That one I felt like I understood: the stakes were so high that they couldn’t take a 1/1000000 chance of it failing. Every second they stayed there monitoring it meant that they might be able to affect the outcome. Something something “they cared” something, willing to bet their futures for the next decade or so and even lives to prevent the bad. But ofc at the end of the day they are stories, meant to tear-jerk at our emotions, not teach us strategic tips for our own day-to-day living:-).