Anyone watch this? I just wondered how they filmed it! Love Virgo though.
Oh, man, helluva movie. One of the best this year, IMHO. I was really glad they completely avoided any Elon Musk sub-plot. And the fact that it (seemed to be?) filmed in Thailand brought a lot of authenticity to it.
J.
p.s., Of course, you meant “Viggo”. Assumed a spell-check auto-correct.
Seemed a bit cheesified, but still, one of the better movies of the year.
This is about the Thai cave rescue. Trailer:
I believe it was filmed in Australia.
mmm
Yep! Shakes fist at auto correct!
We put it on at 21:00 last night, even though we both have to work today. We thought we might watch an hour, then watch the rest today. 22:00 came around, and we decided to just go for it and watch the whole thing.
We thought it was amazing. There’s no way I’d call it ‘cheezified’. But then, knowing nothing about it and only seeing the title and ‘cave rescue’ in the description, I was like. ‘Oh. They made a movie about that,’ and was expecting something much more ‘Hollywood’.
ISWYDT.
This had a week long theatrical run before it appeared on Prime so I was able to see it on the big screen and those cave scenes were so claustrophobic! I was amazed at how they filmed it, it looked so real. I had seen the documentary on the rescue that came out last year (“The Rescue”) so I knew the details already but in that film because it was all real, a lot was very hard to see. It was pretty similar to the doc so any complaint about it being “cheezified” and “Hollywood” is hard to get around because the real story is just so unbelievable. If it hadn’t actually happened it would seem like something made up for a movie.
To be clear: I expected it to be ‘Hollywood’, since I knew nothing about the film. It was not.
IMDB listing : Thirteen Lives (2022) - IMDb
Scroll down to “Filming Locations” and it says “Thailand”. Click on that link and it shows filming happened at 4 locations: the first “Thailand”, and 3 more in Australia, so I guess we were both right.
J.
I knew a bit about the rescue, having read a few articles at the time it happened. But seeing this movie has given me the horrors. Unable to imagine the skill set that those divers had, enabling them to remain calm in that environment. Terrifying.
Apart from the risk to themselves, can you imagine how they would have felt if they’d lost one or more of the boys?
I somewhat followed it at the time as well, but I missed the operation on the top of the mountain that attempted to keep the water from getting in from above. That was amazing to watch. Same with the farmers who sacrificed their fiends. I couldn’t help but think farmers in a more individually-oriented society might have handled it.
I have a C-card (somewhere), but I’ve never been cave diving. I’ve always thought it would be awesome… but I know my limitations. As much as I would have liked to, there’s no way I could do it. And that’s before I saw this movie!
Wait … Thai farmers maintain their own personal demonic fiends? Who knew! 
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m a big Ron Howard fan. On tap for tonight! Comments to follow.
FIELDS, dammit!
Just finished this up. Holy Shit. Even knowing how it all turned out, I was still on the edge of my seat.
Just a thought, but I think movies like this and Apollo 13 showcase Ron Howard’s strength as a storyteller. It’s not always about the destination, but the journey to get there.
It was terrific!! Was the anesthesia common knowledge prior to this, I mean I supposed it must have been, but never heard it.
Certainly in Australia it was. The anaesthetist / cave diver ‘Harry’ Harris was jointly awarded Australian of the Year with another doctor rescue participant for the role they played. He gave a bunch of interviews which are really gripping accounts in their own right, and go into the detail of the medical risks involved.
Hopefully this interview with him is accessible internationally.
Saw it last night. Concur with others here: wow! I had high expectations, it being a Ron Howard film, but even so it impressed me. It deserves awards both for directing and for cinematography. This must have been technically a very difficult movie to make.
I’m glad that I didn’t see some of the posts here referencing anaesthesia before I watched the movie. I didn’t know what they were talking about at first, and when it was revealed, it came as a total surprise. I think it’s a really important part of the story that was under-reported in the media and that I had completely missed. An ingenious solution to a very difficult problem that has almost a sci-fi vibe to it.
I just reread the original SDMB thread on the rescue. At post 133, nearwildheaven suggests the possibility of sedating the boys, long before it was ever mentioned in the press coverage. There’s also some evaluation of that option from post 149 forward. But during the rescue, everyone thought the boys were awake and swimming out. It wasn’t until after all of the boys were rescued that the sedation aspect was discussed by the media, and it’s finally mentioned in post 420 of the thread.
Reading that thread is almost as entertaining as the movie, especially because the discussion was live and no one knew what the outcome would be.
If they did not have a Dr among the rescue divers could they have still done sedation? Probably but it would have been more risky.