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Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

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Chapter 25 -- Radio Days and Saturday Matinees<br />

Detective Dee and the Mystery <strong>of</strong> the Phantom Flame<br />

(2010) features Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau as the<br />

sleuth charged with unmasking the mastermind behind a<br />

series <strong>of</strong> spontaneous human combustion murders, circa<br />

689.<br />

To the right, Lau ventures on an underground river,<br />

And we have the claustrophobic movies. In The Cave (2005),<br />

underwater explorers are summoned to Romania's Carpathian<br />

Mountains to investigate a mysterious river. Cutting-edge<br />

breathing gear gets unpacked, camaraderie and budding<br />

romances develop, and then everyone becomes trapped in the<br />

depths where monsters begin to pick <strong>of</strong>f the cast, one by one.<br />

In Sanctum (2011), cave divers trapped when a portion <strong>of</strong> the<br />

cave system collapses face a life or death struggle as they seek a<br />

route through unexplored recesses <strong>of</strong> the cavern.<br />

Sanctum opens with a promising note "inspired by true events,"<br />

the story being loosely based on that <strong>of</strong> the 1988 exploration <strong>of</strong><br />

the southern Australian Cocklebiddy 6.5-kilometer underground<br />

river system in having three sumps.<br />

The real-life Sanctum explorers were several kilometers into the tunnels when the entrance<br />

collapsed due to rainwater accumulation. Seven explorers escaped immediately. Thirteen were<br />

trapped deep inside as water slowly filled the rock traps. Thanks to a handheld radio, those<br />

who'd escaped provided mapping support to those yet within. After a 24-hour ordeal, an<br />

alternative passageway was found and within another 6 hours, all got out safely.<br />

Conclusion, The <strong>Underground</strong> River in Fiction<br />

In this chapter, we've made but a small point: the entertainment industry regularly pipes<br />

underground rivers in our direction.<br />

DRAFT 1122//66//22001122<br />

Uppddaatteess aatt hhttttpp::////www. .uunnm. .eedduu//~rrhheeggggeenn//UnnddeerrggrroouunnddRi ivveerrss. .hhttml l<br />

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