‘The Rescue’ shows story of diver’s mission

Documentary on saving 12 boys from cave opens Friday

Richard Stanton, the elite British cave diver who helped lead the mission to save 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, isn’t much for movies. Stanton will without hesitation plunge into the murkiest of waters, but he rarely sets foot inside a darkened movie theater.

“I’ve got no interest in films,” says Stanton. “I can’t remember the last time I went to the cinema.”

Stanton, 60, is partial to “Apollo 13” — a good thing, since its director, Ron Howard, is making a movie about Stanton and the other divers who made possible the Tham Luang cave rescue. (Viggo Mortensen is playing Stanton.)

But Stanton, one of

Britain’s foremost cave divers, has, in fact, been to the movies lately. A lot. Within days of its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last month, Stanton had seen “The Rescue,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s riveting nonfiction account of the underwater ordeal, five times. At first, he says, it was “a bit weird.”

“We were just like, ‘Well, that’s it, then,’” said Stanton, a retired firefighter prone to pragmaticism. “But the more I’ve seen it, the more intricate and the more layers I’ve realized are woven together. It’s a hugely intricate story.”

“The Rescue,” which National Geographic opens in theaters Friday, is the fullest, most detailed and most heart-pounding documentary portrait of just how a global coalition — and a handful of cavediving hobbyists — swam 13 people to safety after they had been stuck inside the Tham Luang cave for 16 days.