‘Thirteen Lives’: Ron Howard, Colin Farrell on How Spirituality Impacted Thailand Cave Rescue Film

Have you seen “Thirteen Lives?” If you haven’t, this post might give you a few reasons to do so.

Remember the eighteen-day search-and-rescue operation in 2018 to save twelve young Thai boys and their coach trapped in a cave? The twelve boys were members of a football team, and they, along with their coach, were trapped in the “Tham Luang Nang Non” cave amid a rising flood. This story inspired the movie “Thirteen Lives”; the director Ron Howard recently spoke about it in an interview.

Ron Howard Speaking About Thirteen Lives

The Oscar-winning director watched the news coverage of the rescue mission in 2018, as many of us did. Ron said that the headlines offered a great movie story. He went further, saying, “I thought there was great drama in that great suspense and that I can make a real movie out of the adventure side of it.”

According to Ron, he was pitched an idea to direct the story’s screenplay and was immediately fascinated by the aspect that focused on the human interest. What drew him in the most was the Thai people’s volunteerism, the divers’ bravery, and the spirituality that provided the trapped teammates, their coach, and parents peace throughout the ordeal.

Ron said, “That was an important element that I didn’t know very much about, but I felt it was emotional and very, very beautiful and cinematic, and completely true.”

Because of this, the director put much effort into accurately telling the story and capturing the details as much as possible. He did this not just to impress audiences but to honor every volunteer by showing how complex and extraordinary the operation was.

Hearing from Stakeholders in the Movie

A pivotal part of Thirteen Lives is when Volanthen and Stanton watch the trapped boy slowly emerge after a nine-day-long search. One of them, Adul “Adun” Samon, was a devout Christian. He confirmed their number to the divers and went on to share how his faith helped him through the experience.

The co-producer of the movie, Raymond Phathanavirangoon, said it was a priority to highlight Adul’s Christian faith. He said, “We made sure that — actually, even in our notes — that he’s Christian, so he’s a little bit different from the others. So even though he’s meditating with the others, we’ve always known, because his parents also had to be Christian, you don’t notice the details, but there was a cross on one of the parents. … We really, really made sure that level of accuracy when we’re making the film, because it’s based on the real kids.”

One of the star actors in the movie, Colin Farrell, said that the collaboration and faith of the Thai people significantly impacted the morale of everyone involved and the whole rescue mission. According to him, “I always felt that I was close to my fellow actors and the other characters, and there was so much in observing the type [of] people … and being moved by their resilience, and by their faith and by their prayer … all these extensions of faith and extensions of goodwill in the midst of this panic. I wasn’t willing anything into being or trying to impose my will upon the scene or anything; I was just kind of gently responding to all the beautiful things that were happening around me.”

The movie “Thirteen Lives” opened in theaters on 29 July. It is rated PG-13 due to some unsettling images and strong language.