‘Disappearance’ Ending Explained: What Happened to Weaver?
Welcome to the Ending Explained for ‘Disappearance,’ a 2002 TV movie that TBS broadcasted. The movie is written and directed by Walter Klenhard and stars Harry Hamlin, Susan Dey, Jer Adrianne Lelliott, Basia A’Hern, and Jamie Croft. The film has become one of those mythical films that everyone seems to remember in images, but no one really knows its name. Because of this, the film’s nostalgia is quite high, making it a very interesting document. Now that it has resurfaced on some streaming services, it seems interest in the film has reignited.
‘Disappearance’ isn’t a particularly good film; the production values are quite low, the acting is a bit choppy, and the entire premise hinges on the audience’s will to fill out the gaps with all their imagination. Many of the things the movie sets up are never explained, and the ending, while very good on a tone level, isn’t really satisfying on a narrative level.
The movie is still worth watching, but just get ready to see something that is rather mediocre, especially if you saw this back in the day. You have let your imagination make it a better movie than it actually is. It is interesting enough to warrant a watch, at the very least.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for ‘Disappearance’. Read at your own risk.
How did the Wenley Family get to Weaver?
More than any other film in recent memory, ‘Disappearance’ makes an excellent case for why characters should stay together when confronting hard or scary situations. For some reason, writers have always taken the easy out and separated the characters, allowing for bad things to happen to them more easily. Yes, it is easier, but also more predictable and also more stupid.
Why would someone just go to explore a derelict town when evidence of bad things happening there has already been shown? No one knows; it makes no sense. However, that is what constantly happens in this movie.
The film begins with the introduction of the Wenley Family. They are on a family trip. The family consists of Harry, Susan, Matt, and Kate, with Susan being Matt and Kate’s stepmother after their mother died and Harry remarried. Another young kid named Ethan is also going along with them. He is Matt’s best friend.
Harry forced everyone on the trip to make bonds. While Susan cares for the kids, they still have problems accepting her as their new mother. Matt loves photography, and he is interested in checking out the ghost town of Weaver, so he forces his father to take the detour.
They arrive at the worn-out gas station, have a horrible meal at the diner, and then ask for directions on how to reach the town. Everyone seems on edge when the name Weaver is mentioned, and they warn Harry that they cannot help him find it. The gas station owner suggests that they should just keep traveling away from her. However, after voting, they decide to follow Matt’s notes and find the town.
They find it, and it is far from the diner and the gas station. Weaver is indeed a ghost town, and it seems that everyone left at some point in 1948.
The town is incredibly creepy, as it seems people just left in a hurry, leaving many things in the place when they were being used at the time of their escape. They find something that stands out: a video camera, and watch the video inside. The video depicts a young woman who is scared to die. The woman tells her story; she explains how they go there and how each of her friends disappears one by one, leaving her alone in the end. The video scares the family, but Harry and Susan dismiss it as a practical joke, while Kate, the only character making sense throughout the movie, suggests they should just leave.
What happened to Weaver?
However, when they go outside, their van just won’t start. The family is forced to stay the night in the town, which is already horrible enough. Here, we see the point of view of a creature we never really see in the movie.
It visits the inside of the building where the family stays and takes Kate’s sweater. The next morning, the family wakes up and discovers that the van is gone. Harry decides to walk with Ethan back to the gas station and ask for help there. He leaves a gun with Susan, who stays with Matt and Kate. They are expected to return in seven hours.
Matt and Kate despair, and Susan tries to keep things in check. However, she tries to explore the town to find a bathroom and falls inside the mines. There, she discovers a place with kids’ toys and Kate’s sweater; she leaves, as there is definitely something wandering the mines. Matt and Kate discover Susan and help her go back to the surface.
Meanwhile, Harry and Ethan see strange animals and glass ground in the desert. Apparently, a neutron bomb was detonated there in 1948. Ethan goes ahead but then disappears. Harry panics, and while he doesn’t reach the station, he reaches a junkyard where his van is. She reconnects the battery and takes off while someone watches him from a distance.
Harry returns to the town and informs the rest of Ethan’s disappearance. They don’t care; they just want to leave that place. They do, even when a strange gust of wind tries to stop them.
They return to town, but no one seems to believe what they are saying, not even the police. However, a drunk man in a cell speaks to Harry and informs him that it is real. It apparently has to do with the neutron that was donated there in 1948. Many people didn’t abandon the town and just went into the mines. The radiation did something to them. At night, while buying food, Kate sees that the woman serving her is the one from the video they found in the town.
The police find Ethan late at night, and while everything seems to point out that something horrible is happening in the town, the family is not interested in finding out what. They try to leave that same night, but the creature intercepts them on the road, making the van crash. Six months later, we see Kate driving a bike in town.
Just like the girl from the video, the Henley family is part of the town, and they act like it. In the end, Kate feeds a crow that takes off, and it is apparently taking pictures of the town and its inhabitants, pointing out that maybe the entire situation is an experiment run by the government or some other shady organization.
