Thirteen Lives

Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton spoke about their experience making "Thirteen Lives," which charts the real-life Tham Luang cave rescue in ...

"I mean, the two lads being there on the set, just for my comfort levels, personally, and also constantly going to them as reference, like, 'what did you think here? I remember what Rick said and I was like, 'Okay, I have the other tank' so just tried to get over here and reach it and switch to the other mouthpiece, do it calmly. "And we had two tanks, you know, and if something went wrong with one [they'd tell us] just be calm don't freak out because you can drown in a few seconds. And also, there's situations where you get snagged or something goes wrong you want to be able to think calmly, and that has to do with breathing. So yeah, it just reminded me you have to be really sharp and really look after each other." When asked if they had ever panicked while underwater, Egerton said of his experience diving: "I did have one moment because, you know, not only were we going, I was a relatively novice diver, well completely novice, getting through these stages...

Wondering if the film Thirteen Lives starring Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen is available on Netflix? Don't worry, we've got you covered!

No matter how hard they search, no one will find Thirteen Lives on Netflix because it isn’t one of the many options ready to stream now, and it doesn’t seem likely this will change since it is an Amazon Studios movie. But if subscribers are looking for films that take their inspiration from actual events that happened, then the streaming powerhouse is the place to check out some fascinating titles. Thirteen Lives is based on an incredible true story of how a group of individuals came together to perform an impossible rescue attempt of a junior football team consisting of 12 players and their coach, who were all trapped in a flooded cave for 18 days.

Firefighter-turned-cave-diver Rick Stanton, a consultant on the big-budget drama, shares how 'expert amateur' divers saved 12 trapped boys.

Building up breathless pressure reminiscent of 2013 sci-fi drama “Gravity,” this drama packs an emotional wallop by sticking to the facts. “Everybody [involved] wanted to get it right.” “Rick calls it the way he sees it [which] can be a bit shocking,” said Mortensen, who spent significant time getting to know Stanton prior to and during filming. Even with a 147-minute runtime, “Thirteen Lives” speeds through early set-up scenes and then ratchets up the stakes. While some critics prefer the documentary version, “Thirteen Lives” draws viewers into several plot threads at once. Hundreds of locals worked in tandem with a water flow expert, who helped divert 100 million gallons of rainfall to keep the caves from flooding further. For the lead diver, who often states that panic is death in caving — particularly white-water caving with no visibility — he says don’t overlook smaller heroes. His friend, Australian anesthetist Richard “Harry” Harris (played by Aussie actor Joel Edgerton), initially rejects the risky and borderline unethical plan. Yet, on the essential details and personality dynamics at play, he says the filmmakers got it right. “Anytime you’re doing a story that’s based on real events, it’s vital that you have people who truly understand it,” said Howard in a statement. “Imagine when we found them all alive in a dry chamber,” said Stanton. “We felt relief, but it was very short-lived. “As we swam where no one had searched before, we were expecting to find 13 drowned bodies,” Stanton told me.

Retrieving them will require the skills of some of the greatest deep sea cave divers in the world. This is where Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John ...

However, surely there was a way to juggle respect for the severity of the operation with some kind of pulse? Even if the superior documentary The Rescue didn’t cover this subject already, Thirteen Lives would still be a humdrum example of how to turn a historical event into a narrative feature. Unfortunately, Nicholson leaves little to the imagination in the clumsy dialogue, especially when it comes to the character of Stanton. His unintentionally comical “I don’t even like kids” line in his first few minutes of screentime sets the tone for the kind of words he delivers throughout the film. Worse, by the end of the film, it becomes apparent that Thirteen Lives has nothing to say about this incredible rescue mission beyond acknowledging that it happened and the two people who perished because of it. Retrieving them will require the skills of some of the greatest deep sea cave divers in the world. When making a movie based on a real-life event, it’s important to ask what you hope to accomplish in this project.

“Thirteen Lives” is a dramatization of what happened in July 2018 when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in a flooded limestone cave in Thailand for ...

“They’re packages and we’re just the delivery guys,” one rescuer says. The overall effect is a more inclusive storytelling — no white savior narrative, great — but the cost is a flattening of the narrative. Much of the film was shot in Australia, not Thailand. (That’s a spoiler if you’ve been in a literal cave for the past four years.) “Thirteen Lives” is available Friday on Prime Video. There is also some clunky dialogue and daft Hollywoodization, like the heavy use of cellos when things get dramatic and the appearance of slo-mo ambulances. Twenty-seven years ago, Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13” saluted men with the right stuff — quiet courage and grace under pressure.

“Thirteen Lives” is a dramatization of what happened in July 2018 when 12 boys and their football coach were trapped in a flooded limestone cave in Thailand for several weeks. Like his space flick, it will take a lot of on-the-fly can-do to get them ...

“They’re packages and we’re just the delivery guys,” one rescuer says. The overall effect is a more inclusive storytelling — no white savior narrative, great — but the cost is a flattening of the narrative. Much of the film was shot in Australia, not Thailand. (That’s a spoiler if you’ve been in a literal cave for the past four years.) “Thirteen Lives” is available Friday on Prime Video. There is also some clunky dialogue and daft Hollywoodization, like the heavy use of cellos when things get dramatic and the appearance of slo-mo ambulances. Twenty-seven years ago, Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13” saluted men with the right stuff — quiet courage and grace under pressure.

For Ron Howard's retelling of the 2018 ordeal, Pattrakorn Tungsupakul not only played the mother of a stranded boy, she also made key script contributions.

“I feel proud,” said Rugeradh Tungsupakul, who goes by Waen. “I know how hard it’s been for her to get where she is today.” He died before her first television show ran and had not been happy when she abandoned law for the unpredictable life of an actress. “She introduces femininity and the soft side of energy,” Ruetaivanichkul said. Early success on a 2013 series in which she played a rural girl forced to move to Bangkok after her father is murdered made her a star in Thailand. When asked if she was famous, Tungsupakul demurred with a quiet “Yeah,” before adding, “But if I say ‘yes’ then maybe ‘Oh, I’m too much.’” The tears came so easily because the world the production team had recreated in Australia felt so close to home. She graduated from law school, but instead decided to move to Bangkok to pursue a career in acting. “She shows the empathy within the group. (The producer P.J. van Sandwijk worked on both “Thirteen Lives” and “The Rescue.”) Tungsupakul brought the idea of the bracelets to the production as another example of paying attention to the local customs. “I asked my friend who studies northern culture at Chiang Mai University, and he said this is a must-have item,” she said. Her character’s arc involves finding her voice in the quiet moments: She challenges the governor directly (“How can you understand? “Dramatically, she’s the most heartbreaking.”

An exclusive look at how the heartracing film was made, from building huge tanks in a warehouse to sifting through nearly 400 hours of footage.

Then, equal time is dedicated to life just outside the cave, as the efforts of locals—from family members to government officials to spirited volunteers—prove vital in the mission’s success. An international rescue effort of more than 10,000 people resulted in every one of them being delivered to safety after over two weeks of careful, tricky planning—though not without lives lost along the way. But instead of launching into space, this time he’s diving underwater.

Ron Howard's biographical survival film about the Tham Luang cave rescue stands out for how realistic it is and how it feels.

The criticism that I have for this story is the same that I had for the documentary, which is where is the perspective of the children? Without spoiling too much of the rescue for those who managed to dodge the news on the news as it was developing, Howard's no-frills approach to Thirteen Lives is what makes it such a success. This is barely touched on, so it's difficult for the audience to truly understand the fear that the parents had for their children who had no nationality or citizenship. On its own, the story of this rescue is inspiring, and the 18 day story kept the world at the edge of their seats. It makes a good pairing with Farrell's Volanthen who is much warmer, and as a father himself, can keenly imagine the pain that the parents of the children feel. Back in the summer of 2018, a group of kids between the ages of 11-16 decided to go into a local cave.

How accurate is 'Thirteen Lives,' Ron Howard's new movie about the Thai cave rescue of a boys' soccer team and their coach? We fact check the film.

And then the anesthetic was ketamine, and it was a lot. ("I reckon you did the hardest part," Harry tells him. Although Ploy's character is a composite of many parents, the bracelets themselves were real: "That was a wonderful discovery," Nicholson says. It's true that "the parents never knew," Nicholson says. Before the rescue gets underway, a trapped boy's mother (Pattrakorn "Ploy" Tungsupakul) gives Rick and John a bag of red beaded bracelets for good luck. Although it was initially just referenced in the script, Howard says he wanted "an opportunity to see this meditation."

"Thirteen Lives" on Prime Video, starring Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman, will have you on the edge of your seats.

He was pronounced dead at 1 a.m. on July 6. The time took to retrieve each boy and their coach was three hours per individual. The rescue operation could have gone down very different routes. Volanthen and Stanton were overseen by BCRC diver Robert Harper and later assisted by the Thai, U.S., Australian and Chinese diving reams. The incident saw a junior football team aged 11 to 16 and their 25-year-old assistant coach, Ekkaphon Chanthawong, trapped in a cave for a total of 18 days. They weren't found until July 2 at 10 p.m., almost two weeks after they first entered the cave.

The movie is inspired by the real-life rescue of 13 people who were trapped in a cave in Thailand. You can stream "Thirteen Lives" on Prime Video.

If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. You can find a list of supported devices and televisions on the Amazon website. Prime Video is also included as part of a full Amazon Prime membership for $15 a month. Twelve children and their soccer coach were trapped over two miles deep in the Tham Luang cave system in Thailand. However, that free trial period is a one-time deal, and if you don't cancel when the 30 days are up, you'll be looped into the monthly rate. You can sign up for Prime Video as a standalone streaming service for $9 a month.

Thirteen Lives stars Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen as two of the heroic divers. Is it accurate?

The tunnels are so murky that even with headlamps, the only way the rescue divers can find their way out and not get lost in the cave network is by keeping hold of a guide rope installed before the boys are swum out from Cavern 9. It was in fact the Thai military who called in Thanet Natisri (Nophand Boonyai), a Thai restaurant owner and self-taught groundwater storage expert from Marion, Illinois who happened to be working on a project in Thailand building wells for farmers. With the attempt to reach the boys suspended because of the constantly-rising water level, a Thai-American water engineer points out that unless the water pouring in from above is diverted, the divers will never be able to get in. In fact, hundreds of rescuers formed a ‘daisy chain’ to slide, carry, and even zipline the boys on stretchers over a complex network of pulleys previously installed by rock-climbers (also not shown). Some stretchers were placed on an impromptu slide made of hoses installed to pump out water. The two British experts were indeed the first to navigate the difficult narrow tunnels past Cavern 3 and find the boys alive in Cavern 9, and they did bring on two more British divers plus Harris. However, possibly in the name of not overwhelming the audience with more characters than they can possibly keep track of, the film has omitted from the core team another Australian and another lead diver, Jim Warny from Ireland, who joined on the final day of the rescue. They bring the “packages,” anesthetized boys in wetsuits and scuba gear on light stretchers with hands and feet restrained, to a staging area in Cavern 3, where the stretchers are guided through the rest of the network to the cave entrance by a team of Thai SEALS and divers. Also not shown are the 90 Thai divers and the foreign dive shop owners who were stationed along the route to perform medical check-ups and resupply air-tanks for the main divers, and the team who installed the oxygen tanks, cables, lighting system, communication devices, and the water drainage pipes and pumping system used to drain water from the tunnels. In the film, the mother of one of the boys tells the assistant to the area’s governor, Narongsak Osatanakorn (Sahajak Boonthanakit), that her family is from Myanmar and so don’t have any official ID cards. The film’s version of the rescue itself shows only the four British cave dive experts guiding each unconscious boy (one diver per boy) between Caverns 9 and 3 over the course of three days. The film depicts about 20 Thai Navy SEALS beginning the rescue operation, but, trained for open water diving and not work in narrow cave tunnels, they can only get about halfway down the tunnel network to Cavern 3. The confusion may arise from the fact that all four were from the ethnic minority hill tribes that populate both sides of the porous border in the notorious Golden Triangle, a hotbed of drug smuggling, between Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, where Thai authorities estimate the “stateless” population with no documented nationality may be as high as three million. The bad news: The story was covered so exhaustively at the time that much of the core audience is already familiar with all the details and will notice any fudging for dramatic effect.

The Ron Howard-directed film, based on the incredible true story of an international rescue, is now streaming on Prime Video.

Join Prime for a free 30-day trial to stream Thirteen Lives for free. Thirteen Lives is streaming on Prime Video at no additional charge to Prime members. The story follows the rescue of a Thai soccer team who got trapped in the Tham Luang cave during an unexpected rainstorm.

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Thirteen Lives director Ron Howard and producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon about the film.

Because we see it in movies, but generally, it’s kind of action stuff, it’s maybe crime based, and it’s cool. We see the rescue work that the volunteers did, and the involvement of the government. I think that is a message that we just truly need right now. Like we’re on set of thousands of people coming together to save the lives of these boys. They can’t be in that cave if there isn’t the water pumping system that’s underway if there’s the medical group. “Thirteen Lives recounts the incredible true story of the tremendous global effort to rescue a Thai soccer team who become trapped in the Tham Luang cave during an unexpected rainstorm,” says the synopsis.