MovieChat Forums > Disappearance (2002) Discussion > Discuss the ending

Discuss the ending

posted 20 years ago by avallaunius
74 replies | jump to latest

What an annoying ending, to actually make me spend time having to think about it.
Is anyone is still around who wants to discuss the facts in an open minded way?
If you just want to state your own cast-iron opinion, please make your own thread.
Sorry this is long, but I had to try and put some reasoning for my views. Rather than just making unfounded claims.

First, what points can we assume?

1) The Enemy
i)The enemy creatures are not normal humans. We know this because they live in underground mines and do not come out in sunlight.
ii) Their appearrance must be horrid, but not devastatingly so, we can tell this from the reactions of the victims who see them (on the video and at the very start).
iii)They have a below average understanding of technology, we know this because they horde stolen flashlights, but are not smart enough to use the car batteries for similar purposes.
iv) They are sentimental in nature (despite being killers) as they also horde childrens` toys. This also suggests that they have children.

Now, it seems to me that aliens capable of interstellar flight would;
be so hideous as to cause a greater reaction in the victims,
have a greater grasp of technology than simply pinching flashlights,
have no interest in human childrens` toys.
Likewise, ghosts would petrify the people who saw them, would not need lights or toys etc.
Those two ruled out, I am in favour of mutants.

2) Bodyswapping.
It certainly seems like there is some bodyswapping going on.
i) the dead girl is apparently working at the restaurant.
ii)The Dad`s admiration for the mororcyles matches that of the old man`s admiration for the car.
iii) Those kids act very strangely at the end.

If we can assume both mutants and body swapping, the question is, how do a bunch of dumb mutants manage to swap bodies?
My answer is- occult methods. In other words black magic.
i) They find what is probably meant to be a human skin, which has been decorated with occult markings. Could this be a primitive form of body swapping that was later improved? If not it still shows us a link between `the symbol` and the shedding of skin.
ii) They crazy guy is taken to the place where `the symbol` is made from cars, apparently for some kind of ritual. The cop knows to take him there, and the crazy man knows what will happen there. It is obviously a place where rituals of some kind are performed.

Questions I cant figure out:
How did they learn this magic?
What actually happened to the boy in the desert? Magic?
If the lady was such a big shot editor, somebody would come and look for her and start at the last place she was heard from (she made a phone call from the diner) and then see her unaccountably working there as a waitress. At which point surely the game would be up for our gang of freaks?
Why use cars to make the occult symbol?

[–] KatanaSeath 18 years ago

Your question as to why they made the symbol out of cars...well, oviusly the symbol is important to who ever is doing this, and there are a few cars in the ton...gussing that OTHER people have been here...so, they do SOMTHING to these people(diner inployee...maybe) then takes the cars to that place, like they did with the family's car

[–] lavendarmist 18 years ago

ok, just a few little side points i thought of:
-when the ladys recording herself, a blue glowing hand grabs the camcorder.
maybe that blue glow keeps tem from being seen in light?

-but really for some odd reason, it made me think of star trek(or star wars?) i dont watch them much, but i think it was the strang darth-vader type breathing that triggered that. somehow dont the bad guys suck life out of people? could the mutians in this move have the same ability(but let them stay barely-alive for some reason? hopefully thats understandable

- the new graves- im not buying all this body swaping stuff, although it could be they want to look like normal humans and take over the world?? i though the graves were for thire own kind that had died.

-overall i thought the movie was great, untill shortly after they got the car going, just to many possiblitys left to your own imagination...to overwhelming.

-also what happened to the previos dinner staff? were they "set free" from whatever had them brainwashed?

[–] michellelant 18 years ago

"also what happened to the previos dinner staff? were they "set free" from whatever had them brainwashed?"

My thoughts on that are that the mutants swap skins. The skins that they originally found in the ghost town could have been the skins from the people before the most recent tourists. Such as: Jim and Patty take on the personalities of the people that they'd previously seen in town, perhaps the used skins of the old man and waitress are now in the ghost town?

And I don't think they're primitive to the point that they don't understand technology -- I think they "reject" technology (they seem to know enough about cars, phonelines, et al, to know how to render them useless)

Also, a lot comes from "worshipping" -- the mutants (or whatever they were) seem to worship the symbol, and the town locals offer sacrifices, such as Lester (when I saw this part, my first reaction was that they sacrificed Lester to get Ethan back).

A lot of symbolism seems to come out of the pictures taken... I get the feeling that this is somehow connected with the video taken.

Like most of the people here lol, I missed the first half hour, though apparently that's not missing much. I think this is one of those movies where the more you watch it, the more you'll start to understand. I don't think I intend to ever watch this again though, hahaha.

Oh, who am I kidding. I'm desperate to see the beginning.

[–] bertonorr 18 years ago

Confusion...

I, like a few others here, have just watched this film "disappearance" on TBS this morning. There is no doubt in my mind that they are as confused, distraught, and baffled as I. (Perhaps even angry.)

Highlights to decipher: 1) The intelligent/angry cloud of dust 2) The heavy breathing, very nazal and incredibly fast creature. 3) The symbol found on the skin on the wall, shaped from the vehicles, etc. 4) Collection of personal items found in the pit 5) The plane which crashed into the feild 6) The 6 hour journey in one direction which led the protagonist back to the ghost town of Weaver 7) The virtually untouched goods and lack of vehicle tracks/footprints in the town 8) The townfolks negelct of the town's very existance 9) The food (overlooked)

Logic / no explanations can possibly be reached without kidnapping the writer and turning his home into a ghostly one.

1: The cloud of dust clearly encompasses some sort of supernatural abilities.
a) It clearly follows as well as swarms the protagonist when he attempts to escape
b) It is seen in the distance coming towards the town, the gas station attendent seems to look upon it with no suprise what-so-ever with an eerie comforted expression.

conclusion: How could any former human perhaps turned mutant control a mass of sand and munipulate it to perform its deeds? This suggests that whatever the evil force is, has some sort of supernatural / environmental control.

2: The glimpse of light shed on the antagonist.
no tracks, suggests either flight ability, a spirit, or some very interesting shoes.
Heavy breathing, this offers us the fact of which the antagonist posesses a body (lungs, respiration of sorts to function)
The mobility of the creature; clearly in-human, appears to travel by ground while leaving no trace, is able to intercept a ford excursion travelling highway speed (possibly destroys the theory of the object which flips the car being 'lester'.)

conclusion: The antagonist has a functioning body of sorts (spirits do not need to support cellular respiration), however does not create tracks, yet travels with extreme speed by ground; suggesting an uncomprehendable creature. Perhaps it is one simple former indian spirit which travels from body to body (crow to raven) *Natives are known to have exception skills for avoiding track detection and knowledge oriented with environmental tricks. additionally, the 'art' in the car yard resembled somewhat of a dream-catcher design.

3: This symbol nearly resembles a mushroom cloud from an explosion of an atom bomb of sorts. It is clearly warshipped, whatever it may be, which again suggests the supernatural.

Conclusion: Indians are known for collecting skins, warshipping the environement, and posessing a stealth ability of many, many years. Primitive in technology (limited understanding of bombs), and also known for strange medicinal knowledge (mind wiping, although perhaps the people suffer from severe trauma) and art (the somewhat ancient looking art-work which lacks modern style/expertise. Again supports the theory of the town being built over an ancient burial ground, and the stalker being a native spirit.

4: The items found in the pit which the female (Dey) stumbled upon could suggest a number of things. a) They were collected to detour any passer-bys from being overly suspicious therefore leaving upon arrival & further investigating with force essentially disturbing the antagonists playground b) The antagonist is sentimental ( previously mentioned in an earlier post ) as the lurker took a peice of clothing belonging to the little girl while the family was sleeping (this suggests option b over a, as there is no need to pre-emptively destroy such little evidence)

Conclusion: The antagonist has emotional ties to the human race, possibly its past or hopeful future. (An alien, having lost its ship, could have created the sign of cars to signal as an SOS. Being intelligent, could have resided in caves to avoid detection and disectation as well as brainwash the town to avoid the same end. This could also explain the lack of tracks and environmental manipulation. ( I still believe that it is meant to be the indian spirit from prior findings, however it could be some sort of combination.) Why I sided with the alien theory? : Why would an indian 'spirit' need to live in a cave? Apart from taking on other bodies, why would it need to breathe? Or even use other bodies? The video recording found early in the movie clearly shows the female seeing the creature and being frightened, which proves visability. Spirits are supposed to be invisible unless of course the spirit was in a terrorizing body snatched from a prior victim.

5: The plane which crashed into the field must have had some meaning to the plot. Possibly just to create the eerie sense that direction and possibly time is altered in that area. Compasses do not work, cell phones do not work, the plane could've been brought down by a combination of the manipulated dust winds and inability to bear direction in flight. Why bring it down? Sight of the town? Food? Human body vessels for transport? Perhaps all of those reasons.

6: I have no explanation or theory for this. Either they somehow backtracked accidentally, or ...actually there is no other logical explanation. Unless the town of weaver itself is mobile, or the protagonist and Ethan walk incredibly slow and have no sense of time and suffered from heat stroke.

7: No tracks, covered earlier, untouched goods: suggests that the antagonist has no need for money, regular food, or furniture. Against telling the audience this is not a human. This is either an astranged alien, or an indian spirit whom travels from body to body for no known reason.

8: The townfolks neglect of the existance of weaver suggests that either they have all suffered from extreme trauma and long term memory loss, or b) their memories were wiped by a supernatural force, or c) They are so enlightened by whatever the antagonistic force is, that they come to understand it and warship it. What I don't understand, is why the townfolk clearly know of it's existance, and early on make an attempt to stop them from going there. If they are feeding this creatures needs and every whim, why try to stop the visiters verses encourage them?

9: The food. This was something nobody has mentioned. The boys were confused as to what type of meat it was. Perhaps human? Or perhaps the former human dwellers are overcome by an external force which had taken over their body and lacked cooking skills. Either way, the people in this town cannot cook, for an unknown reason.

I have taken a lot of time to write this, and I hope it inspires people comment on it. Please share your thoughts. And if anyone finds a way to contact the writer please do and let me know.

[–] michellelant 18 years ago

I think something else overlooked were the animals.
There was an "owl" (although we never found out if it was actually an owl?), there was a snake (though it appeared to be an unusual snake), and then there was the crow/raven.
This has to mean SOMETHING, right? I'm sure they didn't throw a few random animals into the plot for good measure, haha.

This is such an incredibly random movie, with an incredibly annoying plot.
Bertonorr, you approached it from a unique position; you didn't just assume it was the work of mutants.

Now, the more I think of it, the indian theory makes much more sense.
The town being built over the burial ground, and the indians wanting revenge, sounds more plausible now.
But I think, if that were the case, there would have been more clues to naturally lead us in that direction instead of leaving us to discuss it for months on end on a message board?? Haha.

Either we're all still missing something, or the plot was poorly laid out.

[–] barrie-2 18 years ago

None of you are missing anything - it's a really poorly laid out plot. There's no indian theory, no important animal symbolism, nothing. It's a re-hash of random images and eerie music. Nothing makes any sense. Trust me. It was all thrown in for good measure - it was ALL just for atmosphere. Great cinematography though hey.

[–] agadinmar-1 18 years ago

After watching the movie I was a little confused, but I came to a conclusion, that to me, doesn’t seem to leave any extensively unexplained information out of the notion.

Who are they? -
I believe that the enemies are aliens.

Appearance-
These aliens are defiantly not humans and their appearance is obviously scary and their abilities are beyond our own. They are also strong and large enough to get hit by a car and flip it over.

What are they doing? -
They are body swapping in a plan to create outposts across the surface of our earth. The town is thus one of them. They probably want to discreetly follow through with world domination.

Funny behavior of the town-
The Aliens are using body swapping to leave their forms and to take the forms of the unfortunate people who have come upon the town. When they take their bodies they seem to not understand human emotion and subsequently act odd when they are in the form. If people do come looking for the missing people they probably will also become victims of the alien’s system or they won’t look in the town because they can’t find it.

The dust storm-
A defense to keep the town from being seen, that’s why it’s not on any recent maps, it was only on the family’s map because that was before the aliens took over the town. The airplane that was crashed to the ground was a victim of this clever defense.

The symbols-
The formation of the cars is like a crop circle to mark the land or it acts like an ocular landmark for others of their kind. Anyway, what else would they do with the cars? The cymbal painted on the skin is an imitation of it and the skin probably belonged to a human that wasn’t suitable to swap bodies with or some sick practice the aliens had.

The toys and flashlights-
They are just placed underground to remain hidden from other people who come to the town, and/or stored there because they didn't want to destroy them. This isn’t a lapse on their intelligence, just common sense. They also could have not just been left behind by people, but things that the aliens take from people in the town to set up a sequence of odd events that will freak their feature victims out. They probably like to play mind games.

Graves-
They are the alien bodies left over after body swapping or set ups to freak out the feature victims.

The crazy man in jail-
He was probably being kept to gather information before they take his body and they got angry with him after him talking to the father, so they took him to the car cymbal. The area is probably where they switch bodies or their spacecraft (I’d assume that they have one) comes to take people.

How the boy disappeared-
There seemed to be some illusions occurring. The father was probably a victim of that and the boy didn’t really disappear (only in the fathers mind) and it also explains why the father got lost and ended up back at the town. Perhaps a technique that the aliens use to keep people from leaving.

Why are they underground? –
The mineshafts probably lead to a small headquarters for the aliens that are still waiting for a human to swap bodies with. They aren’t hiding from the light just from people that will see them.

The bus? –
The bus was moved by one of the aliens if human form. They probably use aliens in human forms to follow through with their sneakier plans and actions.

Why the video camera was left in the town-
It was probably over looked, or left to freak out and play with the minds of people who will find it.

The area-
The aliens probably wanted a small town that will be easy to take over and will be unproblematic for them to start a colony in a town that won’t attract too many people who could ruin their plans, but just enough people to still collect bodies to swap with. They are starting small. The whole mining town thing isn’t a copy of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, it’s obviously the only place for the aliens to start at that period of time that will be far from a large population and in the desert where they could use the desolateness of the area. Mining towns were some of the only places like that around in that time and it would be of use to hide in the mines.

[–] DJ-Chojin 18 years ago

for a start its nothing to do with the hills have eyes!!
this is a stand alone movie no prequal to hills !!
ok we know they detonated a newtron bomb and the jail cell guy said the ppl who didnt leave hid in the mines
well for a start the army mib`s whould have got rid of any lets say problems left behind, such as the plane idea being to close to ground zero.
with the plane we know compases were efected so the plane had problems with compas at night andd flew to low and crashed.
the compass in the car went wrong east south and east then cocked up total.
we know its nothing to do with emp as batery things work cars walkmans torches.
so my idea is what if the bomb caused a bermuda triangle type efect and when you reach a part on the road you drive through this rift and can never leave and ppl cant find you there because its not realy there because its inside the rift`and the goverment knows all about it thats why no ones ever gone looking for the vanished people

[–] psilome 18 years ago

I watched the first hour in october sometime i believe.
And then the last bit just a cupple of mins ago, i cant make sense of it and i think i missed some middle bits like what you people describe as "the man in the cell" and collecting flashlights and so on.

I dont know what to believe about the movie, im inclined to think it wasnt supposed to make sense in the end, and that it was supposed to "irk" and confuse us all. Simply put; a movie to make us think way too much about it, and let ourselfs make up our own ending. [I dont know why some authors dont want us to share the original meaning and vision of the plot.]

I guess whatever he or she set out to do worked very well indeed, were discussing this endlessly and id say that makes for interesting plot even if its not good or well planned[maybe too well planned?]

[–] lightningslim 18 years ago

Well I just saw this movie in it's entirety on the Sci-fi channel(UK) and my conclusion was simply this - it's a badly written and directed TV movie with no proper resolution.
Maybe they ran out of cash and didn't film the last two pages of the script? ;o)

Mike Nightingale

[–] tinker_bell_9110 18 years ago

This movie isn't badly written and directed. I would say it was quite marvelously written considering people have been inclined to disuss all possible theories for months on end. These plots and uexplained events are all a clever ruse to make your curiosity go on overdrive therefore creating a good movie that people want to know more about. I bet the writer is sitting back in his big comfy chair reading these posts with a cigar, smirking and thinking yeah.. I really made a stir.

[–] hummerza 18 years ago

The story built up well and was thinking it would be a super finale....only to be pretty much disppointed at the anticlimax at the end, hope I don't get conned into a movie like this for a long while!!!!!!!!!!!!

[–] superturbo4 18 years ago

Damn never have i seen a imdb.com threaded post being so agreed on by everybody!

Count me in too as in just having seen it on the Sci-Fi Channel. How can something like a low budget Sci-Fi with a decent story, end on such a downer with no explanations whatsoever. While i don't agree with spoon feeding your audiences, at least throw us a friggin bone though?

What the hell happened, such a decent flick turned into such a waste by story's end cos the director clearly ran out of ideas here. I figured alot was cut cos sci-fi put it on at 11AM today. But i see all that happened was for real and nothing was cut out of the original TV movie and thats how it actually is apparently. avallaunius, i hope that you worked on the film, cos i'll have to accept whatever explanation given out here, cos the film's end didn't add anything to something that could've had a big grant ending despite being so low budget and all.

Ethan being just handed over and no mystery surrounding his sudden appearence was odd. but yes he clearly wasn't the same guy from the beginning. and the end suggests that were painly killed or taken over by mutants/aliens or its basically left to our imaginations as to what else to be quite frank about it all.

But i just wish there a version in some TV studio with 20 minutes of added bonus material waiting to be put into the real ending of this movie which wasn't too bad except for the ending. I can take downer endings in films, but not ones that look like the movie was actually a university graduate's final exam test movie final etc with the added bonus of having S.A.G. actors given to him at the last moment etc etc?

Yeah i feel conned cos i actually cared about the characters (B-movie acting and all or not) and wanted to solve the mystery of the town. Pity its end was soo crap though! Tagging us along for 90 minutes then handing out that kind of ending is crime and thensome.

And nobody listened to the little girl who concerns should've been heard! Drive to the next damn town THEN come back for Ethan? *sigh* ah well. Alot of drama, but no payoff? = poor effort. Did the actors even read the script and watch the dailies? aww man, this had potential but it was sooooo wasted and thensome. Was it meant to be horror, sci-fi, adventure, a thriller even? we may never know but it was neither of the listed genre's i've brought up though.

They should remake this for the big screen but fix all the errors here.

ST4

"He is one, we are three, it is the strength of three that will defeat him...together. General Zod"

[–] I_Troll_The_Living 17 years ago

exactly.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Purple_Horizons 18 years ago

What about the Nuclear Bomb? Is that what the mutants are all about then? People who are victims of the bomb?

[–] nexus6-11 18 years ago

No, No, it was the film that bombed... WE are the victims! :-D

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] collieswiss 17 years ago

I always figured its a conspiracy and they family suffered Brain damage from the accident... after all the people they met were not mentally right in the head- hence Brain DAMAGE ....

[–] sillyraychillie 17 years ago

I just saw this movie today and like some people I understood it until the ending. I think this town has a continuous cycle just like in the skeleton key. At the end of the skeleton key the two voodoo people always take over bodys of people who come to that house. It seems like each time new tourists come through they take over their bodys.

It was a really strange movie but I quite enjoyed the thrill

[–] maelwyn 16 years ago

The enemies in this story are NOT MUTANTS. The enemies are a form of demon (which explains the occult symbols and the taste in decor around the town) who originally possessed the resourcefull but deliciously isolated and deformed inhabitants of the town who were affected by the weapons-testing. When new physical bodies wandered into their midsts, they would swap out the mutated bodies for the new and improved versions. This explains the graves and the obviously possessed individuals in nearby civilized areas. With new bodies, these creatures increased their mobility, control, and availability of new host forms. The collections of various items doesn't really appear to be nostgalgia (due to the wide variety of items), but rather a collection of trophies. I also realize that everyone who views this film will interpret all the facts in different ways due to the wonders of imagination. But this movie never seemed a big mystery to me and my answer always seemed obvious to me.

[–] lathe-of-heaven 15 years ago

Okay, first and foremost, I think it's bloody awesome that this film has evoked so much discussion! Secondly, PLEASE all of you who just abruptly conclude and say 'It was obviously a poorly done or poorly laid out film', okay, granted that is your opinion, but personally, and I have seen and have collected thousands of films, many of them of this mysterious / horror type genre, and let me tell you, for basically a low key TELEFILM for God's sake, this was one of the most mysteriously written and executed BRILLIANT films that I have ever seen. To do so MUCH with so little!

Notice too my reason for stating this so passionately, what is the VERY thing that J.J. Abrams uses to blow everyone away, not to say REALLY pull them into a story...? MYSTERY, friggin' UNEXPLAINED MYSTERY... Get it!!? To me, the whole brilliance of the story is that it does NOT explain what happened. Talk about sparking the imagination! THAT is what I'm talking about!!!

Now, I'm surprised that no one has really mentioned this yet, and if I missed it I humbly apologize, but I truly got the impression from the government involvement originally with the neutron weapon, and all the possible after effects, it strikes me with the towns complicity and such that there may be some serious X-Files Bad @ss government experimentation / mind control going on here. Why the photographs taken of the bikers as they arrive? All the arial shots in conjunction with the crow and the weird interaction between the crow and the girl at the end? The 'prisoner' did mention about Area 51 and government experimentation, so I do feel that that is a strong possibility, which might explain their using the mutated people / offspring, the obvious mind-control, the towns people's complicity, etc...

Just a thought...

Again, friggin' AWESOME film!!! Without being too 'Artsy', too extreme, and obviously not too forthcoming in explanations. THIS my friends is the kind of film that sets my mind afire and gets me going!!!

Excellent topic, BTW!!!

ILOVEtrading films!I've got a HUGE..uh..collection!Please ask!

____L@th3

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] lathe-of-heaven 14 years ago

Sure, there you go

See... It's called 'IMAGINATION'...

ILOVEtrading films!I've got a HUGE..uh..collection!Please ask!

____L@th3

[–] aldiboronti 8 years ago

Yeah, JJ Abrams uses mystery and uses it well. The difference between his stuff and this movie? When you reach the end of a JJ Abrams show you have some idea of what you've just seen. With this film you have none. (Hence the arguments as to what it was about.)

You know, I have a feeling even the writers didn't know. They just said to hell with it, leave it up in the air, at least people will talk about it then.

Lazy plotting and an indifferent movie.

[–] lathe-of-heaven 8 years ago

NO... just simply an open-ended film, that's all...

If you personally don't like those kind (and there are a LOT of people who truly do not...) then fine. But, just because they clearly left it mysterious does not, in my lowly and wretched opinion, automatically make the writing 'Lazy and indifferent'

If it was indifferent as you say, why are there some, including me, who are blown away by the very mystery of it...?

Do you honestly think it is fair just to say that it is categorically lazy and indifferent just because YOU were not impressed with it...?

I now have over 7000 films; many of them very rare and OOP. I LOVE to trade. PLEASE ASK! 

[–] lathe-of-heaven 15 years ago

Oh and BTW, in my lowly and wretched opinion, there is WAAAAY the hell more going on here then what was portrayed in 'THE HILLS HAVE EYES'. Come on, there is a LOT more suggested in the way of possibilities then merely a bunch of hillbilly mutants terrorizing people.

That is REALLY simplistic in my opinion to say that that is all that is going on in this film. C'mon, give me a break here... 'THE HILLS HAVE EYES' was straight "Let's rape 'em & kill 'em" HORROR. Whereas THIS film was full blown hard on MYSTERY!!!  BIG Phuk'n difference people... (sorry, got carried away...  )

ILOVEtrading films!I've got a HUGE..uh..collection!Please ask!

____L@th3

[–] blackmage994 14 years ago

agreed this is what hills have eyes could have been they should've signed up this writer for that and blown our minds with something new

[–] mireille226 12 years ago

Ethan the missing boy was "found" by the Sheriff right after he left Lester the crazy man in the car semetary. This seems to me like an exchange of persons. The Sheriff rescued Ethan by sacrificing Lester to the mutants. The Sheriff's later explanation of the finding isn't very credible at all.