Ron Howard revisits a miracle in the Thirteen Lives trailer

Don’t tell Elon Musk, but the divers who rescued the Thai soccer team from an underwater cave back in 2018 are being valorized in Ron Howard’s new film, Thirteen Lives.

In case you forget what actually happened, here’s the synopsis:

Thirteen Lives recounts the incredible true story of the tremendous global effort to rescue a Thai soccer team who become trapped in the Tham Luang cave during an unexpected rainstorm,” reads the synopsis. “Faced with insurmountable odds, a team of the world’s most skilled and experienced divers–uniquely able to navigate the maze of flooded, narrow cave tunnels–join with Thai forces and more than 10,000 volunteers to attempt a harrowing rescue of the twelve boys and their coach. With impossibly high stakes and the entire world watching, the group embarks on their most challenging dive yet, showcasing the limitlessness of the human spirit in the process.

The trailer is rife with tension as the rescue divers point out just how dangerous and impossible the conditions surrounding rescue are. Despite the relief of finding the young boys alive nine days after they went missing, they struggle to come up with a plan to bring them all back to the surface alive. “It’s insane, it’s unethical, it’s illegal,” Joel Edgerton’s character frets at one point.

Thankfully, we know that this story has a happy ending (and it doesn’t involve a Musk-designed submarine). Still, the journey to get there is nothing short of miraculous, and Howard’s bracingly realistic style seems to emphasize the impossibly high stakes of the situation.

Joining Edgerton in the cast are Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson, Pattrakorn Tungsupakul, Tui Thiraphat Sajakul, James Teeradon Supapunpinyo, Sahajak Boonthanakit, and Weir Sukollawat Kanaros. Thirteen Lives will be released in select theaters on July 29 before launching August 5 on Prime Video.