STANTON: We encountered them in the third chamber. They'd missed the evacuation. And there were maybe three short sections of dives, each about 10 yards long, maybe only a 30-second immersion. But they'd been trapped for 24 hours, so they were clearly keen to get out. But you know, most of them are non-swimmers, not confident in water.
And I basically describe the whole experience as an underwater wrestling match. As keen as they were to get out - we put a regulator in their mouth, we held them and guided them - but they were not comfortable underwater. And it sort of led, certainly in one case, to complete, blind panic, where he was just flailing around and trying to get away and actually managed to get away, but there was air above him. So we realized that, you know, these are grown men. They're very keen to get out. It's a fraction - a tiny fraction - of the distance the boys were going to have to travel. And it just wasn't going to work, just diving someone out in those conditions.
DAVIES: So a thought arose - I don't know who thought of this - but of sedating the young boys and then taking them out so that they would be passive, so that skilled divers such as yourself could guide them through and they wouldn't resist. And there's another cave diver named Richard Harris. He was in Australia. Is that right?
STANTON: That's correct, yes.
DAVIES: And he was a doctor. And you posed this idea of this. What about doing it? And this is a clip from the film where Richard Harris - this doctor - when told about how about sedating the boys and pulling them out, thought it was ridiculous. Here's part of what he said.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE RESCUE")
RICHARD HARRIS: I could think of 100 ways a child would die very quickly. For example, to maintain your airway, you know, you need to keep their chin up. At any time during the dive, the child's airway could obstruct. They would asphyxiate. Their sinuses could fill up with blood. They could drown in their own saliva. Honestly, I could talk for an hour about the ways that I thought these kids could die.
DAVIES: Terrible dilemma. You know, Chai, you got a lot of film about the authorities trying to weigh the risks in all of this. Tell us a little bit about some of those discussions.
VASARHELYI: Well, I mean, here was an impossible situation. Like, the water was - the rains could come any day, and they were running out of air. And there was really, like, no other option. And I think that what moves me in particular about this story was the absolute morality that Rick and Dr. Harris and John Volanthen, you know, demonstrate. You know, this was a terrible idea. They really thought that saving one child would be a success. And they were willing to take that risk for that reason. Like, one life was worth it.
And that - it just always kind of chokes me up because I have so much respect and admiration for that idea that if you're the only person in the world who can do something - like, is that your responsibility or not? And Rick, John and Dr. Harris rose to that challenge at great personal risk.
CHIN: I mean, they really had, you know, everything to lose, and they still chose to do it.
DAVIES: There was actually some concern. They were kind of informed that if they tried this - if the Thais permitted them to try this - and they did it and it didn't go well, they could face some serious consequences, couldn't they?
CHIN: Yeah. I mean, public opinion could turn. You know, it was being scrutinized by the entire global community, right? And so, you know, particularly if you're a doctor and anesthesiologist, if you're going to go ahead and do this and the kids die, you're going to be known as the anesthesiologist that killed these kids. You know, I mean, there's so many layers and levels of, you know, how much they had to lose. And yet they moved forward with this plan.
DAVIES: Well, some of them said there was - they'd been informed there was some concern that they might face arrest. There was actually a plan to get out of the country if they had to.
VASARHELYI: Which was a real - I mean, it's real. I mean, the Thai judicial system is severe.
DAVIES: The doctor, Richard Harris, who was also a cave diver, who would be the one to develop and I guess administer a lot of the sedatives to these guys and teach the other divers to do it, wanted to see the boys and make his own judgment about it. This is a part of the film from your interview with him in the documentary where he talks about swimming to the kids to see them.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE RESCUE")
HARRIS: As I surface, the filth floating on the water meant we were in the final chamber where the kids were. When I realized I was actually about to meet these boys, of course, I thought about my own children. I was slightly horrified how thin they looked. And I could hear a couple of them coughing pretty wet coughs. They looked weak to me. But it is incredible to me, still - there was not one trembling lip, not a tear, not any sign of any concern. I just spent the whole time swimming and thinking about what we were going to do. And I guess that's when I decided that, yeah, I'm just going to have to get on board with this plan.
DAVIES: You know, one of the remarkable things about that clip is - and we've seen this in other observations - that the boys were enormously calm. They'd been there 10 days, initially without food. You managed to get them, you know, some food - not great food. But they didn't panic. Chai, how do we explain this?
VASARHELYI: You know, I think there are a few reasons. I think these are tough kids who grew up, you know, in a very rural part of Thailand, and they're used to hardship. For the most part, their parents are day laborers, and there's a lot of strength that comes from that. I think it's also cultural, where there is a certain stoicism that's part of, like, the Thai culture. And (unintelligible) I think they were totally depleted by this point. They almost had no more emotion to give. And then lastly, you know, they had their coach Ek with them, who did teach them how to meditate in order to just conserve energy and remain calm. And I think that had a profound, you know, effect on the children's ability to withstand the stress.
DAVIES: When the kids were in the cave before anyone found them, they were there 10 days without any fresh drinking water. I assume they had nothing to eat and ate the same water they peed and pooped in. Is that what they were facing?
VASARHELYI: Actually, the children had nothing to eat. That's true. However, they were able to drink the water from the cave itself. That was, like, the condensation, that which - it's essentially like filtered water because it's coming through a, you know, limestone mountain. So they had fresh water.
STANTON: When we first found them, although there was a language barrier, they expressed to us that, you know, when - they would get into the river and turn left as in downstream if they wanted to do any business, and they would turn right and go upstream if they wanted a drink. So, you know, there was plenty of water on tap. There was a massive flowing river at their feet filled with sediment. Sediment isn't going to do you any harm. I don't think - I don't believe it contained bacteria or viruses because of the remote nature of where it was.
DAVIES: So after considering all of the options, all of them bad, they choose that - they decide they are going to try and get divers in, sedate the kids and guide them out. Rick, do you want to just describe a bit about some of the details here, how you were actually going to do this, what the kids would put on, how you would administer the sedatives?
STANTON: We put our heads together to come up with how we were going to transport them, the nuts and bolts, put them in a wetsuit. The crucial thing was the seal of their - obviously their mouth and the nose against the water. So we elected to have full face masks on them that actually maintained an internal pressure. So any leak would be outwards rather than water inwards because - I talked earlier about, you know, cave diving is all about redundancy. There was no redundancy in this case for an unconscious person with their face in the water. So that integrity of that mask seal was the most important factor.
Unlike most scuba divers that have the cylinders on the back, we elected to have the cylinders on the front. And that acted as a keel. It weighted them and kept them face down, which helped maintain their airway and made sure that no water would be aspirated upwards into the throat. But the most crucial part - Dr. Richard Harris did administer the first set of sedatives on the boys, but it was a two-and-a-half-hour journey out at least, maybe three in cases. And the sedative only lasted about 40 minutes. So we were trained - I say trained. We had a five-minute instruction on how to inject the boys, assess their depth of sedation and inject them with more sedative. And so that was part of the crucial plan that was put onto us. As we were driving out, we would have to perform this procedure.
DAVIES: So you put the kid in the wetsuit. You get the very tight mask. You or Dr. Harris injects the first sedative, and off you go. Can you just describe what it's like to maneuver the kid through these very tight spaces? Again, you can't see where you're going. You can't see your hand in front of your face, right?
STANTON: So all the four British divers that did this - they used to dive in through caves with unusual packages. Normally, it's a big tube full of our camping gear and extra equipment for some of our long explorations. And as we were putting this plan together, that's what we assumed we were doing. These were just inert packages. But of course, the moment you set off with this child, you realize that wasn't an inert package. This was a human life in your hand, and it was a breathing, living thing. And that really brought home the seriousness of it and the mission we were doing.
DAVIES: Were there places where you had to maneuver through a spot so tight that you would push the child ahead of you and then follow him?
STANTON: I describe it as a sort of letterbox that you had to post the child through. You couldn't see where the slot was, and you had to post the child through it by basically using the child as a feeler gauge to find where the appropriate bit was and then follow through behind. And, of course, all the time, you can't actually see their face unless you go really close to them. You don't know what's going on with that all-important face-mouth seal. Sometimes you couldn't even hear their breathing, so you had to sometimes just stop and take a reality check to see that they were actually still alive.
DAVIES: Jimmy, you want to describe what the finish line was like - that is to say, when one of the divers brought one of the kids to the point at which they could be taken care of by other rescue workers? Just describe that scene for us, what happened once the kid got out of the water.
CHIN: Well, this operation was massive - right? - because, you know, even once they got the children to Chamber 3, there was still, you know, a huge amount of cave left to move the children out. And so there were hundreds of volunteers and Thai navy SEALs, American Special Force PJs all transporting them out through this, you know, kind of treacherous terrain. It's just really hard to describe the scale of it, you know? And I would imagine for the divers, you know, who are really, really focused on this task, once they handed the child off, all of a sudden, you know, all of those emotions that have been set aside would probably rush back in.
DAVIES: Yeah. Rick Stanton, what did it feel like when you got one of the children to the end and could see that he was still alive?
STANTON: Yeah, that was amazing. I mean, the relief was enormous. And on the first - I was the last one. And of course, of that day, last one of those four. I had no idea what had happened, preceded me, whether anyone got out alive. So you know, to be told that the previous three had all survived - and obviously, I knew my one was alive - that was just an amazing relief. But of course, you have to remember, that didn't mean to say - just one day of success didn't mean to say the next day or the day after was going to be an equal success. The probability of something going wrong was enormous, and so there was absolutely no room for complacency in this rescue.
DAVIES: You know, and as if someone were writing this for a TV script, after the first two days, you had one day to go. And then the skies opened, and the rains got really intense. Chai, describe what effect that had on everybody.
VASARHELYI: Yes. And after the second day of the rescue, you know, the monsoons hit like with full ferocity. I think they described as monsoons on steroids. And it was, again, that ticking clock. The caves would flood, and there was really - either take the chance right now on the third day of the rescue and try to get the kids out, or you may not have a chance again. And again, like, that idea that, you know, Rick, John and all the cave divers were willing to do that - to go ahead and put themselves in that position in order to save these children they've never met before. Kind of gets to the heart of this story, right? It's about, like, being your best self, doing the right thing that - you know, I don't - again, always makes me quite emotional when I think about it.
DAVIES: When you have a skill that no one else has and you've got to decide what you're going to do with it in that moment. You know, the scene of when one of the kids arrives from the water - one of the divers guides it through. And then there's these amazing shots of this huge chamber that is filled with hundreds of workers. And there - the kids are simply passed up, you know, from hand to hand to hand. This is amazing footage. Chai, where did you get that stuff? I mean, you weren't there at the time. You had to go back and try and track this down. Where did all this amazing footage come from?
VASARHELYI: We'd been told by Rick and John that they were given GoPros by the Thai navy SEALs, but no one had seen the images. So it became - like, kind of it triggered this, like, two-year quest to collaborate with the Thai navy SEALs to try to get access to their footage and also to include their point of view in the story because they clearly played a very important role as well. And you know, there's some things that can be achieved in a pandemic, and there's some things that can't. And trying to forge this relationship and build trust over Zoom really didn't work. So it was when I got my second vaccine, I got on a plane to Thailand. And, you know, we re-approached the Thai navy SEALs again and again. And they finally said yes. And what we were - we were anticipating maybe 90 minutes, you know, maybe a few usable shots. They had 87 hours of footage, and it was extraordinary. It's kind of like the best type of nonfiction story. Like, you would - it was stuff we'd dreamed of finding. We couldn't even imagine that it existed, like those shots where you see the 200 people passing the boys on a stretcher up through the cave or the shots of when you actually see John and Rick emerge from the cave, having discovered the boys and letting the Thai navy SEALs know. You know, all of this stuff has never been seen before in the world, and we felt - it just was one of those again, like, fortunate events or good fortune that surrounds this story where we were able to find that footage at the very last minute and get it into the movie.
DAVIES: Well, you know, Rick, I mean, this is - you've been cave diving for a long, long time. I mean, what motivates someone to do this kind of high adventure is always a little mysterious to me. But this is a case where you were summoned. And you had a entirely unique skill, which was needed. And this involved a lot of risk. Did you feel morally obliged to do this? Did it change the way you look at cave diving?
STANTON: From the moment we found the boys, John and myself, we did, of course, have a moral responsibility. Of out all the 5,000 people that were there, we were uniquely placed to understand the situation and to put forward the rescue. So that was a huge responsibility. And from that moment when I came out of the cave, having found them, I completely changed. And all my efforts were directed towards the rescue and to saving those boys.
DAVIES: And did it change you, you know, in the weeks, months since?
STANTON: I would say that we were very confident people before the rescue. We wouldn't have been there putting forward such an audacious plan if we weren't confident in ourselves and our techniques and our decisions. But this is - as you say, this is a very strange hobby, which we've really pursued for 40 years just for our own perverse enjoyment and pleasure. And what really brought it home to me is, suddenly, it all became worthwhile. And then this obscure sideline hobby that no one could understand or vocalize all came good and was of huge benefit to those 13 young lives and done on a world stage. So I'm hugely proud of that event and the fact that my life almost, you could say, led to that point. All decisions that I had made led towards that one circumstance.
DAVIES: Have you stayed in touch with the families at all?
STANTON: Not really because of the language barrier. But I do get pictures sent to me of the boys, like, when they graduate from school. I sometimes see pictures of that. You might be amazed to hear that they still go in the cave.
DAVIES: (Laughter).
STANTON: So four of those boys went on a trip with Vern and my girlfriend at the time only a month or so ago went on a 24-hour-long trip in there. So it hasn't particularly traumatized them after the event.
DAVIES: You know, people who climb Mount Everest or other peaks get amazing views and experiences that nobody else will get. What's the corresponding thrill that you get from exploring a cave? What's rewarding about it?
STANTON: The simplest way to describe that - the surface of the planet is being photographed. Not every place has been reached. Not every peak has been scaled. But in a cave, you've no idea what's going to be around the next corner if you're the first person there. And it's an opportunity to literally explore where no man has been before. And it doesn't require the - you know, going to the deepest ocean or the most remote part of the world and then climbing a mountain. You know, we've explored - we've had the privilege to explore caves. In our own tiny, overcrowded island, you can still find places, many places and significant places from a caving's perspective where you're able to explore. And that's - for me and for us and for the U.K. team, that's the essence of why we do it. It's - we're fascinated by caves or say we're cavers not necessarily - we just use the diving equipment to extend out what we want to do. It's that essence of discovery and finding out what's there.
DAVIES: So you're repeatedly the first human being to see certain things.
STANTON: That's correct.
DAVIES: Well, Rick Stanton, Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, thank you all so much for speaking with us.
CHIN: Thank you so much for having us.
VASARHELYI: Thank you.
STANTON: Thank you.
DAVIES: Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin directed the documentary "The Rescue." Also joining us was Rick Stanton, a veteran cave diver who played a critical role in the rescue effort in Thailand.
Copyright © 2021 NPR.