I have watched quite a few documentaries, news segments, and Youtube videos about this cave rescue. It's a huuuuge operation so every time you watch a new video you see something totally new about the operation. There were hundreds of people directly on the scene, thousands involved, various different plans being checked out. It's just enormous. Elon Musk even promised he would build a mini submarine to rescue the kids and called one of the rescuers pedo guy for doubting him on Twitter. Of course completely insane idea because it's very narrow cave passages, but there were many such alternative plans.
So all these documentaries, and movies, are not always about the same thing. Here the focus is on the rescue divers. Especially divers from UK and then one doctor/diver from Australia who gives the kids anesthesia and makes this all possible. They also bring up the Thai divers and their inexperience. And then the big political hurdles they all had to punch through to even be allowed to try out this rescue attempt. Days after they left the cave was flooded. So just a few more days and everyone still down there would be dead.
In the other docs they mention and show how Thai units unsuccessfully climbed down small caves on top of the mountain to find a route down to the area where the kids were. It was a dangerous task by itself. It's mentioned here for 30 seconds. But it was actually a big operation by itself. Then there are the farmers who allowed their crops to be ruined by the water pumped out of the cave. Those farmers are amazing! They are not even mentioned here. It's largely focused on the White divers. Which frankly feels just perfect for this because this is the main storyline. I did enjoy the other docs because they presented the culture in greater details. But the actual rescue was 95% done by these divers and their plan and they did it voluntarily. This is the best documentary about the rescue itself for sure as we get interviews with all the divers and even opinions from a girlfriend and wive at times. We see the full plan from start till finish. They even tell us about how a diver got lost and swam in the wrong direction with a kid. This stuff is not mentioned in the overview docs. We learn a lot about smaller mistakes and even who made the plan. In the other docs it really feels like the British divers just kinda helped out. Which here is shown to be totally false. They actually did all this stuff themselves.
It's also by far the most emotional doc. It's personal stories. We get to nearly meet the kids here as we slowly explore how they were found. Now, there is A LOT of politics around this. An enormous amount of Thai politicians budding in and doing nearly all PR on this, to improve their image. This is shown in the first 30 minutes, but then largely drops to the background. While in reality the politicians actually did a lot more talking. They also show religious gurus come to visit the cave. It's just a ton of people who really don't do anything to help out on the ground who just visit the place or are in power without really knowing much about what is going on. In the other docs you see the fuller picture so the Thailand farmers and mountain cave explorers make the Thai effort more impressive. Here the politicians, gurus, and divers are the ones shown and they didn't really present the greatest image of Thailand as they did make quite a few mistakes because of inexperience. But the doc overall is brutally honest. All mistakes are just clearly presented and the divers don't mind revealing where they messed up. In the other docs it's shown as a herois group project for all countries.
This is NOT the last story on this rescue. There are hundreds of hours about this. And you really need a small TV show to show it all. This is just a very small part of the full story. We don't even learn about the diver who died from a cave infection a year later or about what the boys did afterwards. They don't even tell us if the girlfriend to a British diver, the second most featured person here, ever ended up dating him because he became a hero or if they just broke up?
They do show some amazing 3D cave scenes that show us how this was done. This is not seen anywhere before so this is HUGE. Amazing idea and really makes this one stand out. Then you have quite a lot of shots that are from somewhere else. Either recreations or shots from other cave dives that are shown here to recreate the events. I'm not sure where they filmed that or who the actors were as they never tell us what shots are real or what shots are fake recreations.
It's very fun and fascinating. Best doc on the cave rescue... so far. Something better will come along, I just know it.
So all these documentaries, and movies, are not always about the same thing. Here the focus is on the rescue divers. Especially divers from UK and then one doctor/diver from Australia who gives the kids anesthesia and makes this all possible. They also bring up the Thai divers and their inexperience. And then the big political hurdles they all had to punch through to even be allowed to try out this rescue attempt. Days after they left the cave was flooded. So just a few more days and everyone still down there would be dead.
In the other docs they mention and show how Thai units unsuccessfully climbed down small caves on top of the mountain to find a route down to the area where the kids were. It was a dangerous task by itself. It's mentioned here for 30 seconds. But it was actually a big operation by itself. Then there are the farmers who allowed their crops to be ruined by the water pumped out of the cave. Those farmers are amazing! They are not even mentioned here. It's largely focused on the White divers. Which frankly feels just perfect for this because this is the main storyline. I did enjoy the other docs because they presented the culture in greater details. But the actual rescue was 95% done by these divers and their plan and they did it voluntarily. This is the best documentary about the rescue itself for sure as we get interviews with all the divers and even opinions from a girlfriend and wive at times. We see the full plan from start till finish. They even tell us about how a diver got lost and swam in the wrong direction with a kid. This stuff is not mentioned in the overview docs. We learn a lot about smaller mistakes and even who made the plan. In the other docs it really feels like the British divers just kinda helped out. Which here is shown to be totally false. They actually did all this stuff themselves.
It's also by far the most emotional doc. It's personal stories. We get to nearly meet the kids here as we slowly explore how they were found. Now, there is A LOT of politics around this. An enormous amount of Thai politicians budding in and doing nearly all PR on this, to improve their image. This is shown in the first 30 minutes, but then largely drops to the background. While in reality the politicians actually did a lot more talking. They also show religious gurus come to visit the cave. It's just a ton of people who really don't do anything to help out on the ground who just visit the place or are in power without really knowing much about what is going on. In the other docs you see the fuller picture so the Thailand farmers and mountain cave explorers make the Thai effort more impressive. Here the politicians, gurus, and divers are the ones shown and they didn't really present the greatest image of Thailand as they did make quite a few mistakes because of inexperience. But the doc overall is brutally honest. All mistakes are just clearly presented and the divers don't mind revealing where they messed up. In the other docs it's shown as a herois group project for all countries.
This is NOT the last story on this rescue. There are hundreds of hours about this. And you really need a small TV show to show it all. This is just a very small part of the full story. We don't even learn about the diver who died from a cave infection a year later or about what the boys did afterwards. They don't even tell us if the girlfriend to a British diver, the second most featured person here, ever ended up dating him because he became a hero or if they just broke up?
They do show some amazing 3D cave scenes that show us how this was done. This is not seen anywhere before so this is HUGE. Amazing idea and really makes this one stand out. Then you have quite a lot of shots that are from somewhere else. Either recreations or shots from other cave dives that are shown here to recreate the events. I'm not sure where they filmed that or who the actors were as they never tell us what shots are real or what shots are fake recreations.
It's very fun and fascinating. Best doc on the cave rescue... so far. Something better will come along, I just know it.
