Vanished into the Night is a Netflix thriller following Pietro and Elena who pull out all the stops to save their children.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Pietro and Elena are going through a divorce and their lawyers are trying to figure out the custody arrangement for their children Giovanni and Bianca.
Elena is an American psychiatrist who gave up her career and moved to Italy to be with Pietro but life isn’t happy for either of them anymore.
Pietro’s lawyer brings up Elena’s addiction to painkillers while Elena’s lawyer mentions Pietro’s gambling problems.
Pietro covers for Elena by adding that she was in an accident and was prescribed those drugs in the first place.
There is no animosity between them and Elena thanks Pietro for standing up for her. The children are staying with him while Bianca travels out of town.
They go out on Pietro’s boat to fish for sea urchins and back at the pier, they meet Nico, Pietro’s old friend who he doesn’t want to be associated with anymore.
Nico asks if they can hang out some time but Pietro says they cannot. He takes them back to the country house that is under renovation and finds a stranger waiting for them.
The man reminds Pietro that they are owed some money and they are tired of waiting for it. He asks for more time and sends them away before going back inside.
They spend the evening together and then Pietro puts them to bed before sitting to watch a match.
Giovanni wakes up to say that there is a monster in their room but Pietro shows him that it’s only shadows and puts him back to sleep.
A little while later Pietro goes to check up on them but they are missing. He frantically looks for them all over the place but cannot find them.
Elena calls to say that she has arrived at her destination but when she hears that their children are missing, she says that she’s coming back.
As soon as she arrives, she blames Pietro for losing the children and asks if he owes money to anyone but he flat-out refuses.
He gets a call and the voice on the other hand demands a ransom of 150,000 Euros for their children within 36 hours.
Pietro calls up the people he owes and leaves a message begging them to return his children because he assumes they are the ones who took them.
Elena tells them that Nico is the only one who can come up with that much money quickly and if he doesn’t ask, she will.
Pietro visits Nico and asks him for the money but Nico says he will have to do a job for him first. He gives him a location and tells him to make a pick-up, then takes Pietro’s phone for safety reasons.
Pietro tells Elena to hang tight while he goes out and does this job for Nico. He has to sail out in his boat to a harbor in Greece and wait for someone.
Pietro goes to the lone restaurant on this secluded island and spends hours over there but no one comes.
When he asks for the bill, it contains a message telling him to go home. As soon as he leaves, some men show up on jetskis with the cargo.
It’s a bag filled with cocaine and once the exchange is complete, Pietro makes his way back to Bari.
He has engine trouble and has to call the Coast Guard for help. They show up and help him get to Otranto which is the nearest port.
Pietro is nervous about getting caught but they don’t find the bag of drugs. As soon as he lands, he rushes to get a bus to Bari.
He tries calling Elena but she doesn’t pick up her phone. When he reaches Bari, he goes over to Nico’s house to hand the drugs over.
Nico is high and starts acting crazy. He gets into a fistfight with Pietro until Pietro comes out on top.
He gets the bag of cash and heads to Elena’s apartment where he finds his children at the dining table having breakfast.
Ending explained:
Losing his mind
His children have no memory of being at his place and Elena acts like she has no idea what is going on with him.
He tells her that he just smuggled drugs to get the ransom money but she says that he looks like a madman and asks him to leave because he is scaring them.
On his way back, he gets a message from Elena. It is a recording of their conversation, implicating him in an illegal act.
She says that she is taking the children to America with her and he needs to sign the consent papers or she will turn over the recording to the police.
Connecting the dots
Pietro is enraged by this betrayal and accuses Elena of blackmailing him. He tries to figure out how she might have trapped him.
He visits his children at their riding club and asks them if they remember going to sleep at his house before waking up at hers.
They say that they vaguely remember something but are unsure. Elena shows up and tells him to leave while reminding him that her flight is later that night and he needs to sign the papers.
Pietro goes back home and has a shower to calm down. He finds the cover of a pill in the toilet and goes to Elena’s house after she leaves for the airport.
He finds a box of oxycodone and realizes what happened.
Confronting her with the truth
Pietro races to the airport and when he gets there, he tells his children that their mother is going to America alone.
He asks them to sit by the side and tells her that he knows she drugged them and got them out of his house.
Pietro says that he spoke to a doctor and confirmed that the drug stays in the body for a while so he can get them tested and report her.
She says that she was pushed to do it because he wasn’t ready to compromise and she didn’t expect things to get so serious. She just wanted him to get dirty money from Nico.
He tells her to leave by herself and he won’t report her. They head back home and Pietro gets a call from the people he owes money to.
They say that they never go after people’s children and Pietro says he has their money so they can come and collect it.
As the children are playing in another room, Pietro turns to the patio where he sees a woman standing, and she resembles Elena.
The last thing she said to him at the airport was that the kiss they shared earlier was real, confirming that there is still some love between them.
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