Prime Video movie of the day: Thirteen Lives is true-life survival thriller with 94% Rotten Tomatoes audience score

A group of divers stand around a small boy in the movie Thirteen Lives
(Image credit: Amazon Prime Video)

If you're hunting among the best Prime Video movies for something to watch, and you want a gripping story, but with a happy ending to deflate all the tension, then definitely check out Thirteen Lives. This retelling of the story of a group of boys and their soccer coach who get stuck in a Thai cave due to flooding – yes, it's the story of this famous 2018 rescue.

Despite a big push from Prime Video, Thirteen Lives went relatively under the radar upon its release in 2022, but pretty much everyone who sees it says that's a shame, and that it's a compelling rescue film. You'd expect nothing less from Ron Howard, who directed Apollo 13, but it'd still be easy to screw up.

Entertainment Weekly said that Howard's movie is "refreshingly stripped of the cloying or sentimental: a remarkable story torn from true life, and faithfully told", while Digital Spy said that the "diving sequences are excruciatingly tense and brilliantly delivered".

Helped along by stars including Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen and Joel Edgerton, it's sitting at a healthy 85% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 94% audience score. It might not become your new favorite film, but you can be sure it's going to hit all the right notes for a rescue drama.

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Matt Bolton
Managing Editor, Entertainment

Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Entertainment, meaning he's in charge of persuading our team of writers and reviewers to watch the latest TV shows and movies on gorgeous TVs and listen to fantastic speakers and headphones. It's a tough task, as you can imagine. Matt has over a decade of experience in tech publishing, and previously ran the TV & audio coverage for our colleagues at T3.com, and before that he edited T3 magazine. During his career, he's also contributed to places as varied as Creative Bloq, PC Gamer, PetsRadar, MacLife, and Edge. TV and movie nerdism is his speciality, and he goes to the cinema three times a week. He's always happy to explain the virtues of Dolby Vision over a drink, but he might need to use props, like he's explaining the offside rule.