Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 23 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
The Hollywood Reporter critic Richard Lawson gave the film a mixed review, praising the "stitching together of actual footage from the ordeal, both the fuzzy faraway phone videos and the stomach-plunging drone shots capturing these young men in staggering close-up," which he said "heightens the surreality and loneliness of their experience." However, he criticized the film as "a gripping story not told thoroughly enough," noting that it "craves proper context" and that the lack of testimony from the boys themselves "robs us of a no-doubt grueling and compelling hour-by-hour retelling of what it was to teeter on the brink of death for so long."
IndieWire described the film as "taut but frustratingly anemic," stating that director Naqvi is "too afraid of losing your attention to make the most of the moments when it has them." The review noted that the film "takes a few measured steps toward" addressing the class dynamics of the rescue, but that its "narrow focus" does more to "flatten the people involved than it does to bring new dimension to their ordeal."
The Guardian praised the film as a "tense, skilfully assembled survival story with unexpected flashes of comedy," crediting director Naqvi for "pulling it all together adeptly" and editor William Grayburn for "seamless editing that nourishes the suspense." The review noted the film's drone shots "will give anyone with acrophobia the heebie jeebies," but observed that the film does not investigate the safety failures that allowed the incident to happen, instead treating the event as "bad luck."
The Playlist gave the film a highly positive review, calling it a "nail-biting watch" that "never allows itself to become bogged down in excessive setup or backstory." The reviewer wrote that "with both rescuers operating under nothing but the best of intentions, the head of police reveals that hiring a zipline company had something to do with money, offering an unusual class perspective," and concluded that the film is "a story akin to the infamous Copiapó mining accident, with this a brief moment in time when the world collectively worried."
The Film Stage critic John Fink wrote that the film "is not without thrills and human drama," but that it "seems focused more on a death-defying rescue than on what could be done to prevent this from happening again."
Morning Star described the film as "conventional in form and technique" but noted that it "reflects the tension of the situation perfectly: terrified people hanging from a wire, an anguished community and a series of chaotically heroic rescue attempts." The review praised the film's "moments of surprising humour" and the contrast it draws between "the bourgeoise bodybuilder's state-of-the-art pulleys and the improvised contraption of his poorer 'rival,'" concluding that it is "a gripping and unexpectedly life-affirming documentary."
