative is filled with natural tension and emotional resonance.

While the film captures the factual outline of events, its presentation often feels uneven. The use of non-professional actors and a restrained production budget creates a sense of authenticity, but also results in performances that lack dramatic intensity. The pacing struggles between documentary-style realism and dramatized storytelling, preventing it from achieving either gripping suspense or emotional depth. Cinematography within the caves creates a claustrophobic atmosphere, yet the visual execution does not consistently convey the urgency inherent in the actual story.

The strength of Cave Rescue lies in its respectful tone. It avoids sensationalism and highlights the collaborative spirit of the rescue operation. However, compared to other dramatizations and documentaries covering the same event, it lacks the polish and narrative cohesion to leave a lasting impression.

Rating: 5/10 - A respectful but underwhelming dramatization that recounts an incredible true story without fully capturing its emotional or cinematic potential.

We need to separate out the amazing story that was the rescue of the football team, from this awful movie.

There are many lessons to be learned from this dreadful project - first to market is not always a good thing. Getting real life participants to recreate their parts often doesn't work - and ends up in repeated scenes where they just grunt. Employing low cost actors (perhaps to make them look like real people) doesn't work well either. Focussing on little bits of story that haven't had much coverage (water pumps man) just gets tedious. Repeated scenes of people cheering and congratulating each other gets really tedious. Repeated shots of murky diving gets exceedingly tedious.

Wait for a better movie version of this story, save your time and money, and avoid this film.

Twelve young boys and their coach being trapped in a cave - it was world news for about 3 weeks. When the movie comes you expect to get something more out of it than an overview of the news headlines and a presentation of facts you already know. I would have expect some more insight of what the impact was on the team, but the boys themselves get no more than 10 minutes or so screening time. What is it like to find out that you are trapped in a cave. How do you deal with the darkness, dampness, lack of food, fresh water and sanitary facilities? How do you cope with being cut off from the outside world not knowing what efforts are being made there and how long it will take before someone finds you? This film makes you none the wiser. Instead the focus is on some guy arranging pumps, and else I could hardly make out a story line. On top of this the cinematography is exhausting. Hand held camera most of the time in very close up producing images on the big screen that are constantly moving are no pleasure to watch. This film adds nothing to anything and is a waste of time. My four stars are on the generous side.