The missing person thriller Searching kicked off a new film franchise for Screen Gems when it debuted back in 2018. Its next installment, Missing, opens in theaters on January 20. Watch the first trailer for Missing exclusively here at IGN via the player above or the embed below.
Missing is written and directed by Will Merrick and Nick Johnson, from a story by Sev Ohanian & Aneesh Chaganty. That story promises, according to the following official plot synopsis, “a thrilling roller-coaster mystery that makes you wonder how well you know those closest to you”:
“When her mother (Nia Long) disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June’s (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late. But as she digs deeper, her digital sleuthing raises more questions than answers…and when June unravels secrets about her mom, she discovers that the true danger to her family is much closer to home.”
In addition to Storm Reid and Nia Long, Missing also stars Joaquim de Almeida, Ken Leung, Amy Landecker, and Daniel Henney.
Fans of 2018’s Searching may be curious about how closely Missing is tied to its predecessor but Johnson sees Missing as its own entity. “You’ll catch a lot of fun callouts to the first movie. But all that said, it’s a totally new family and new story, and it’s not like a direct sequel in the traditional sense,” Johnson explained in an interview with IGN alongside his creative partner Merrick. “It’s really another installment in the Searching universe.”
As Johnson pointed out, most missing person thrillers, including Searching, see a parent searching for their lost child but with Missing, “we wanted this movie to be bigger and better in visual style. And inject as much of a youthful energy into it. So, telling the story about a child looking for her mom really presented great opportunities for that.”
Merrick added that Missing is “all about growing up and realizing that all the adults in your life have these far more complex lives than the box you put them in. And so, I like people who see the trailer knowing that that’s what the movie’s going to explore.”
Like Searching, Missing uses technology and social media as tools in not only how the protagonist looks for their missing loved one but also in how the film itself is designed. As such, the filmmakers use actual spps to lend Missing a sense of realism.
“Our hope has always been to portray the world of the Internet as closely as we can to ground the movie. We never like when movies falsify, cheesily, certain apps,“ Johnson said. “Our goal has always been to try to stay as true as possible to apps. So you’ll see all sorts of the usual apps that everyone uses in the movie, throughout. And that’s part of the fun of it.”
Given all the recent drama at Twitter and Meta, it’s possible Missing could end up featuring platforms that might be quite different by the time the film opens early next year.
The filmmakers are aware of how quickly the online landscape can change and how that, in turn, risks dating their film but they’re far from worried about that. Indeed, they seem intrigued by the notion.
“There was a lot of Facebook for instance, in the first one, and there’s a lot less Facebook [in Missing],” Johnson observed. “You see the trajectory of what people were using, and what UI [user interfaces] looked like. It’s really a neat time capsule.” Merrick added, “I really like how these movies are going to age. It’s going to be really cool to see them in 10, 20 years. It’s going to be fascinating.”
Speaking of technology and user interaction, Sony Pictures Entertainment is partnering with Community to give Missing viewers a chance to join in the investigation for June’s mom. Those who text Sony Pictures’ Community number – (310) 634-1918 – will receive exclusive clues and be able to engage with the characters.
Missing opens on January 20.
