‘The Rescue’ real people: Cave divers tell their stories

The divers who saved 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded Thailand cave in 2018 were obviously brave. Immense courage would be required from anyone willing to swim over a mile through sediment-rich water in complete darkness, expecting to bump into 13 dead bodies. But the men who volunteered to fly to Asia from their homes in Australia, England and Ireland to help with the rescue also shared some more unexpected character traits.

“They were pretty ornery right off the bat,” said E. Chai Vasarhelyi, who interviewed the cave divers for the new documentary “The Rescue.” “They all kind of self-present as misfits — as people who had a hard time fitting in. They feel most comfortable in a muddy hole but ended up being the most unlikely heroes.”

The filmmaker, along with her co-director, husband Jimmy Chin, are no strangers to “weird, nerdy characters. That’s kind…