In the media promos for the latest monetising of the Pike River Mine explosion by way of film that took the lives of 29 men 15 years ago next November, plenty on Robin Malcolm and Melanie Lynskey playing Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osborne, one Osborne widowed by the explosion the other losing a son and having a second son delivered by a miracle..
No mention yet who will play Angry Andy Little the Union rep for many of the now dead who just weeks before the blow gave an opinion the Mine was safe? Then there was the Mine “Safety” manager a Mr Neville Rockhouse who failed to understand there were many breaches of safety rules over certain objects being taken underground, Gas detectors being covered, and other rather significant rumoured danger signals that to a decent operative may well have led to the Mine being shut down either temporarily or permanently.

Then there were other matters glossed over in the preparation of the mine and its structure that appeared to have acknowledged the Department of Conservation was rather too prominent. Such as the upslope entry tunnel that precluded any gravitational gas relief, the one single alternative exit via a vertical vent that did not allow ingress or egress from the depths of the mine. The unique plcing of the extraction fans assembly being within the Mine instead of externally to mitigate any spark from igniting gas.
Add in the placing of a policeman as the controller of any rescue attempt that many miners considered may have been possible after the explosion may have emptied much of the gas danger in the immediate aftermath vetoed by the Policeman while many “Mine rescue personal were denied entry.

No this film will be a Malcolmesque portrayal of the drama of the personal losses with veiled references to mine management and ownership being entirely responsible for the multitude of factors that in hind sight made the disaster firmly in the “when not if” category while portraying those now dead who did not accept responsibility for any part in leading the Mine to blow, as victims only.