From the summit in their 2019 Oscar-winning Free Solo to the depths of a flooded subterranean cave in The Rescue–which opens theatrically today (10/8)–documentarians E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin have navigated the gamut in filmmaking terrain. But in covering what appears to be new ground this time around, there are some familiar themes which connect the two narratives as masterfully told by the wife-and-husband directing team–one being a story which suspends us alongside free solo rock climber Alex Honnold on the Yosemite granite monolith of El Capitan while the other retraces the rescue of the youth soccer team from Northern Thailand’s Tham Luang Nang Non cave in 2018, detailing the miraculous work of an international group of elite cave divers and members of the Thai Navy Seals.
Chin touched upon the parallels, observing, “These are very obscure, what I would call lifestyle sports (alpine climbing and underwater cave diving). These aren’t things you can dabble in. Lives are constructed around these lifestyles–and the spaces of exploration are extraordinary. There’s not a lot of room for error. It takes a certain type of personality and mind that enjoys connecting with these high stakes. Similarities exist among people who are seeking a very deep experience.”
Both stories also reflect that sheer human will and sense of purpose can help achieve the seemingly impossible, noted Vasarhelyi.
Still, while there are similarities, a major difference resided in how to go about telling each story. While Free Solo entailed death defying photography, there was no event to shoot for The Rescue. Instead Chin and Vasarhelyi had to track down footage–including volumes of news coverage from outside the cave with very little from within–and somehow cobble together and do justice to a compelling real-life tale that captivated the world but could not be clearly seen as the rescue took place in pitch-black waters.
Chin related that Vasarhelyi was persistent, for example, in her efforts to access Thai Navy Seal footage–a time consuming quest that had her meeting virtually, often via Zoom, with the powers that be over an extended stretch but to no avail. It wasn’t until she went to an admiral’s house, knocked on the door and connected face to face that permission was granted for her and Chin to use this invaluable footage.
The pandemic also took its toll on the process. Not being able to spend much in-person time with the participants, having to rely on virtual encounters precluded the happy discoveries that could normally be made during the course of casual conversations or over a lunch or dinner. Without those kind of opportunities, it became a more difficult proposition to get to know somebody, to establish a trust and rapport.
Nonetheless, Vasarhelyi and Chin did just that, connecting well enough to shed light on the rescuers in particular. Consider John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, a pair of middle-aged British underwater cave diver enthusiasts whose expertise made them integral to getting a rescue attempt off the ground. The highly trained Navy Seals could not perform in the dark cave depths at the level of these weekend civilian hobbyists who had years of experience in these confines. The Rescue helps us gain insights into Volanthen and Stanton, two unassuming men who share a love of going it alone in muddy, dark, underwater recesses. Their loner orientation, they acknowledge, was born in part by their lack of success in team sports as youths. While most would panic in dark isolation, they each seem to find a sense of peace, solace and refuge in this environment.
The staggeringly remarkable accomplishment of rescuing the youth soccer team is front and center. While there’s great joy in finding the 12 boys and their coach are still alive and doing relatively well, the odds are still slim that they can be saved. The rescue plans take time to take shape as there are myriad problems and obstacles. The children will have to endure about a two-and-a-half hour journey through a mile and a half of cave, mostly underwater. Even adults tend to get disoriented and fall into panic after just minutes underwater in a cave. And the story gets more harrowing as we find out what it will take just to have a chance of extricating these youngsters. In that regard, The Rescue also introduces us to Dr. Richard Harris, an Aussie diver and anesthesiologist who comes up with a way to sedate the boys so that they can survive the ordeal.
Ultimately the film is inspiring and reaffirming. Vasarhelyi shared that she still gets emotional when discussing the story. “It’s raw for me,” she shared, citing “the absolute morality” of the story, an affirmation of the idea that “you can be your best self.” The Navy Seals, the divers, she observed, “only had everything to lose by participating.” But they rose to the challenge, embraced the idea of being their best selves, to make selfless decisions. She hopes that this carries lessons for us all, including in how we respond to the current COVID pandemic.
Vasarhelyi added that the story of The Rescue was one of “people coming together and achieving the impossible.” It reflects how if we all just unite, things can be better. For this rescue mission some 5,000 people, a diverse cross-section of humanity, came together for the greater good. “When you cooperate, you can achieve,” she concluded.
There was another coming together–though of considerably less risk and scope–that proved memorable for Chin. That was simply to be in a movie theater with people at the screening of The Rescue at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. “People coming out of their homes to see something together,” said Chin, was a moving experience in light of a pandemic which has kept so many isolated for so long.
Folks apparently liked what they saw as The Rescue won the People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto fest.
A National Geographic Documentary Films release, The Rescue begins a select theatrical run today and that will expand nationwide in cinemas next Friday (10/15). The feature documentary will be available on Disney+ later this year.
(Editor’s note: Vasarhelyi and Chin are handled in the commercialmaking/branded content arena by production house Stept Studios.)
