this is "nightline." >> tonight, one way out. the untold story of that dramatic thai cave rescue from the divers who put their lives on the line. >> i'd never have to think for a second about whether i would go, whether i would try and help. >> why they sedated the boys and carried them out unconscious. how a poor-fitting face mask could have led to disaster. the split-second decisions that saved 13 lives. plus queen angela. the embodiment of strength, grace, and beauty for decades. from a meme-inspiring performance in "waiting to exhale" to her royal role in "black panther." >> we have entertained this for too long. >> she says it stems from another fearless leader. >> i was raised by a single mother, just making a dollar out

of 15 cents as they say. >> now ready to unveil her dark side. >> i've been good for far too long. >> but first the "nightline 5." hurry into jcpenney for black friday prices in july. plus take an extra 20% off with card and coupon. earn jcpenney bonus bucks. spend $50, earn $10. earn today, spend today, jcpenney. style and value for all. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. tylenol. >> number one in just 60 seconds.

good evening. thank you for joining us. for days the world watched what

became known as the miracle rescue. 12 boys and their soccer coach freed from a dark, flooded cave. the courage of those children has made them hometown heroes. tonight we learn about the incredible planning, bravery, and sacrifice of rescue divers who led those boys to safety. here's abc's matt gutman. >> reporter: under a monsoon-soaked mountain in northern thailand, in the deep down dark, a majestic death trap. after nine days of desperate searching, the mission members of this boys soccer team and their coach are found, miraculously alive. >> how many of you? >> 13. >> 13? >> yes. >> brilliant. >> absolute elation. followed very quickly with, wait a second, now we've got to get these kids out. >> reporter: tonight the heart-racing details we didn't know about the rescue until now. directly from the divers who carried it out. the divers who find the boys, john k ton,

chriwe, belong tn elite british cave diving team with unique rescue stem-cell skills. in thailand, these volunteers, working without pay, come to be known as the awesome foursome. >> i'd never have to think for a second about whether i would go. i think it's human nature to know if you've got an ability, then of course you will. >> reporter: what stands between the boys and the daylight they haven't seen in two weeks is about a mile and a half underground obstacle course of rocky chambers, half-flooded canals, and fully submerged sections. the longest of those of 350 meters, the length of seven olympic swimming pools, filled with water so muddy it's like swimming in coffee. >> we always knew we could get them out, it's whether we could get them out alive or not.

>> reporter: a u.s. air force search and rescue team, headed up by major charles hodges, and master sergeant derek anderson, joins the effort. what was the probability of success? >> so when i was asked that question by the governor, what i told him is, i think we can probably realistically save 60% to 70% of the kids. i expect anywhere from three to five to die in this operation. >> translator: today is d-day. we are 100% ready. >> an enormous cache of extra air canisters are already in place and support divers deployed throughout the cave. the tip of the spear is the elite foursome of british divers. it was one diver, one boy? >> that's correct, yes. >> that's a tremendous amount of responsibility. >> yeah, very much so. >> reporter: when the brits reach that far-away cavern, they find the boys shockingly calm. the thai doctor who joins them says they decide on their own what order they're going out in. >> translator: it was a decision made by all the boys, because

their physical and mental condition was about the same. the boys who lived farthest from the cave went first because they thought they had to bicycle home to tell their parents the news. >> reporter: choosing who was first in line is actually no small decision. that boy will be a sort of human guinea pig in a first of its kind rescue. and it falls to mallenson to shepherd the boys out safely. >> i volunteered. >> you volunteered? >> i'm not one to hang at the back, i'm usually at the front. i just volunteered. >> reporter: already wearing a wet suit, the child walks down a steep slope into the water. now it's time for an absolutely critical step, agreed to in advance by the thai government. the boy is injected with ammonl k kettamine by an australian doctor and anesthesiologist. he reveals the shot is not just to relax the boy, it's to knock

him out cold. >> i can't have him twitching around. when they start moving, their arms moving around, there's potential for them to kill themselves. there was potential for them to kill us. >> reporter: soon that first boy is out cold. and a face mask is strapped tightly on him. a single leak could be potentially fatal. >> i was not fully confident of getting them out alive. we didn't know at first how they were going to react in the water, whether the drug we'd given them would be sufficient to keep them under for the flooded sections. >> reporter: but mallenson is not one for turning back. he enters the cold, murky water with the boy for that daunting first dive stage. remember, it's 350 meters long. 3 1/2 football fields. what follows next is a sort of choreographed underwater ballet, with one hand mallenson has to hold the guideline that stretches to the cave entrance, while the other hand is holding tight to the strap on the boy's vest as he floats facedown.

>> liken it to underwater obstacle course. >> in which you're blind? >> in which you're blind and you don't remember all the obstacles on the way in. >> reporter: after did about 20 painstaking, agonizing minutes, mallenson successfully completes the first dive stage. waiting for him are two support dive hoarse help him get the unconscious boy out of the water. >> we realized that, yeah, the mask worked. the drug worked. after that, i knew, you know, there's a good chance we can get them all out this way. >> reporter: he and two support divers have to physically carry the child to the next dive point, then swim across deep canals with rushing water. >> it was actually harder in the canal sections. because once we were under water, he was neutral and i was neutral, it's hard to swim in the canal and push an inert child along with you. >> reporter: mallenson is halfway home and struggling to negotiate one of those long canals when a potential catastrophe happens. >> swimming down a canal in neck-deep water, he started coming out of sedation.

>> you realize you've got to readminister the sedation? >> it was very tricky. i had syringes floating on the surface trying to grab all of them. >> you literally grab the stuff in the water, trying to put it back in? >> yeah, try and get a needle on the syringe, get his leg open, do it one-handed, get your syringes back in and dry too. >> reporter: after what seemed an eternity, mallenson emerges from the darkness with that first child in tow. >> are you absolutely sure? the kid's breathing? yep, kid is doing phone. >> reporter: the young boy immediately tended to by medics. >> translator: the doctor would measure the oxygen level in the body, the kid's breathing, and the pulse. >> reporter: then loaded onto a stretcher for the remaining half-mile extraction. >> translator: it took more than 100 people to bring them to the entrance of the cave. >> reporter: after 16 days, the first boy is finally out. he's immediately rushed into a waiting ambulance. >> everyone was like -- >> big relief, right? >> big relief, yes.

>> you're like, is this going to happen a second time, is this going to happen a third time? i really hope i don't get the bad news. then it's like, child three's up, he's breathing, he's well. >> translator: the third and the fourth came out at 7:40 and 7:50. today was very successful. >> reporter: bynightfall, the next day more boys trade the darkness of the cave for a star lit night. minutes ago we saw the seventh and eighth ambulances bringing the most precious cargo -- >> reporter: but this is not mission accomplished. four boys and the coach are still sleeping inside the cave that night. >> the pressure was really on. the expectation was we would get them all out. >> reporter: after pulling the soccer coach through the most dangerous part of the cave's flooded section, in his first rescue today, mallenson hands him off to another diver and goes back to chamber nine to grab the last boy, a 13-year-old nicknamed mark.

>> he's a really small child. >> reporter: mallenson encounters what could be a fatal flaw. mark is too small for the diving mask brought in for him. >> there was a big gap under his chin. we couldn't get it to seal. >> reporter: remember, a leaking seal means the boy could drown. so with the clock ticking and the final child already sedated, they decide to use a different mask. it's not perfect either. but it might form a tight seal around the boy's face. >> we knew we didn't have any more time. we knew this was the last option. >> reporter: mallenson is now laser-focused on keeping that mask on the boy's face. >> i developed a technique where i'd pull him in really tight with his head just down here, and i'd extend my head over the top of his. so my head hit the wall first and sort of protect his head. >> how many times do you think you hit your head that day? >> dozens. >> reporter: mallenson, slow going with mark, emerges. it's the end of the 18-day drama that captivated the world.

from their beds, the boys and their coach dispatch messages of gratitude. >> now i'm very fine. i'm very thank you so carefully -- thank you so much. >> there were other people on that rescue, i think they thought of navy s.e.a.l.s that went into the chamber and stayed with them to the end, i think they're a better classification of heroes. >> translator: finally everyone is happy. the people of thailand are happy. the people of the world are happy. so i consider this an operation that the world will never forget. next, an impossible mission calls for an astonishing woman. why angela bassett says her storied career has only just begun. woman 1: proof of less joint pain... woman 2: ...and clearer skin. woman 3: this is my body of proof. man 2: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis...

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actress angela bassett has been known for a biographical portrayal of important after after wom african-american women. as a voice for empowerment and equality, she can count herself one of them. tonight abc's marci gonzalez asked angela for the secret to her decades of success. >> reporter: she was tina turner in "what's love got to do with it." ♪ the queen of wakanda in "black panther." >> it is your time. >> reporter: and perhaps most iconic, torching her cheating husband's car in "waiting to exhale." angela bassett has been playing

bad-ass women for more than 30 years. >> cathartic. everything was safe, but that fire is still hot. upon reading that i felt like there was such a freedom in her letting go, of her coming into herself, and that was the culmination of it. >> reporter: that scene resonating with women everywhere. becoming a viral gif on social media. have you seen this? >> oh. >> this is something everyone's texting around to say, all right, i'm done. i don't have to take this anymore. >> i love it. >> reporter: her star power has sustained in part because she's stayed true to herself. choosing roles that align with her values. >> as an actress, that's my purpose, to illuminate that human struggle. the strength of it, the vulnerability of it, the whole of it. that's what i'm attempting to do. with each character. >> reporter: now she's erika sloe. >> the team would be dead. >> yes, they would, that's the

job. >> reporter: head of the cia in "mission impossible: fallout." hitting theaters this weekend. >> it may be your mission, but this is the cia's plane. it doesn't take off without my say-so. >> you've never seen a face like hers in a position of this sort of authority, of power, a woman breaking through that glass ceiling. being completely brilliant and capable. as they say, timing is everything. i've come along at a really good time, and i managed to sustain it and be consistent with the work. >> reporter: she's played historical african-american i cons. >> hello, betty? >> brother malcolm. >> reporter: betty in "malcolm x," and "rosa parks." she credits her ability to channel these strong women back to the strong woman who raised her. >> you know, i was raised by strong black mother, single mother, just doing the best that she can. i am attempting to raise a strong woman in my daughter,

br bronwyn, and a strong son as well. >> reporter: she says she hasn't been asked to audition for a film since the '90s, much to do with her performance in "what's love got to do with it?" >> it was frightening but that's the exciting part. i couldn't dance like her, i couldn't sing like her. but i had to find it. and there were wonderful people around me who helped to get me there. it pulled more out of me than i even knew i had. >> what was that scene or that moment where you looked and said, oh, wow, that's tina? >> i think it was "proud mary." ♪ proud mary keep on running >> reporter: since then bassett says the industry has experienced a major shift in roles for african-american women. >> you know, we didn't see a "black panther" 10 years ago, 20 years ago. >> when you signed on to do that movie, did you have any idea the phenomenon it would become? >> no. no, no, no. no idea that it would be such a tsunami of love.

it was just -- exhilarating. exhilarating. >> we have entertained them for too long. >> to see yourself, you know, as an african-american or a person of color represented from young girls to mature women, to see just the beauty of their color in every shade and form and hair fashion. the variety and the mystique. >> reporter: wakanda happening simultaneously alongside the revolution of "me too" and "time's up." >> i'm happy about this moment in time for women. i'm happy that "me too" is in the forefront. that women are speaking their truths. they're speaking up. they're not hiding. >> this halloween a bunch of grown men in rubber masks playing trick or treat? >> reporter: "mission impossible," she's cast alongside heavyweights henry cavill and tom cruise. she said two conditions had to be met before she accepted.

the first conversation with the director, you asked two questions. what were they? >> do i die? a lot of times the black character in the past, you never make it to the end. the second question was, am i a rube? are you going to make me look stupid? because that's not what i'm interested in. >> reporter: many in awe of how the poised bassett can juggle it all. married to actor courtney b. vance for over two decades, the mother of two children, a living example of the modern working woman. >> sometimes it's difficult, sometimes you feel like you're on the, you know, on the edge, you know. they've been doing their thing, it's school and plays and whatever, and you missed this play, you missed that soccer game. but when you're in there, make that time count. kiss theirr: aunbelievably, icon agelewh is thesecret? >> i use everything, i of a so

many possessitions and lotions. i try them all and hope they do what they say they do. and jen naticks. >> reporter: as for the future? what's next for you? >> what's next? lots, i hope, you know? i want to continue to work, do work that inspires me. >> is there a particular type of role that you're really hoping to get to play? >> oh, i want to play such a bad girl. such a bad, really do. i've been good for far too long. now it's time to be evil. >> oh, yes. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm marci gonzalez in los angeles. and next, now you know why your drain was clogged. how did this bear get so down in so, dave here is taking the family

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and finally tonight, you might call it extreme burrowing. okay, who flushed the bear?

colorado springs parks and wildlife workers finding this black bear stuck in a storm drain. trapped for about an hour before a nearby manhole cover was removed. and the plus-sized sewer swimmer climbed out and scampered away, returning to the woods smellier than your average bear. thank you for watching "nightline." as always, we're online on our "nightline" facebook page. thanks for the company, america. have a good weekend.