Jeri Jacquin
Coming to DVD from director Tom Waller, Grindstone and Lionsgate comes the story of danger, courage and hope with CAVE RESCUE.
In June 2018, a local soccer team, Wild Boars, and their coach in northern Thailand decided to go to the Tham Luang Nang Non (Mountain of the Sleeping Lady) cave as a reward for their hard work during practice. What the twelve boys from ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach did not know is that heavy rainfall came while in the cave and trapped their way out.
When a park ranger sees the kids bikes up against the rails leading to the cave, an all-out alert is made. The water and current kept anyone from discovering if the boys were trapped in a pocket or swept away. For two weeks no one knew anything!
Cave rescuers come from all around the world and one such diver is Jim Warny as the diver’s break through and find the boys 1.6 mile from the opening of the cave where they entered. Once the moment of joy has passed, now the serious work begins. As the floodwaters continue, they water has to be pumped out if the divers are to get through.
The monsoon season arrives and more rain so a plan is put in place that includes sedating the boys so they can be brought out panic free. In the process, Officer Saman Kunan lost his life but, on July 10th – the impossible became possible as all the boys and their coach are recovered.
Cast include Erik Brown as Erik, Lawrence de Stefano as Chris, Nopadol Niyomka as Pooyai Tun, Eoin O’Brien as USAF Sgt. O’Brien, Mikko Paasi as Mikko, Todd Ruiz as Todd, Vesse Saastamoinen as PaCOM Petty Officer, Jumpa Saenprom as Mae Bua, Nirut Sirichanya as Tourism Minister.
Lionsgate is a global leader in motion picture production and distribution for theatres, television, home entertainment and more. Theatre franchises include THE HUNGER GAMES, and DIVERGENT along with JOHN WICK. Now, adding this film to its 16,000-motion picture and television titles you can see everything coming soon as well as available now at http://www.lionsgate.com.
A little more information about those few weeks is that over 10,000 people were involved in the rescue. There were 100 divers and rescue workers, 100 government agencies, 900 police officers and 2,000 soldiers, 10 helicopters, seven ambulances, 700 diving cylinders with a pumping of over one billion liters of water from the cave.
CAVE RESUCE is a story of bravery by those who went into the caves not knowing what they would find or what the plan was to get the boys out. They went in because it was the right thing to do! The danger came when realizing the only thing they could do was sedate the boys and put them in such a position so that if they did wake up, they would not hurt themselves or the person trying to rescue them.
That is where hope comes in. The boys waited patiently for someone to find them, and hope kept them going when it came time to do the scariest thing they could imagine. Going 1.6 miles took hours as it was a slow-moving process pushing through tight places and heavy current.
The film shows what it took to bring such an operation together but also showed how the people of Thailand from all walks of live wanted to help in any way they could. The whole event was frightening yet, everyone focused and took it step by step to do what many said was impossible.
In the end – you read the headlines now live the adventure!