A movie about the Thai cave rescue is inevitable, so let’s talk about how we can redeem the problematic genre of international rescue movies.

[Image credit: Associated Press]

This month, the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a dangerously flooded cave in Thailand gripped the world. Cave divers and rescuers from all around the world gathered in the remote area, united by the race against time to save thirteen lives — and succeeded, against incredible odds.

At this point, a film about the rescue is inevitable. Hollywood loves disaster movies and rescue movies, and this story is the perfect intersection of both. Much like the 2010 story of the Chilean miners, the cave rescue is destined to be immortalized on film — but how can it be correctly depicted?

A big problem with rescue/disaster movies — see films like The Impossible — is that they always seem to be unnecessarily Western-centric, even when they have no reason to be. A movie about a tsunami in Thailand will follow the story of the tourists, rather than the Thai people. Why are we so intent to take away protagonism from the real-life local survivors?

A movie about the Tham Luang Cave Rescue has a chance to finally get a rescue movie right.

[Image credit: Royal Thai Navy]

Focusing on the survivors

Although the rescue process is undeniably fascinating, we can’t forget just how important the 10 days leading up to it were. To capture the true scope of how incredible the operation was, the audience needs to be able to get to know the 12 boys that were rescued and their coach.

Who are the boys? And who is Ekkapol Chantawong, the man who kept 12 11-to-14-year-olds alive and hopeful for 10 days, with next to no food?

A story like this would be remiss in ignoring the backgrounds of all the children and their coach, especially given that they’re all from different backgrounds, with unique stories. Only one of the boys could speak English, and many of them (including the coach) were refugees.

Ekkapol himself, in particular, stands out as a fascinating character. He is, in many ways, exactly the kind of hero Hollywood likes to talk about: a man who has lost a lot, but also gained strengths that could carry him and others through incredible odds. He’s also only 25 years old, and heroic enough to starve himself to feed the boys, and to teach them meditation and survival skills.

[Image credit: Royal Thai Navy]

Avoiding the ‘white savior’

Unique to this rescue story, the boys and their coach were in fact rescued by a team of divers that was comprised of Westerners. The men who first found them were British – Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, both of whom displayed incredible heroism.

Joining them was a group of U.S. Navy SEALs and an international movement of supporters. A movie about the rescue could not and should not ignore the incredibly valuable contributions of all the people who dropped everything and flew to another continent to embark on the risky journey to save boys they didn’t even know were still alive.

But this movie has a chance to finally bring internationality to the story without alienating the role of the locals. It isn’t necessary for the film to solely focus on English-speaking characters just because the film will be in English (although if they’re daring enough to stick to using subtitles as different people speak, that would be amazing!). Instead of placing the focus only on the Western rescuers, the film could explore how very different cultures came together, put their differences aside and combined their expertise to carry out an ambitious plan.

What strong friendships were born from being in dark waters with people for days? Can a movie like this perfectly balance out the screen time, respect and protagonism given to both the Thai people and the foreigners?

It’s also important to remember Saman Kunan, who died during the rescue efforts. His story, the only fatality in a rescue mission that could have gone even more terribly awry, is one worth immortalizing.

[Image credit: Royal Thai Navy]

A story about the community

The most important part of this story is how communities from all around the world came together for the rescue. Its communal nature is so important that there couldn’t be only one main character. Here are some of the people who deserve to be depicted:

The parents: All of the parents displayed an incredible amount of empathy and wisdom in what must have been the most difficult weeks of their lives. As a group, they stuck together and decided that they would not meet their children until all children were out. They also reached out to the coach to assure him that they did not blame him for what had happened — rather, that they were thankful that he had been there to protect their boys.

The nest-gatherers: They are a group of people from southern Thailand who collect bird nests for a living, and therefore are great climbers. When they heard about what had happened, they were desperate to help, but could not afford the trip. Their village chipped in to pay for their tickets so that they could make it to the site. The nest-gatherers were the first people to find evidence that the boys might still be alive: they heard knocking in one of the adjacent chambers of the cave.

The villagers: Many people of the region stood out for their altruism. Nearby farmers whose crops were flooded by the water being pumped out of the cave said that they were not bothered: the most important thing was for the boys to get out safely. There were people offering to give massages to the rescuers, to wash their clothes, to cook food for them (there was even a Muslim group that made halal food for Muslim rescuers!), to offer rides from the airport and to bring in supplies. There was even an ice cream vendor that traveled to the site to give rescuers free ice cream.

There cannot be only one main character in a story that was about a community.

Giving credit to the Thai people

There’s a lot to learn about the story of the cave rescue, and a lot of it is about the value of community and humanity. The fact that the Thai people refused to assign blame to anyone for what happened, that people local to the region came together so quickly despite a scarcity of means, and that there was such an outpouring of empathy and generosity, showcase the fundamental strength of the human race: to come together and get things done, even when they seem impossible.

With all the conflict and hatred we see in the world, it would be good to have a movie that reminds us of this amazing feat, and that we are still capable of good… of saving 13 lives by all working together.