E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are back with another crowd-pleasing, jaw-dropping look at a death-defying mission. They’re following up their Oscar-winning portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan sans rope with “The Rescue,” a National Geographic doc that chronicles the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue.

The collaborators take viewers behind the scenes of the story that galvanized the globe: unexpected flooding caused 12 boys and their coach to get stuck deep inside a Northern Thailand cave. Trapped and helpless, they awaited rescue. Finding the missing group was the first challenge, but even after locating them, the rescue was just getting started. Getting them out of the cave was beyond a logistical nightmare — it was seemingly impossible.

We all know this harrowing tale has a (mostly) happy ending — the boys and their coach made it home safe. Still, Vasarhelyi and Chin manage to make “The Rescue” incredibly suspenseful. Perhaps more crucially, they tell a multi-layered story.

British divers John Volanthen and Richard Stanton received the bulk of attention for the rescue. Vasarhelyi and Chin spotlight the men, examining what drew the pair to cave diving, a dangerous undertaking that most folks simply can’t imagine doing, let alone for fun. The doc is, in part, a loving tribute to former bullied kids whose obscure hobby led them to becoming international heroes. But “The Rescue” is careful not to give all the credit to the farangs — and so too are Volanthen and Stanton.

Almost 5,000 Thais participated in the rescue and hundreds from around the world contributed. As one interviewee emphasizes, “People came to help.” Different countries and different cultures came together, and “The Rescue” underscores this fact throughout, teasing out the tensions and celebrating the triumphs of the unlikely collective.

“The Rescue” is now in theaters. Find screening info here.