Thirteen Lives
Thirteen Lives is a 2022 biographical survival film, based on the Tham Luang cave rescue, directed and produced by Ron Howard and written by William Nicholson. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, and Tom Bateman.
Thirteen Lives
- Don Macpherson
- William Nicholson[1]
- Brian Grazer
- Ron Howard
- Karen Lunder
- William M. Connor
- P.J van Sandwijk
- Gabrielle Tana
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Bron Creative
- Imagine Entertainment
- Storyteller Productions
- Magnolia Mae Films
- July 29, 2022 (United States)
- August 5, 2022 (Prime Video)
147 minutes
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Thai
- English
- Northern Thai
$55 million
Thirteen Lives was released in select theaters in the United States on July 29, 2022, by United Artists Releasing, and began streaming on Prime Video on August 5, 2022. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.
Plot[edit]
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, arrive to search for the missing boys, but find the dive too difficult to locate the team. Vernon Unsworth, 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 and John Volanthen travel to Thailand and attempt the dive, finding the boys and coach four kilometres 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 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.
Realising the boys will have to be removed through the cave, via a 6-hour dive, knowing what the risks are, Stanton and Volanthen contact Dr. Richard Harris, plus supporting divers Chris Jewell and Jason Mallinson. With permission from the regional governor 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.
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.[2]
Release[edit]
Thirteen Lives was released by United Artists Releasing in select theaters in the United States on July 29, 2022, before streaming on Amazon Prime Video on August 5.[8] The film was originally scheduled for a fully theatrical release by United Artists Releasing on April 15, 2022,[9] and was then postponed to November 18 in response to the best test scores in MGM's history.[10] In May 2022, however, the film was brought to its current release date due to Amazon's acquisition of MGM in March.[11]
Music[edit]
When Howard approached his usual collaborator Hans Zimmer for the score, the latter strongly recommended his protégé Benjamin Wallfisch for the job.[12] Wallfisch had a 20-minute suite ready before Howard had started shooting in Thailand.