Borderless Fog follows a detective investigating a series of murders along the Indonesia-Malaysia border that appear to be the work of a supernatural force. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
The film’s story takes place at the Indonesia-Malaysia border on Borneo Island, which is home to the Dayaknese, among other communities.
The Indonesian and Malaysian militaries worked together from 1969 to 1990 to defeat the Paraku Communist Forces, but Ambong, one of the Paraku leaders, escaped.
It is believed that he still hides in the forest as a ghost. The area near the border remains plagued by violence and disappearances.
When the headless body of an Indonesian is found along with the head of another man, a police officer from Jakarta, Sanja Arunika, whose father is a high-ranking official, is sent to investigate.
Sanja meets Inspector Panca and Officer Thomas upon her arrival. They inform her that the severed head is that of First Sergeant Thoriq Herdian.
The body is suspected to be that of a Dayak activist named Juwing because of the tattoos on his body; he was reported missing by his family.
Thomas immediately earns Sanja’s trust and introduces her to a local named Bujang, who tells them about the ghost of Ambong as well as a nearby haunted factory.
From the very beginning, Sanja faces difficulties. Her father asks a military officer, Commander Daniel, to monitor her activities.
On top of that, Panca seems to be keeping information from her. He does not inform her about a body that the Malaysian police had found. This victim was also Indonesian and was beheaded.
Sanja keeps hearing about the ghost of Ambong from various individuals, and more bodies of the victims who were beheaded keep turning up.
Sanja recognizes the body of a woman she encountered when she went to Malaysia. The woman, Umi, was trafficking young girls from the Dayak community, some of whom are still missing.
Going through Umi’s phone helps Sanja link the murders to a local crime lord named Agam, who is known for running illegal businesses.
Sanja arrests Agam, but Panca, who keeps impeding her investigation, releases him. Silas, Juwing’s nephew, further reveals that Thoriq was corrupt and worked for Agam.
When Sanja tries to arrest Agam in Malaysia, Panca feels threatened and decides to write to Jakarta to request a new investigator.
At the same time, Sanja concludes that all the killings are connected to the human trafficking of Dayak girls. She then visits the abandoned factory.
There, Sanja is attacked by a masked man, but she is saved by Thomas, who was alerted by Bujang after hearing Sanja’s cries for help.
Additionally, one of the girls Umi was trafficking reaches the factory and encounters the killer, which leads to her murder. Now, only one mute girl named Arum remains missing.
When Panca makes Sanja sign her transfer papers, she recognizes his pen as the one that Agam carries and realizes that Panca works with Agam.
She deduces that the one who attacked her at the factory was none other than Panca. Sanja also suspects Thomas now, as she sees Thomas accepting a bribe from Panca.
Sanja finds herself without any allies in an unfamiliar place, but she still does not want to give up on finding the murderer and rescuing Arum.
Ending explained:
Sanja’s dark secret
When Thomas visits Sanja, she holds him at gunpoint and interrogates him. Thomas insists that he had nothing to do with the murders.
Panca had asked Thomas to keep an eye on Sanja, and Thomas had no choice but to update him on Sanja’s activities and the case.
Thomas also tells her about Panca’s involvement in illegal businesses. Panca gives Thomas a cut to buy his silence. Thomas reluctantly takes the money because he does not want to get into trouble.
Sanja cannot condemn Thomas for his actions, as she herself has hidden crimes in the past. She reveals how she had accidentally killed a girl in a car accident.
Sanja hid the girl’s body, and her father, along with her classmates and superiors, covered up the crime. Sanja wanted to come clean later on, but it was too late by then.
She cannot take responsibility for her actions because if she reveals the truth, all her classmates and superiors will suffer the consequences with her.
Sanja and Thomas’ efforts
Sanja is no longer in charge of the case, but she refuses to give up on it, so she joins forces with Silas to uncover the truth. Silas has Agam kidnapped.
When Agam is threatened, he confesses that he made Thoriq kill Asraf, the man whose body the Malaysian police found, for stealing his money.
Someone sent Asraf’s head to his house, and Agam got rid of it. Agam suspects that Thoriq might have killed Juwing but claims he was not involved in any of the other murders.
Silas now wants to murder Agam, and Sanja tries to stop him. Silas escapes with Agam, but he does not get too far, as he is caught by the police.
Meanwhile, Thomas tries to extract a confession out of Panca by holding him at gunpoint. He knows about Panca making money from human trafficking and tries to record his confession on camera.
However, Panca manages to distract Thomas and alert the police about Agam’s kidnapping. Panca also ends up shooting Thomas dead.
The killer’s confession
Sanja is kidnapped by someone and brought to the factory. There, she sees Thomas’ headless body and Panca being held captive.
She also finds Arum and Bujang there. It does not take long for Sanja to figure out that the person behind all the murders is Bujang.
Realizing that Sanja will no longer believe his lies, Bujang confesses to the killings. He reveals that he was tired of seeing his people struggling to survive.
The people of his community keep disappearing and getting killed, the children suffer, and the police refuse to do anything to help them.
When Juwing and Asraf were killed, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He killed those he deemed deserving to draw attention to his people’s suffering.
Sanja tries to arrest Bujang, but he manages to behead Panca and disappear into the thick fog in the forest, leaving Sanja with Arum.
The mystery remains unsolved
As Panca declared Agam the suspect in the serial murder case before being taken captive by Bujang, Agam is charged with the murders.
He later takes his own life in prison while Panca, who is assumed missing, is credited with solving the case and finding evidence against Agam.
Sanja has evidence against Panca in the form of a video recorded by Thomas before his death, but she neither reveals the evidence nor the truth about Panca’s murder.
Bujang’s parting words to Sanja had been to be selective in what she sees. To keep Thomas’ name clean, Sanja decides to hide Panca’s crimes.
Sanja also goes against her father’s wishes and refuses to go home with Commander Daniel. She leaves the border area on her own.
On her way, Sanja finds the severed head of Bujang displayed in a public place, meaning that the mystery of the case has not been solved entirely.
The last scene of the film shows a young boy, who could be Ambong, cleaning bloodied boots in a river in 1972.
Also read: Batman: Caped Crusader summary and ending explained
