Vanished Into the Night Ending Explained: Who Kidnapped The Kids?
Netflix’s new thriller, Vanished into the Night, focuses on a couple going through a divorce and fighting for custody of their kids.
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Vanished into the Night, an Italian thriller on Netflix, follows Elena, an American psychiatrist, and her husband Pietro as they deal with their children's sudden disappearance. The movie, originally titled Svaniti Nella Notte, is based on 2003's Spanish film Séptimo and follows the story of Elena, who is a psychiatrist, and Pietro, a John Wick star, as they navigate the complexities of their children's disappearance.
The story of Vanished into the Night
Netflix's Vanished into the Night is a thriller directed by Renato De Maria, a remake of the Argentinian film Septimo. The film follows a married couple, Elena and Pietro, whose children are kidnapped. The film features a small cast and an intriguing plot that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
Vanished into the Night follows a couple, Elena and Pietro, who are fighting for custody of their children after a divorce. Elena, a former psychotherapist, uses her addiction to painkillers to argue for custody. Pietro, struggling with gambling addiction and 250,000 euros in debt, uses his situation as leverage against Elena.
Before their separation, Elena and Pietro planned to renovate a farmhouse they had bought together. Pietro's children are kidnapped while Elena is away, and he receives a call demanding 150,000 euros in exchange for them. The kidnappers are suspected to be involved in Pietro's gambling. Pietro seeks money from his friend Nicola, who offers him a "small job" of transporting cocaine from Greece. Despite the danger, Pietro agrees to do it for his kids.
While the job turns out to be no small feat, Pietro’s determination ensures that he makes it back to Bari with the drugs in hand. Pietro demands the cash he’s owed from Nicola and races to Elena’s apartment.
Much to his surprise, his kids are calmly eating breakfast at the table, unfazed by anything that may or may not have happened. When he confronts Elena, she also has no idea what he is talking about and says he hallucinated everything. She calls him crazy and threatens to call the police, leaving Pietro battered, bruised and confused.
Vanished into the Night ending explained
On his way home, Pietro receives a recording from Elena discussing ransom money and cocaine from Greece. Elena threatens to use the recording against Pietro if he doesn't give up custody of the kids. Pietro tries to find out what happened but gets inconsistent answers. To prove his innocence, Pietro finds oxycodone in Elena's apartment and matches the pill box to a box found in the farmhouse bathroom.
It becomes clear that Elena drugged the children and kidnapped them herself, setting Pietro up with Nicola for money. Pietro confronts Elena at the airport, accusing her of drugging the children and potentially killing them. If she does, he will report her.
Elena confesses she believed it was the only path she saw to keeping her kids. "They were never in danger," she insists. "What choice did I have? You never wanted to come to a compromise or any agreement. I had no way out. This is not my life," she says.
Pietro wins custody and moves to leave the airport with the kids, but Elena refuses. He gives her a "way out" to avoid telling their children about their mother's abuse. Elena cries, and at the last second, she reveals that the kiss they shared the night before was real, indicating her love for him.
In the final scene, Pietro looks longingly at an old picture of his broken family. While his expression saddens, his kids laugh and play in the living room, still unaware of everything that just happened. Outside the window, a blurry figure appears. Although we can only see this person for a second, it is unmistakably Elena. As Pietro continues to stare, the audience is left wondering why she is back, what she might want, and if she is truly outside or just a figment of his imagination.
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