Five years after The Rescue premiered at Telluride on September 2, 2021, it remains one of the most gripping behind-the-scenes documentaries about the Tham Luang cave rescue. Directed and produced by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the film follows the 2018 mission that saved a junior association football team from an underwater cave. Its power came not from hiding the outcome, but from the access and reconstruction around it.
Netflix owned the boys’ story
The most surprising part of the production is what the film could not show. The filmmakers had difficulty securing rights to the story. National Geographic was able to secure the rights to the divers’ story, while Netflix had acquired the rights to the experiences of the soccer team. That split prevented Vasarhelyi and Chin from telling the boys’ story in the film.
A late director swap
The project changed hands before the version we know. In March 2019, it was announced that Kevin Macdonald would direct a documentary film revolving around the Tham Luang cave rescue, with National Geographic Documentary Films set to produce. In February 2021, it was announced that Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin would replace Macdonald as director, though he would remain as executive producer on the project.
Telluride got the first look
The film had its world premiere at the 48th Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2021. It then received a United States theatrical release on October 8, 2021.
Toronto handed it a prize
The documentary was also screened at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2021. There it won the People’s Choice Award for Documentaries. Greenwich Entertainment distributes the film in the United States.
Critics went nearly unanimous
According to Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 91 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.5/10. Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating “universal acclaim.”
Recreating the clock under the cave
Kevin Maher of The Times gave the film 4/5 stars, writing that the filmmakers “somehow manage to wring nerve-jangling tension from a foregone conclusion.” Simran Hans of The Observer gave it 4/5 stars, describing it as a “hugely involving documentary,” and wrote that Vasarhelyi and Chin recreate the sense of the clock running down as oxygen levels in the cave decrease while the monsoon outside rages.
Archive footage and expert voices filled the gaps
Leslie Felperin of The Guardian wrote that the story is compelling and that there is a lot of archive footage to splice in among the generous wodges of talking-heads narration from the main participants. At Telluride, a panel discussion added first-hand perspective from diver Rick Stanton, Air Force Special Tactics Officer Capt. Mitch Torrel, and groundwater expert Thanet Natisri.
Half a story, or a 4/4 warning not to skip it?
Roxana Hadadi of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2.5/4 stars and wrote that, between the inability to speak with the boys or their families and the initially languid pacing, “The Rescue” feels like half a story told fairly well but still half a story. Leslie Felperin of The Guardian gave the film 3/5 stars and questioned why the rescued children were not interviewed. Yet Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post gave it 4/4 stars and wrote: “ignore any instinct you may have to pass up this movie because it sounds too hyper-specific: an activity you’re not really that interested in, and a story whose ending you’ve already heard.”
Which piece of The Rescue’s production or reception still sticks with you? Tell us your favourite fact from the making of the cave-rescue documentary.
Facts from Wikipedia: The Rescue (2021 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
