

"There was a very strong feeling that the children couldn't be still alive," says John Volanthen. By day eight, the Thailand cave rescue workers began to fear the worst and some had lost hope of finding the boys and their coach alive. He was supposed to return home and celebrate his birthday with his family, who had cake and presents waiting.ĭid British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen begin to lose hope? He was the oldest of the 12 boys who became trapped in the cave. While researching the Thirteen Lives true story, we learned that goalie Peerapat "Night" Sompiangjai turned 17 on June 23rd, the day the boys and their assistant coach entered the cave. Thai actor Teeradon Supapunpinyo (right) portrays him in the movie.ĭid one of the boys have a birthday while stranded in the Tham Luang cave? Wild Boars Assistant Coach Ekaphol Chantawong (left) is pictured while trapped inside the cave. Musk apologized to Unsworth, saying that the insult was made during heated rhetoric and was not a statement of fact. In September 2018, Unsworth sued Musk for defamation but lost the suit the following year when a jury found that Musk had not defamed Unsworth. Vern Unsworth is perhaps best known for getting into a spat with Elon Musk during the Thai cave rescue efforts, which found Musk calling him "pedo guy" on Twitter after Unsworth suggested Musk's attempted to build a minisub was a "PR stunt" with "absolutely no chance of working." Musk's insult was eluding to the fact that Unsworth's Thai girlfriend, Woranan Ratrawiphukkun, then 40, was 23 years younger than him. He gave them a list of the best cave divers in the world, including fellow Brits Rick Stanton and John Volanthen (portrayed by Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell in the movie). Unsworth was on the scene the day after the boys got stranded inside and was the person who suggested to the Thai governor that they bring in experienced cave divers from other countries. Unsworth, who is portrayed by Lewis Fitz-Gerald in the Ron Howard film, was a British-born caver who lived nearby in Thailand and had extensive knowledge of the Tham Luang cave system.


While researching the Thirteen Lives real people, we learned that Vern Unsworth, like most of the movie characters, is based on a real person. Is caver Vern Unsworth based on a real person?
