Today I am going to explain and recap a recently released true story-based adventure film called thirteen lives. This depicts the incident of the 2018 Thai cave rescue effort where twelve teenagers and their coach were stuck in a tourist cave. But first please subscribe to my channel. It helps. The film opens in Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand. Its also called golden triangle land as it connects Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. A popular tourist destination here is the Tham Luang cave mountain formations. It is Thailand's fourth largest cave system with a total length of 6.4 miles. The cave's main entrance is 260 feet wide, it has many deep recesses, narrow tunnels, boulder chokes collapses, and sumps. The first thousand meters are open to the public between November and July. During monsoon, it gets flooded and turns into a semi-dam with the capacity to hold millions of gallons of water.
We see a young school football team called wild boars practicing. Kids were of age 11 to 16. Being footballers there were in solid physical health. One guy named Prem had his birthday today, these guys had planned to celebrate it in the cave. This team and their young coach had often ventured deep into Tham Luang cave, sometimes as far as 5 miles, for initiation rites where they would write the names of new team members on a cave wall. The date was June 23 2018 and the time was 3 PM. Prem's parents had arranged regular birthday parties for him, they had invited his friends and their parents. Except for one kid remaining twelve kids and their assistant coach head to the mountain. First, they preyed at the sleeping lady shrine, ditched their bicycle, and then entered the cave with just torches. They walk for miles here, we can clearly see the difficult and narrow terrain here.
Locally this mountain is known as the sleeping lady mountain. The legend goes like this, Once upon a time, there was a princess. She was beautiful, she fell in love with a local and became pregnant. This angered her dad the king, he had the boy killed by his soldiers. The heartbroken princess committed suicide by stabbing herself deep in the mountains. No one found her body, over time mountain grew in size and became a sort of mythical story. Locals believed her spirit roams here and protects those who wencher into it. If you look at this mountain from a distance it indeed looks like a sleeping lady.
As soon as the boy went inside the cave monsoon rain started pouring in. Generally, it starts from the second week of July, around the 8th or 9th but this year it was early. Met department had issued an early warning. By 7 PM preparations at Prem's house were in full swing, they started worrying as they got to know these kids plan from a guy who remained. Quickly they rushed to the cave, the rain intensified with the heavy downfall. Few parents were already there and had tried entering the cave., they went as far as one mile but after that it was unsafe. Water gushed in with such a ferocity that they had to rush back. This caused panic as this cave system used to submerge during the monsoon, hence they alerted the authorities. By midnight Thai navy seals under captain Arnont were at the site with diving gears and oxygen. The local governor too arrived. A British geologist who was in Thailand for mapping and studying showed his map to Seals and offered his help. On normal days by walk, it used to take three to four hours for a oneway complete journey of 6.4 miles, with water gushing, and by swimming, it was going to be one hell of a challenge.
The first Thai seal team reached up to chamber 3. which was 800 meters from the entrance. They placed guide rope all along. They returned by 5 AM the next morning, many of them were injured, the water current was too much to head ahead. It sets the realization among parents, Governor, and seals that the task is not easy as they thought. The news quickly spreads across Thailand, reinforcements, and help started pouring in. Minister from the Thai government himself visits the site, he had placed the largest pumps at the site to drain off the water but it was insufficient. The governor was supposed to be transferred the next week, he cancels that till this operation is over. Next, we see a volunteer groundwater engineer Thanet Natisri, who came from Bangkok to help. He meets a local leader who was well versed in the topography of this mountain. His theory was pumping water from caves is never gonna work as water is sinking from above. stopping the seepage of water and diverting it is the only solution. The local guy agrees to it, he shows him a few sinkhole sites and gathered volunteers for this herculean task. Thao government activates an international SOS here, they requested help from other nations who were experienced and had advanced tech in these types of rescue operations.
Now the day is five, June 27. Two British cave rescue team members John and Rick were notified about this incident. They agreed to help and reached Chiang Rai. By this time there were one thousand army soldiers on-site, four thousand civilian volunteers, and media from all over the world was here to grab ratings. John and Rick with all gears and oxygen tanks dived into the cave, they swam and reached up to a place called T Junction. Navy seals guiding lines ended here as from this point onwards current was heavy. This was 1600 meters from the entrance, it took them three hours and fifty minutes just to reach. While coming back these two rescue a man who ran out of oxygen. Due to heavy rains operation stops for next two days. On June 29th a navy seal officer named Saman joins captain Arnont team. On the next day, the governor meets Natisri and hears his theory. Natisri explains that the pumping of water won't work as water will keep on coming from above. The need to stop sinkholes, collect water and divert it to nearby rice fields. That meant total destruction of crops. The Governor agreed, the farmers also agreed and Natisri started diverting water.
On day 9 July first rain finally stopped, clear sky was visible. By this time no one was sure whether kids are alive or dead. On the same day, a famous revered Forrest Buddhist monk by the name of Phra Khuva Boonchum visits this site. He meditates, preys, and does some sort of ritual here. He consoled the parents and assured them that the kids are safe. They are alive, will be found in a day or two. According to some media reports he was here to pacify the spirit of the sleeping lady. Apparently, someone from the town claimed to have a vision of a sleeping lady in the dream where she demanded the presence of this monk to lift her from her karma. Monk Phra Khuva Boonchum was revered in that part of the world as he had done many miracles in the past.
The governor sends John and Rick again as the water started receding. Seals gave them a video recorder, guiding rope in case they found the kids. This time they swam past the T junction, attached their guiding rope, and started searching. Finally, after hours of swimming, they found the kids. All thirteen were alive, there were weak, and hungry but were alive. Coach while crying says sorry as he felt he was responsible for all this mess. He was a 25-year-old trained monk, who used to coach as a part-time job. He kept kids motivated, taught them meditation, and asked them to drink only the dripping clean water. Rick and Jhon were relieved, they assured the kids that they will bring help and food. Here only one kid among thirteen could speak English. These kids were in a place called chamber 9 which was 2500 meters away from the entrance. It took six hours for these two to reach there and head back. They showed the video to seals, a sense of happiness, joy, and satisfaction spread like a wildfire. Rick and Jhon became instant celebrities. Rick was frustrated by all the sudden hope as bringing those kids to safety was next to impossible. None of them knew swimming let alone diving, their body would be in panic shock if they attempted to rescue. The governor understood their technical opinion, he ordered navy seals to regularly supply food, water, medicine, and other essentials until they come up with a solution. The next day Jhon and Rick briefed seals. The first team of seals reached chamber 9 and supplied essentials, but they consumed more oxygen than they anticipated. A couple of seals stayed back and gave their share of oxygen to others. For a few days navy seals ran this supply operation, they placed oxygen tanks in different locations as standby. Some came up with the idea of keeping boys in the cave for the entire duration of the monsoon and keep on supplying them. When the water recedes they could walk out. Rick was sure this won't work hence he asked for his friend, an Australian cave diver named doctor harris, and his buddy Craig Challen.
On day 15, July 7 the navy seal diver Saman died while heading back, he ran out of oxygen. Rick and Jhon explained their plan to Harris. Doctor Harris was an anesthetist, they wanted him to sedate kids so that they could be transported without putting them in shock. Harris disagreed, this was a huge risk with moral questions. Nobody ever tried such a thing, sedating a starving body could go wrong in many ways. The journey was four-five hours long hence at the frequent interval a diver accompanying a kid must administer sedation. It was a gamble. The governor was not ready to take it, this was discussed at the highest level of the Thai government and the minister finally gave his consent. On Day 16 this new operation began, and media was blocked from the site. Many more Australian cave rescue divers joined the effort. Doctor Harris taught them how to inject sedatives as one dose would have lasted only for 45 to 60 minutes. With wetsuits, facemasks, oxygen tanks this team started their operation. Upon reaching chamber 9 strongest kid was selected first, he wore wet suits, facemasks, and then Harris sedated him. Jhon tagged him with him for the whole journey underwater up to chamber 5. Then he was given another dose of sedative. Then another diver tagged the kid. Thankfully operation went well, after nearly seven hours the first kid was out safely. He was breathing. Navy seals quickly rushed him to the hospital in an air ambulance. On July 8th four kids were successfully rescued and on July 9th four more kids were rescued. By the evening it started raining heavily, groundwater engineer Natsiri and his team had successfully deployed water diverting pipes, sand blocks. and even makeshift bamboo trees as pipes. They were pumping out millions of liters of water per hour. Navy Seals and rescue team decides to rescue all on July 1oth as monsoon prediction was not good. They indeed did that. They rescued all the remaining boys, coach, and stranded navy seal officers. Everyone rejoiced, parents were relieved and this was a triumph of collective humanitarian effort on wild nature. All the boys were kept in the hospital for many days, they had lost two kgs of weight. Nearly 10000 people, 1000 oxygen tanks, and experts from more than fifty countries contributed to this effort. The Thai government awarded one of the highest civilian awards to Jhon, rick, harris, navy seals, and the rescue team for their contribution. Australian and British governments too awarded them with honors. Doctor Harris was a rare handful of professionals in the entire world who was a doctor as well as cave rescue diver. He and his team member Craig were chosen as the Australian of the year in 2019 in this honor. This film is one hell of an adventure one must see it.
