Directed by Peter Facinelli, the 2020 psychological thriller The Vanished revolves around the disappearance of 10-year-old Taylor Michaelson. Her parents, Paul and Wendy, played by Thomas Jane and Anne Heche, take her and the family dog on vacation to a campground, where everything quickly falls apart. While Wendy is at the campground's office/convenience store and Paul is settling the RV, Taylor seems to disappear into thin air: no one can find her or even remember seeing her.
Throughout the Netflix film, Paul and Wendy stop at nothing in the search for their daughter. Shocking events occur over the course of the movie, but nothing is more bizarre than The Vanished's twist ending, in which viewers finally discover what happened to the girl in The Vanished.
What Happened to Taylor in Netflix's The Vanished?
Once the Michaelsons realize Taylor is missing, the police are notified, and Sheriff Baker (Jason Patric) leads a thorough search. The already-dire situation is only further complicated by an escaped prison inmate, survival campers and other sketchy characters, including groundskeeper Justin (Alex Haydon) and the campsite manager Tom (John D. Hickman).
Paul and Wendy soon begin devising their own theories, in which almost everyone becomes a suspect (much like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery's own premise), especially the couple next door, Miranda (Aleksei Archer) and Eric (Kristopher Wente). The Michaelsons suspect them of having abducted Taylor because they couldn't have children of their own. While the group searches the lake for Taylor, an argument breaks out, and Paul stabs Eric while Miranda drowns.
Later, Wendy, who by now has shifted her suspicion to manager Tom, discovers his collection of homemade child pornography. In an altercation, she kills Tom with a hammer. That seems to end the case, with Tom apparently playing a role in Taylor's disappearance. But that belief changes when Sheriff Baker discovers a photo of a pregnant Wendy in front of the Twin Towers.
The Vanished Ending, Explained
The picture from 2001 indicates that Taylor has to be older than ten years old. Sheriff Baker initiates a background check on the Michaelsons, and, at last, the audience discovers Taylor was never part of the trip: she drowned six years earlier while on a camping trip in Canada. The Michaelsons, unable to overcome the loss of their daughter, were merely living out a fantasy.
Like most movies in recent years, the ending is unexpected but makes a lot of sense because Taylor was never seen by anybody at the campsite but her parents. In fact, the only time Taylor appeared after the family entered the campground was in a dream Paul had in which he pulled his daughter's body out of the lake.
The movie provides twists and turns, from multiple suspects to the Michaelsons' shift from sympathetic parents to murderers on the verge of mental breakdown. But even so, The Vanished's ending and the truth behind Taylor's disappearance are the most astonishing.