The Vanishing is a 2018 British thriller directed by Kristoffer Nyholm.
The movie is based on the real-life case of The Flannan Isles Mystery, concerning the disappearance of three lighthouse keepers under strange circumstances.
In the movie, three men, Donald (Connor Swindells), James (Gerard Butler) and Thomas (Peter Mullan) are sent to take care of a lighthouse. One day, a man washes ashore with a mysterious chest and things go south.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Ending: Thomas' ultimate fate is not revealed. All we know is that he is never heard from him again, but whether he followed James into the sea, or made off alone with the gold is left open to interpretation.
- Ambiguous Situation: Was James driven mad purely by his accidental killing of the young boy, or was he suffering from mercury poisoning? Or both?
- Battle Discretion Shot: After getting Thomas out of the way, James turns back with murderous intent towards Donald, who suddenly becomes terrified. The camera then cuts to Thomas as he struggles to get out of the locked pantry as scuffling noises are heard. By the time he finally busts the door down, he sees that James has already strangled Donald.
- Because I Said So: Donald finds the body of a man at the bottom of the shore, and Thomas tells him to go down and check on the situation. Donald asks him why, to which Thomas replies, "Because I told you to."
- Burial at Sea: A lot people die and are disposed of in the sea around the lighthouse. That includes Donald and James.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Donald crushes the head of one of the invaders, Locke, by repeatedly knotting a length of rope around it.
- Death of a Child: One of the invaders that James kills turns out to be a young boy and he is distraught by it.
- Decoy Protagonist: The three main characters are a bitter old man, a self-centred youth, and a strapping, good-natured family man. The latter is not the hero.
- Downer Ending: After Donald dies and his body is thrown to the sea, James says he can't live with his actions and decides to end his life. Unable to kill himself by drowning, he needs Thomas to help him keep his head below the water. Thomas is left alone in the sea, his fate unknown.
- Driven to Suicide: James is left broken and insane by the sudden violence that has engulfed him, and cannot comprehend returning to his family. His murder of Donald is the final straw, and he chooses to join him in the sea after disposing of his body there.
- Foreshadowing:
- Thomas gives Donald an unusually detailed description of how woolding can be used as a torture device.
- James informs Donald to be careful around a mercury leak in the lighthouse, as exposure can drive a man mad. Later in the film James sits alone in the tower, seemingly unaware of a pool of mercury near his feet.
- Freudian Trio: Donald is Id, Thomas is Ego and James is Superego.
- Go to Your Room!: Donald starts a fight with James, to which Thomas arrives to break them up, and orders the latter with this trope. Not that he's actually his son, but this is an older man telling a young adult this.
- Greed: The chest of gold found by the wrecked lifeboat is what the plot hinges on. The protagonists' fate is ultimately sealed from the moment they decide to keep it for themselves.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Boor (one of the antagonists) calls out to James before hitting him in the face with a piece of wood.
- Hope Spot: Just when it seems as though James is finally going to snap due to his delusions, he just apologizes for his recent paranoid behavior, and all seems finally well. But then they are preparing dinner, and James locks Thomas in the pantry, then kills Donald.
- Inspired by…: The movie was inspired by real events, according to the opening.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Locke does this towards Thomas to try and make him reveal where he hid the gold.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Donald is forced to kill the strange man with a rock when he is trying to drown him. While he is shell shocked afterward, Thomas tells him that this was his only option.
- Minimalist Cast: Three protagonists, three antagonists and a handful of bit characters mostly seen in the introductory scenes. Eight of the ten credited actors have dialogue.
- Mirror Monologue: After Jack unwittingly kills a boy, he becomes distressed. This leads to him talking to himself in remorse with the lighthouse glass in front of him. An eavesdropping Thomas is understandably unnerved by this display.
- Not Quite Dead: When Donald finds the seemingly dead man washed ashore, he is told to go down there and make sure, to which he finds that he does not seem to be breathing. But when he turns around to ask the other two men to bring him back up, the man stands up and reveals himself to still be alive, and attacks Donald from behind. It is with this struggle that the man actually does die.
- Right Behind Me: As James starts to lose his mind, Donald talks with Thomas to perhaps get on a boat with the gold and leave James on the island. But the door nearby opens and an upset James enters, having heard enough to know that Donald does not trust him. This is what leads to James killing him.
- Suspicious Spending: Thomas emphasizes that they shouldn't start spending more money after they've sold the gold, since it will lead to questions about where they got the money.
