History Film / Missing2023

** When June's friend impersonates Kevin to recover a password to one of his accounts, the support technician reveals the existing password instead of helping to reset it to something new. In real life, this is not only a security risk (for ''exactly'' the reason depicted), but it's actually impossible in most cases.

* AdaptedOut: [[spoiler:Done InUniverse to Javi when "''Unfiction''" does an episode on Grace's disappearance.]]

** Logging in to somebody's Google account from a new device usually triggers an extra layer of security by phone or identifying information. However, June is able to access Kevin's account from her laptop (which she'd presumably never done before) with only the password.

** Logging in to somebody's Google account from a new device usually triggers an extra layer of security, but June is able to access Kevin's account with only the password.

** When June revisits Kevin's message to see the photos that he sent her, she rechecks the photos of he and her mother Grace having a trip in Colombia. June then notices that her mother's face is hidden and the first photo is live. When June plays the live photo of her mother looking at the plane, we see in the live photo that her mother slowly turns to look at the camera, revealing her to be [[spoiler: a different woman who Kevin is seemingly having an affair with, meaning that June's mother Grace was never there and the actress that Kevin hired was imprisoning Grace during the trip]].

* EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler:James Allen]] to ''Searching'''s David Kim. [[spoiler:Both are {{KnightTemplarParent}}s who spy on their daughters' computers to try and find them. David is doing it after Margot is presumably kidnapped and attacked. James is doing it out of violent possessiveness, having abused and kidnapped his wife in revenge and to get at his daughter.]]

* ChekhovsGun: The Apple Watch. One of June's friends forgets his during the party in the beginning, and asks her several times for it back. [[spoiler:June ends up using it twice. Once when she goes to confront Heather, she uses it as an improvised recording device. She uses it again in the climax to contact Javi to get him to call the police. However, she's able to call the police separately before his call goes through.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: Two:

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Whereas David Kim was a father searching for his daughter, June is a young woman looking for her mother.

** As in ''Film/Searching'', the main character receives a message from producer [[CreatorCameo Sev Ohanian]] that spoils the plot twist. When June is texting Angel about the Apple Watch, the preview of Sev's message to her says, [[spoiler:"It's obvious: your mom's been lying to you. Your dad isn't dead, he's..."]]

** Other than that, there is a metric trainload of extra information and trivia about characters that's just scrolled through during the whole movie... unless of course you pause and read it all during the convenient intervals where the screens ''aren't'' scrolling.

* FreezeFrameBonus: As in ''Searching'', the main character receives a message from producer [[CreatorCameo Sev Ohanian]] that spoils the plot twist. When June is texting Angel about the Apple Watch, the preview of Sev's message to her says, [[spoiler:"It's obvious: your mom's been lying to you. Your dad isn't dead, he's..."]]

** Towards the end of the second act, June finds [[spoiler:Heather's]] number was used [[spoiler:in the encrypted text app]], leading June to suspect their involvement in Grace's disappearance. [[spoiler:Heather ends up murdered before June can confront her. It then later turns out Heather was actually being blackmailed and trying to help protect June. [[spoiler: She had previously arranged for Grace and June to move from Texas to California under new identities after James' arrest.]]

* RecursiveCanon: InUniverse. The events of the film ''Film/{{Searching}}'' were adapted into an episode of a Netflix TrueCrime series called "''Unfiction''", with June watching a clip from the show and then going to a website noting changes made for the show, including a picture of Creator/JohnCho as the "real" David Kim, next to the in-universe actor. [[spoiler: June ends up watching an episode of the series adapting the events of the movie, with Jasmin Savoy Brown playing her.]]

** While June is in full DeceasedParentsAreTheBest mode in regards to her late father, [[spoiler: him being alive and a vicious abuser who tries to murder her and Grace naturally puts a bit of a damper on that.]]

** ''Siri'' of all things. June made fun of Grace for using Siri for everything on her phone, [[spoiler:but in the end, June uses Siri to call 911 after realizing the security app in her childhood home is still opened on her laptop next to her phone.]]

* {{Foil}}: James Allen to ''Searching'''s Pam Kim, both of whom are the [[DisappearedDad missing]] [[MissingMom parent]] of their movie's respective main teen characters. Where they differ is in their characterizations. [[spoiler:Pam Kim actually ''did'' die of cancer prior to the film's events and was a straight example of DeceasedParentsAreTheBest, from what we see of her through David and Margot's videos of her. In stark contrast, James not only never died or even had cancer, he was also a violently abusive drug addict who orchestrated Grace's abduction, tried to kill her, and was possibly willing to do the same to June if she didn't go along with his plans]].

* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: Referenced by an online commentor after details implicating Grace come out, accusing the media of only caring about Grace's disappearance once it became suspected that she might be a suspect in some kind of criminal doings.

* PoliceAreUseless: Subverted. June ''thinks'' they are, but it is shown that FBI agent Elijah Park is actually highly competent, and it is shown that he reaches most of the same conclusions as June, ''without'' using her illegal investigation methods.

** Towards the end of the second act, June finds [[spoiler:Heather's]] number was used [[spoiler:in the encrypted text app]], leading June to suspect their involvement in Grace's disappearance. [[spoiler:Heather ends up murdered before June can confront her. It then later turns out Heather was actually being blackmailed and trying to help protect June.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: When June hacks into several of Kevin's accounts, she shows the information she gathers to Agent Park, presuming he can use to find and investigate Kevin. However he informs her that the FBI can't operate with the information she gave them because she obtained it illegally and thus it cannot be used in building a case against him.

** The Apple Watch. One of June's friends forgets his during the party in the beginning, and asks her several times for it back. [[spoiler:June ends up using it twice. Once when she goes to confront Heather, she uses it as an improvised recording device. She uses it again in the climax to contact Javi to get him to call the police. However, she's able to call the police separately before his call goes through.]]

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''Missing'' is a American mystery thriller film written and directed by Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick. The film stars Creator/StormReid, Creator/NiaLong, Creator/JoaquimDeAlmeida, Creator/KenLeung, Creator/AmyLandecker, and Creator/DanielHenney.

* DarkerAndEdgier: To its thematic prequel, ''Searching''. ''Missing'' is more violent and the central antagonist, as opposed to the callous but desperate Detective Vick and her son, is [[spoiler: a genuinely malicious abuser who seeks to kidnap, and later kill, his wife and daughter.]]

* OnceMoreWithClarity: The opening scene features the voices of people close to Grace offering condolences after [[spoiler:James's supposed death. Once his true nature is revealed, the voices are heard again, but they are more comments of sympathy and concern over her escaping James's abuse. Likewise the opening scene with James having the bloody nose was not a symptom of a brain tumor but instead from his drug use]].

* BrokenPedestal: While June is originally a fan of the true crime show "''Unfiction''", [[spoiler:she loses any respect for it after they make an episode about Grace's kidnapping.]]

* ContinuityNod: June is a fan of a TrueCrime show called "''Unfiction''". InUniverse it turns out that ''Film/Searching'' was an episode of such and June is seen watching a clip from the actual events.

** Towards the end of the second act, June finds [[spoiler:Heather's]] number was used [[spoiler:in the encrypted text app]], leading June to suspect their involvement in Grace's disappearance. [[spoiler:Heather ends up murdered before June can confront her. It then later turns out Heather was actually being blackmailed and trying to help protect June]]

** ZigZagged to hell and back with Kevin: first, [[spoiler: June discovers that he has a history of, and has served time in prison for, faking his identity to scam women out of their money.]] But then it turns out that he came clean to Grace about his past and the police testify that he'd served his parole and was using his legal name, which seems to clear him, especially when [[spoiler: it seems he and Grace get kidnapped by a third party.]] However, it ''then'' turns out that [[spoiler: the "Grace" that arrived in Colombia wasn't Grace at all, just a body double]] which puts the onus back on Kevin, at least until [[spoiler: he's gunned down by police.]] Eventually it turns out that [[spoiler: while Kevin wasn't the mastermind behind Grace's disappearance, he was working with the person who was.]] Whew!

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: [[spoiler:In the end, Grace looks pretty good all things considered for having spent two weeks locked in a filthy shack in Nevada.]]

%%* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Whereas David Kim was a father searching for his daughter, June is a young woman looking for her mother.

** While June is in full DeadParentsAreTheBest mode in regards to her late father, [[spoiler: him being alive and a vicious abuser who tries to murder her and Grace naturally puts a bit of a damper on that.

* RecursiveCanon: InUniverse the film ''Film/Searching2018'' starring John Cho was an episode of a netflix series called "''Unfiction''", with June watching a clip from the "real" events. [[spoiler: June ends up watching an episode of the series adapting the events of the movie, with Jasmin Savoy Brown playing her.]]

* ContinuityNod: June is a fan of a TrueCrime show called "''Unfiction''". The first episode we see is a dramatized recreation of the events of the film ''Film/{{Searching}}'', and June is shown to have looked up the differences between the recreation and the reality of what happened.