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The Vanishing poster

The Vanishing

year 1993decade 90sdirector George Sluizergenre Psychological thrillergenre Horror

109 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Jeff Bridges Barney Cousins
Kiefer Sutherland Jeff Harriman
Nancy Travis Rita Baker
Sandra Bullock Diane Shaver
Maggie Linderman Denise Cousins
Lisa Eichhorn Helene Cousins
George Hearn Arthur Bernard
Lynn Hamilton Miss Carmichael

The Vanishing | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanproducer Craig Horlbeck
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Roger Ebert's review

The episode states that Roger Ebert gave the American remake one star and condemned it as a crude betrayal of the original.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:31Read transcript
  • The episode calls this the first one-star review covered after roughly 275 episodes.
  • Ebert is reported to have said the returning director savaged his own masterpiece as thoroughly as a hired hack.
  • His review is summarized as asking whether Americans were assumed to need a more elementary version than Europeans.
  • The quoted conclusion calls the original a masterpiece and the remake laughable, stupid, and crude.
  • The panel feels personally stung because both participants love the remake.

Most Rewatchable Scene

Many scenes are nominated; the full Barney-to-coffin stretch and Jeff discovering Diane missing at the gas station are the final favorites.

In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:40Read transcript
  • The first ten minutes establish Barney as a psychopath through his chloroform tests and preparation.
  • Diane shouts that nobody can see their stopped car until they are on top of it and points out that Jeff passed ten gas stations.
  • Diane entering the gas station and Jeff slowly realizing she has vanished makes the premise terrifying.
  • Rita cracking Jeff’s password, putting on a black wig, and entering his command post is praised as Hitchcock and De Palma style suspense.
  • Jeff saying he would let Diane be dead in exchange for certainty reveals the depth of his obsession.
  • Barney hiding behind the door after Rita hears his answering-machine message uses a favorite horror trick.
  • Barney’s answering-machine introduction, keychain, and calm response after Jeff beats him create a bizarre confrontation.
  • The drive pairs Barney’s insistence that he is not a rapist with a roast-beef sandwich and a police stop.
  • Barney’s rescue story turns into an argument about free will and balancing good with deliberate evil.
  • The abduction flashback shows how a cheap bracelet offer persuades Diane into Barney’s car.
  • Jeff drinking the coffee despite understanding the trap demonstrates that knowing is worth dying to him.
  • Jeff waking in the coffin is singled out as terrifying and a personal worst fear.
  • Rita reversing the trap and striking Barney with a shovel makes the revised ending satisfying.
  • The whole stretch from Barney’s arrival through the beating, drive, coffee, coffin, and rescue is praised as a great twenty minutes.
  • The final personal choice is Jeff at the gas station realizing Diane is gone.

Picking Nits

The panel questions the coffin escape, whether Diane ditched Jeff, the missing family search, Rita’s job and sudden sobriety, failure to call police, Barney’s exposure, family behavior, drug timing, grave logistics, and Jeff’s honesty with police.

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:35:29Read transcript
  • If death in the coffin is otherwise certain, the panel debates using the lighter to burn or loosen the lid, while acknowledging smoke inhalation.
  • Jeff never appears to treat Diane simply ditching him after their fight as a live possibility.
  • Diane’s parents, siblings, and friends are strangely absent from the three-year search.
  • Jeff remains on local television yet is treated as a laughing stock despite Diane leaving no financial trace.
  • The panel asks if Rita is still a waitress or works at the bar and says it has no idea how she makes money.
  • Jeff should call police immediately after Barney identifies himself and survives the beating.
  • Barney uses his real name and school, giving Jeff obvious ways to expose him even without a murder charge.
  • Rita goes from drinking heavily at the bar to sober police-station problem solving within about five minutes.
  • Barney’s daughter and wife do not react plausibly to his secretive cabin behavior.
  • The panel asks why the daughter wants her father to cheat on her mother so badly.
  • The chloroform would need to keep Jeff unconscious through a drive, transport, and burial that seem longer than shown.
  • An open grave near the cabin would be difficult to hide from visitors.
  • When police ask whether the vanished couple fought, the proposed answer is no so they can start looking.

What’s Aged the Best?

Barney’s setup, the anagram, Jeff’s pathetic obsession, smoking as instant trauma shorthand, the villain name, early Bullock and Sutherland, and odd relationship lines receive praise.

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:56Read transcript
  • Barney’s craziness is established before the movie shifts into Diane and Jeff’s story.
  • Diane Shaver is identified as an anagram of “she vanished.”
  • Jeff’s attack on Rita for leaving makes his pathetic obsession unusually vivid.
  • Kiefer lighting a cigarette as soon as Diane disappears is praised as compact trauma shorthand.
  • Barney Cousins is called an excellent villain name.
  • The film captures Sandra Bullock immediately before Speed and Kiefer Sutherland before his later action-star identity.
  • Nancy Travis’s line about no secrets “in the heart or on the lips” is preserved as memorably strange.

The Den of Thieves Benihana Award for Scene-Stealing Location

The boathouse coffee meeting and the North Bend gas station are the two choices.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:21Read transcript
  • The boathouse is chosen for the spectacle of two obsessed men melting down in public over black coffee and cigarettes.
  • The alternate answer is the gas station, which the panel says was picked well.

The Great Shot Gordo Award for Most Cinematic Shot

Jeff waking in the coffin wins; Rita putting on Diane’s clothes in the bathroom is a late alternate.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:57Read transcript
  • The lighter revealing Jeff inside the coffin is the cinematic-shot choice.
  • The bathroom realization that Rita is putting on Diane’s clothes is offered as another cinematic shot.

The Butch’s Girlfriend Award for the Weakest Link in the Film

Rita staying after discovering Jeff’s command post and Rita’s permissive diner friend are the two weak links.

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:57Read transcript
  • Rita discovers a fake Army Reserve story, the command post, and proof that Jeff remains obsessed, yet still stays.
  • The panel argues that Rita should leave rather than keep fighting for Jeff.
  • Rita’s diner friend casually encourages daytime drinking and prank messages despite Jeff’s dangerous obsession.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Hacky sack, answering-machine plot devices, Rita’s diner job, the missing digital trail, Jeff’s behavior, drinking while driving, old gas stations, reviews, the appended ending, reused titles, and fragmented streaming libraries receive criticism.

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:52Read transcript
  • Hacky sack now looks tied to its era.
  • Answering-machine messages as major plot devices have disappeared.
  • Rita’s overnight diner work seems implausibly limiting for a smart, resilient problem solver.
  • The couple’s improved apartment and income after the time jump are unexplained.
  • Modern cameras and phone tracking would likely expose a gas-station abduction quickly.
  • Jeff’s poor driving, emergency judgment, income, and obsessive search are treated as increasingly hard to defend.
  • A passenger openly drinking beer in the car is identified as a vanished screen norm.
  • Full-service gas stations as social spaces have declined.
  • The hostile reviews are said to have aged worse than the beloved cable movie.
  • The celebratory book-and-no-coffee ending is criticized as a self-parodying early-1990s appendage.
  • Reusing The Vanishing for another movie and incomplete streaming libraries make the correct film unusually hard to locate.

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

The neighbor who reports a dancing Lucky Charms leprechaun wins.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:14Read transcript
  • The neighbor’s account moves from the assault to a cereal-box leprechaun dancing around the room.
  • The panel says the character seems to belong in an asylum rather than merely being eccentric.

Is There a Better Title for This Movie?

The Vanishing remains preferred, though Your Obsession Was My Weapon is proposed.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:02Read transcript
  • The initial answer is that the existing title should stay.
  • Your Obsession Was My Weapon is offered as a strong alternate.

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award

The panel accepts American remakes of less-accessible foreign films when they add something new, and separately argues that full-service gas stations should return as gathering places.

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:15Read transcript
  • The take is willingness to remake a foreign film that the participant would otherwise never watch.
  • Vanilla Sky is contrasted with Open Your Eyes as a remake of a foreign movie already worth seeking out.
  • The American Vanishing is defended for bringing a radically different ending and decades of rewatch value.
  • Full-service gas stations should return as places to eat, drink, and spend time.

Casting What-Ifs

No historical casting what-if is found.

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:31Read transcript
  • Both participants report finding no casting what-if in the sparse material about the remake.

Recasting Couch

The panel considers switching Nancy Travis and Sandra Bullock but keeps Bullock as the missing woman and Travis as the partner driven to solve the case.

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:34Read transcript
  • Switching the two female leads is proposed as the recasting question.
  • Bullock is kept as the vivid person the audience misses.
  • Travis is credited with selling a woman who realizes her partner never escaped his obsession.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Research covers Seattle-area locations, the Ted Bundy arm-cast method, Kubrick’s praise for the original, and immediate missing-person reporting.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:51Read transcript
  • The cabin was filmed in Monroe, Washington, and the gas station was the Mountainside Shell in North Bend.
  • Barney’s fake arm cast is linked to a method used by Ted Bundy.
  • Stanley Kubrick reportedly called the 1988 original the most terrifying film he had seen.
  • The claim that police require a twenty-four-hour wait before a missing-person report is called a movie myth.
  • A former police officer is reported to have confirmed that a report can be taken immediately.

Apex Mountain

Nancy Travis, characters named Barney or surnamed Cousins, full-service gas stations, and Seattle receive cases; the other principal actors, director, Infinity bracelet, and coffee do not.

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:52:12Read transcript
  • Nancy Travis is placed near an early-1990s peak, though Internal Affairs and So I Married an Axe Murderer compete.
  • Jeff Bridges, Kiefer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock, and director George Sluzer receive no verdicts.
  • The Infinity bracelet is rejected.
  • Barney Cousins ranks at least third among characters named Barney and perhaps higher among characters surnamed Cousins.
  • Coffee is rejected for Apex Mountain.
  • Full-service spacious gas stations receive a plausible apex case.
  • Seattle receives a case based on a run near Singles and Say Anything.

Best Race Horse Name from This Movie

Infinity Bracelet and The Vanishing are the two names.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:05Read transcript
  • Infinity Bracelet is the first choice.
  • The Vanishing becomes the alternate, with “Here comes the Manishing” as the call.

The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson

Do not drink the coffee; an earlier qualified alternative is to deny fighting when police ask about a recently vanished partner.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:32Read transcript
  • The practical lesson is to refuse Barney’s coffee.
  • A possible earlier lesson is to say no when police ask whether you fought with a recently vanished partner, so the search can begin.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

An all-Black remake, Barney prequel, Jeff-Diane prequel, and prestige series are considered; the prestige series gets the deepest support.

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:56Read transcript
  • An all-Black remake receives an immediate sign-me-up response.
  • A Barney prequel would at least get the panel’s attention.
  • A prequel about Jeff and Diane getting together is also desired.
  • A prestige series could spend an episode on the couple, then move backward into Barney while delaying his reveal.

Is This Movie Better With…?

Wayne Jenkins as the cop is the developed answer from the standard candidate list.

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:16Read transcript
  • The observed candidate roll includes Danny Trao, Catherine Hahn, Steve Bouchemy, Sam Jackson, J.T. Walsher, and Philip Baker Hall.
  • Wayne Jenkins replacing the police officer is the only proposal developed into a scene.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

The panel asks about extended universes, Barney’s family, Jeff’s recovery, police attention, Barney’s death, Diane’s remains, the book, Rita’s contribution, and a possible stranger ending.

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:12Read transcript
  • The movie is tested as part of either the A Few Good Men or Singles extended universe.
  • A deliberately dark question about Barney’s daughter is raised and rejected through the Wuthering Heights explanation.
  • Jeff’s unexplained recovery from three years of obsession is called an unpredictable bounce-back.
  • The panel asks why police never intervene as Barney wanders public spaces asking women for directions.
  • Jeff and Rita’s explanation for Barney’s shovel death is missing before the book celebration.
  • Barney’s disappearance should trigger his family and expose Diane’s buried remains.
  • The content and commercial result of Jeff and Rita’s jointly written book are unclear.
  • Rita’s contribution beyond her diner work is questioned.
  • The panel asks where Rita got the black wig and considers a version where Barney’s wife is the mastermind.

The Andy and Red – Zihuatanejo Award for What Happens the Next Day?

Barney’s family faces the loss, and the murder cabin is unlikely to sell.

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:03Read transcript
  • The next day is called a tough beat for Barney’s wife and daughter.
  • The cabin is unlikely to resell once Diane’s body is found there.
  • The badly concealed body-length mound creates another problem for the property.

What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?

The thermos wins jointly; the Infinity bracelet and Jeff’s red Jeep Cherokee are alternates.

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:53Read transcript
  • Both participants choose the thermos.
  • The Infinity bracelet is considered but treated as unsettling.
  • Jeff’s red Jeep Cherokee is another desired item.

Producer review

The producer watched the wrong similarly titled movie first, then liked the remake, its premise, Bridges, Bullock, and the final expansion of the thriller idea.

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:43Read transcript
  • The producer initially watched a 2018 Gerard Butler movie with a similar Vanishing title.
  • The difficulty of locating the correct movie across streaming libraries becomes an additional aged-worst point.
  • After watching the right film, the producer says the premise is perfect and the movie is surprisingly complex.
  • Jeff Bridges is praised as very good and Sandra Bullock as funny and excellent.
  • Rita discovering events through an answering machine and putting on Diane’s clothes is highlighted as an effective turn.
  • The closing argues that star-led “from hell” thrillers have largely migrated into horror or television.
  • The film’s 105-minute length is praised as ideal for the premise.

More from the conversation

The 1993 film remakes a revered Dutch-language film under the same director but replaces its bleak ending after a studio change and test screening.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:50Read transcript
The panel values compact star-led scenario thrillers in which familiar actors are terrorized by a simple premise.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:48Read transcript
Jeff Bridges’s long career is described as a series of unusual choices whose total quality exceeded any single expected blockbuster breakthrough.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:27Read transcript
Barney is compared with early-1990s serial-killer villains while remaining stranger and more domestic than a conventional murderer.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:15Read transcript
Hostile critical reception is contrasted with years of cable exposure that made the remake deeply rewatchable for the participants.
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:16Read transcript
Jeff’s obsession and Barney’s free-will theory turn certainty itself into the weapon used against him.
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:04Read transcript
The film captures Sandra Bullock and Kiefer Sutherland just before later star identities became fixed.
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:02Read transcript
The undiarized discussion repeatedly contrasts 1993 technology and public spaces with modern cameras, phones, streaming, and online obsession.
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:52Read transcript
The American remake debate distinguishes access to foreign films from the obligation to add a meaningful new approach.
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:15Read transcript
Seattle-area locations give the story a specific gas-station, cabin, waterfront, and city texture.
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:51Read transcript
The appended happy ending produces several unresolved consequences for Barney’s family, Diane’s body, and Jeff and Rita’s book.
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:20Read transcript
The producer review expands the episode into a critique of fragmented streaming libraries and the decline of star-led mid-budget thrillers.
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:43Read transcript