The Rescue

The Rescue is a documentary about the 2018 cave rescue in northern Thailand, when twelve young footballers and their coach became trapped underground by rising floodwater. After a training session, the group had gone to explore a cave system, and heavy rain cut them off from the surface. What followed was a two-week search and rescue effort that drew volunteers and specialists from around the world, with no certainty that the boys were still alive. The film follows the divers and others who worked out how to bring them out through flooded, narrow passages.

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin directed. It came after their 2018 film Free Solo and before Return to Space, and the pair have continued to work together on later documentaries and features. Wes Tooke wrote the screenplay, and the producers include Dana Brunetti, Bob Eisenhardt and John Battsek. The credited cast of thirty-eight includes several people who took part in the operation playing themselves, among them divers Rick Stanton, John Volanthen and Jim Warny, and groundwater expert Thanet Natisri.

The film runs 107 minutes and was released in October 2021. It holds a rating of 8.3 from around 23,000 votes on IMDb, and 8 out of 10 from roughly 280 votes on TMDB, indicating strong approval from those who have seen it.