Airdate: Sanctum: The Real Story

This Sunday NatGeo Adventure has a look at the making of the new James Cameron 3D film Sanctum.

Sanctum: The Real Story documents the tale of how veteran cave diver Andrew Wight’s real-life adventures inspired the movie. The cast features Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield and Ioan Gruffudd.

In 1988, Wight – a long-time Cameron collaborator and diving partner who is also a producer and co-writer of the feature film – faced a near-death experience while leading a diving expedition deep into a system of underwater caves in Western Australia.

When a freak storm brought two years worth of rain down in 25 minutes, collapsing the entrance and causing a massive landslide, Wight and 14 others were trapped underground with a car-size boulder blocking the way, and a torrent of water gushing into the cave system.

Wight and another person managed to escape after about five hours, but 13 people were left trapped in the cave for more than two days, making worldwide headlines. Comments Wight in the documentary: “At its heart, it is about their struggle to survive – what happens when you put a bunch of people from different backgrounds in the most dire of circumstances when the possible outcome is your untimely demise.”

The documentary also shows what it took to make Sanctum as true to the world of underwater cave exploration as possible, including following three of the film’s stars – Richard Roxburgh (Mission: Impossible II, Moulin Rouge!), Rhys Wakefield (The Black Balloon, Broken Hill) and Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four, W.) – on a month- long boot camp as they learn how to use the world’s most advanced cave diving equipment.

With limited reliance on green-screen technology, the actors brought their characters to life in a purpose-built cave system. Special care was taken by production designer Nicholas McCallum to ensure the rock was rendered as realistically as possible to give an authentic sense of being underground. Not only was the set raw and rugged, the actors also faced a half-ton of water per second being pumped through the set for the flood scenes. “It was a complete replication of cave environments, with no apparent mercy for the actor,” Roxburgh says in the documentary.

Not only does Sanctum:The Real Story highlight the inherent risks and dangers of cave diving, but also the amazing technology involved in making the film. Using 3D techniques pioneered by executive producer Cameron in Avatar, Cameron and Wight provide unique insight into the technology, the special effects and daring performed by the actors to create Sanctum.

It airs Sunday January 30 at 7:30pm on on NatGeo Adventure.