Director Ron Howard looks to bounce back from "Hillbilly Elegy," his poorly received movie about Marine veteran and possible future U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, with "Thirteen Lives," a motion picture that relates the true-life rescue of 13 young boys from a diving cave in Thailand.
"Thirteen Lives" will debut in theaters on July 29, 2022, and stream on Prime Video one week later on Aug. 5. Amazon has released the first trailer for the movie.
The saga dominated the news in 2018, when the local soccer team became trapped by rising waters. For more than two weeks, experts from around the world tried to devise a plan that would allow the kids to exit the remote cave without drowning.
The U.S. Air Force joined the international effort, and Howard's movie features a character based on USAF Maj. Charles Hodges, played by Australian actor Josh Helman, who's best known for playing Slit in "Mad Max: Fury Road," Maj. Stryker in the "X-Men" movies and PFC Juergens in "The Pacific."
Related: 'Expecting Casualties:' How Airmen Created the Incredible Thai Cave Rescue Plan
Joel Edgerton ("Zero Dark Thirty"), Viggo Mortensen ("Green Book") and Colin Farrell ("The Batman") star as Harry Harris, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, the three rescue leaders who became familiar to news watchers as the excruciating story unfolded over weeks on cable news around the world.
Viewers can go into "Thirteen Lives" knowing that they'll get an inspiring and uplifting story, because anyone paying attention four years ago knows the outcome of the mission. The movie's IMDb page doesn't mention a character named "Elon Musk," so Howard seems to have avoided that distraction by dropping any mention of the snarky armchair criticism tweeted by the billionaire during the crisis.
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