The 2023 film Missing has a lot of plot holes and unfinished storylines. Missing is a spiritual successor to the 2018 film Searching, as it follows a similar plot and even features the previous film’s storyline in a fake Netflix show called Unfiction. However, while Searching focuses on David Kim using technology to find his missing daughter, Margot, Missing follows June Allen as she searches for her mother, Grace. Missing’s plot requires a lot of focus and attention to follow, and still, there may be many moments that are confusing to viewers.
Filmmakers took on a lot when creating Missing, which may be why certain storylines had some loose ends. While it didn’t entirely ruin the film, Missing would have been better without all the plot holes. Plus, with all the information June accessed online, she could solve every mystery in the film with just a quick Google search. Unfortunately, according to the unfinished storylines in Missing, this isn’t the case. From Kevin’s history with Grace’s ex-husband to Heather’s mysterious murder, here are 10 of the biggest plot holes in Missing.
10 How Grace Faked Her Ex-Husband’s Death
In Missing, Grace escapes her abusive husband by moving away with June and changing her name so that he won’t be able to find her. Grace makes up a fake story that her husband, James, died of cancer to hide the situation from her friends and June. This is a huge story to uphold for years, and it’s odd that no one ever figured out that he was still alive.
A quick Google search would have revealed he was in prison, and anyone who knew him could have easily discovered he never died of cancer. Missing revealed June is chronically online, and with all the information she found out about everyone throughout the film, she likely could have discovered her father was still alive.
9 Why Grace Left June Home Alone
June is 18 years old in Missing, so her mom probably assumed she was old enough to stay home alone. However, given their situation, Grace should have been more protective over her daughter. Maybe enough time had gone by where she felt June was safe, but with her abusive ex-husband still out in the world, one would think she’d never want June to be home alone. Also, it seems irresponsible to leave a teenager home since, as the movie showcased, it resulted in a major party up until the night before Grace was supposed to return from her trip.
8 How Was June So Good At Investigating In Missing?
Teenagers in this generation seem to know it all when it comes to technology, but even the most technologically advanced teen likely wouldn’t be able to investigate on the level of an FBI agent like June did. Nothing about her storyline explained why she was so good at finding out information about people or how she knew how to access so many different websites. June did more to find her mother than any of the professionals involved, and Missing didn’t explain why she was capable of this.
7 Why Was Agent Park So Unhelpful?
Speaking of FBI Agents, June worked with Agent Park to help locate her mother after her disappearance. But, unfortunately, the FBI Agent was pretty useless. He sounded almost annoyed when June would talk to him on the phone, and she had to work so hard to find her mother on her own that Agent Park acted like doing his job was an inconvenience.
Maybe this was a way to make the agent seem suspicious so viewers would question if he was involved in Grace’s disappearance. However, when the real villain was revealed, Park’s nonchalant attitude toward the disappearance was never explained, making it look like he was really bad at doing his job.
6 Missing’s Fake Proposal Makes No Sense
While searching for her mother, June finds footage from a bridge in Columbia where Kevin proposes to Grace. Missing reveals Grace was never actually in Columbia, and Kevin staged the vacation photos with an actress named Rachel Page. This means he was fake proposing to the actress. While he staged a kidnapping and anonymously sent the video to police to throw June and investigators off, the proposal makes no sense.
It adds nothing to the story and is never acknowledged again in the film. While it may have been part of the staged kidnapping to make it seem like the kidnappers wanted the ring to sell for money, this is just an assumption because Missing never addresses it.
5 How Much Did Rachel Page Really Know?
When June finds out her mom was never in Columbia with Kevin and he was with an actress he hired, she reports this to the police, and Rachel is taken off a plane and brought in for questioning. The actress claims Kevin hired her and told her he was making a reality show, but this story doesn’t add up. Why would he need to fake propose to her and stage a fake kidnapping for a reality series? Rachel probably knew more about Kevin’s plan than she claimed, but Missing doesn’t reveal how much she knew about the situation.
4 Why Grace Didn’t Figure Out That Kevin Knew James
June is horrified when she finds out Kevin has a criminal record, but she later learns that her mother already knew this. What makes no sense is that Grace didn’t realize that Kevin was in prison with her ex-husband. Kevin likely didn’t tell her the whole story, which means he might have left out which prison he was in. However, if she’d done some research, which would be understandable for someone who just found out their boyfriend was once in prison, she could have found out James was in the same prison as him and would have saved herself and June a lot of trouble.
3 What Did Heather Know About Grace’s Disappearance?
Toward the end of Missing, June finds out Kevin is communicating with Heather, so she goes to Heather’s office to figure out what’s happening, only to find her dead. It’s possible Kevin was talking to James, who was using Heather’s computer at the time, but this isn’t entirely clear. It’s also unclear why James killed Heather other than as a way to blackmail June and Grace. Heather may have discovered something about Grace’s disappearance, so James killed her to prevent her from exposing his plan. Unfortunately, what she may or may not have known remains a mystery.
2 June Didn’t Remember Her Mom’s Real Name
At the end of Missing, June finds out her mom’s real name is Sarah, and she changes it to Grace so she can run away from James without him finding her. However, in the video and photos of June as a child, she was old enough to know her mother’s name and would be curious why she spontaneously changed it to Grace. This story would only work if June were a baby, but she was fully aware of what was happening when her mother escaped her father. The storyline feels pretty unrealistic, especially since June is so good at finding information about everyone.
1 Why Didn’t James Kill Grace After Kidnapping Her?
One of the biggest confusions of Missing is the ending. James was after Grace as revenge for leaving him and preventing him from seeing June. However, he leaves her in a shed instead of killing her, which doesn’t make sense why. Then, when June finds her mom, James comes back and tries to kill Grace, but why didn’t he just do this to begin with? His motive is very clear, but his intentions are not. The ending with James is the most unexplainable part of Missing.