The action thriller film “Last Seen Alive” is a good watch for some light action entertainment without any need to delve much into its content. Following the story of Will Spann, as he desperately tries to save his marriage and his wife after she suddenly goes missing one day, the film’s plot or narrative is nothing too unusual. Yet, it does not get too drab and provides a reasonable experience without being anything remarkable.
‘Last Seen Alive’ Plot Summary
Will and his wife Lisa are seen taking a long drive, but something seems off between the couple from the get-go, as Will tries to convince his wife about something. It is soon revealed that Will and Lisa’s marriage is on the brink of failure, and Lisa wants to take a break from the relationship and spend a few days at her parents’ house to look for a new perspective on life. Although Will himself admits his absence, either physically or mentally, for a major part of their married life, he is still not yet out of love and wants to give their romance one more chance. But things have grown even more difficult since Lisa had an affair with a different man some six months back, and it is perhaps this experience that has made her understand how unhappy and stuck she is in her marriage with Will. As all these conversations and exchanges of thoughts go on between the couple, they need to make a stop for refueling soon, and Lisa goes to the shop at the gas station. Inside, she visits the restroom and buys a bottle of water. She is also seen receiving emails from the man she had an affair with, and it is clear that she has been ignoring him for a while. As Lisa walks out of the shop, though, she is seen being approached by someone; a truck drives up in front of them, hiding Lisa from view, and then when it drives away, the woman is nowhere to be seen. While Will grows restless after some time, he tries looking for his wife everywhere and even calls her mobile phone, but there is no response. He looks through the shop and the washroom, and then also asks the man working the counter, but to no avail. Very strangely, and adding to the mystery, the shopkeeper denies having seen anyone matching Will’s description of Lisa, even though he had a conversation with her and she had also left him a fair tip. All this is unknown to the husband, though, as he now worriedly calls the police and informs them of his missing wife, who seems to have suddenly vanished into thin air.
Spoilers Ahead
Who Kidnapped Lisa? How did Will Track Them Down?
As the police open their investigation into the case, detective Paterson arrives at the scene and takes all the necessary information from Will. In the meantime, Will had driven down to Lisa’s parents’ house, which is just a few miles away from the gas station, to check whether she had already reached there for some reason. The parents, who seem not very approving of their son-in-law, get instantly worried as Lisa has not come, and they even grow a bit suspicious of Will. The police, too, had initial suspicions about the husband, as the couple was not in their happiest phase and were about to separate because of Lisa’s involvement in an extra-marital affair. This gave Will the perfect motive to try and vanish his wife, probably even kill her, but Paterson lets Will walk free for the time being. Paterson seemed to know the gas station storekeeper very well, being local residents of the same small town, and he addressed him by his name, Oscar, asking him to show the security camera footage. Oscar mentions the cameras being out of order, but after the detective leaves, Will sees one camera with its lights flashing, meaning that it was still working. Will angrily walks in again and threatens Oscar, before finally beating him up and taking the hard drive with the footage to the police station. Taking a look at the footage, they find Lisa talking with a man just outside the shop, before disappearing as the truck momentarily puts her out of sight. Showing the video to Lisa’s parents, Will gets to know that the man seen talking to her is actually their own handyman, called Knuckles. They further explain that Knuckles used to be classmates with Lisa in school, but the boy grew up without any stable career or job, and so he now runs errands and odd jobs for people in the town, including themselves. The mother then also identifies the car seen in the video and remembers that she had seen the exact same car some days back in a garage nearby. Will soon reaches this garage’s location, without informing any of this to the police, and sneaks into the desolate property with a small rudimentary house in it. He spots Knuckles struggling to put something inside a bag, and it seems almost like he is manhandling a human being. Will breaks into the house as well, but finds Knuckles only packing his bags in a hurry. A fistfight ensues, and Knuckles also tries to pull out his gun on the husband, but he is taken hostage after Will outmuscles him. Knuckles now explains that he had taken Lisa to a man called Frank, but did not want to leave her alone there, as Frank is apparently very dangerous. Will hardly wastes any more time listening, though, as he ties Knuckles’ hands and legs and throws him inside his car, ordering him to lead the way to Frank.
As Will hastily drives his car towards the location, he breaks the speed limit and is immediately pursued by a cop car. Not wanting to complicate the situation, he pulls up and cooperates in the routine check. The policeman, however, suspects something is wrong and asks Will to step out of the car instead of simply handing him a speeding ticket. As the official is about to open the car’s trunk, inside which Knuckles is stashed with his breath held, Will makes a run for it and enters the nearby forest. Once he is no longer being chased, Will sets out to find Frank’s place on foot, and gets close to it within an hour or so. Reaching the place, he realizes that it is like a camp of drug addicts where local batches of meth and other chemical drugs are also being made. He spots Frank, identifying the man when others call out his name, and stealthily follows him around in order to interrogate him. Meanwhile, Oscar is also seen coming to the camp, and it looks like the man is a regular visitor there. Will finally manages to get close to Frank inside a big barn that has been transformed into a meth lab; he now comes out of hiding and confronts Frank and his men, with a gunfight quickly following. The vengeful husband kills the goons, and he tries to corner Frank to find out about Lisa, but in the process, he shoots the man dead. Will feels broken, as the last straw to reach his wife is now lost, and as he disappointedly leaves the building, he does not take notice of a small fire that has started from the gunfight and all the dangerously inflammable liquids. He starts to mentally break down gradually, with memories of Lisa now haunting him, but suddenly Oscar comes out of the barn, pointing a gun at Will. The shopkeeper now claims to know about Lisa’s location, and he demands twenty thousand dollars in exchange for his knowledge. Will does not take him seriously at first, but this changes very quickly when Oscar brings out Lisa’s phone, clearly showing that he too is involved. Will agrees to pay the money, but as Oscar is about to say something, the entire barn blows up, instantly killing him.
During all this time, detective Paterson had reached the spot on the highway where Will’s car had been stopped, and Knuckles was found inside it. The police officer now interrogates Knuckles and uses all the force required to bring out information. Knuckles finally breaks down and reveals exactly what all had happened: as the man did not have any considerable profession but a pricey drug addiction to attend to, he was always in need of cash. While working at Lisa’s parents’ house, he had learned that the woman was coming back to town in a few days, and had made a plan of abduction and had also shared it with Frank. They knew that Lisa was married to a rich real estate businessman, Will, and also knew that the husband would pay a large amount of money to save his wife. Despite Frank not really approving of the plan, Knuckles had decided to carry it through when he saw his childhood friend at the gas station that morning. Posing to hand her some papers to give to her father, Knuckles had managed to bring Lisa close to his car and then abducted her. He then took Lisa to Frank’s drug camp, but the man was furious as he guessed Knuckles would have definitely left his tracks at the gas station. Saying that it was too risky to keep Lisa or even return her, Frank had ordered Knuckles to dig a pit in which Lisa would be buried after being murdered. Knuckles had gotten too scared of the whole situation and had run away into the forest while digging the pit. He had then returned to his own house and was packing to leave town when Will came and attacked him there. In his tearful confession to Paterson, Knuckles keeps mentioning that Lisa is now most certainly dead, for Frank is too dangerous a man to keep her alive.
‘Last Seen Alive’ Ending Explained: Is Lisa Actually Dead?
Detective Paterson reaches the drug camp, where other police and fire emergency forces have already reached after the terrible explosion. He finds a disheartened Will sitting in one corner and asks the husband to stay put there without yet breaking the news of Lisa’s death to him. As the detective starts looking around the property and finds a big pit dug behind a house, Will seems to hear a certain banging or thumping noise nearby. Paterson pulls away the planks used to hide the pit and finds it empty. Almost at this exact moment, Will finds a small outhouse from which the thumping noise is coming. With a sudden burst of newfound hope, he opens the latch on the door and enters to find Lisa lying inside, alive but with her hands and legs tied and her mouth taped. Will heroically carries his wife outside, while she begs him to save her and take her away. It seems that while Knuckles had reported the certain death of Lisa, it was the man’s prediction based on how Frank is, and the drug lord had seemingly gotten too caught up in his business for the time being before killing the woman. Or it is also possible that he, too, had ultimately decided to keep Lisa alive in case he could make some money as ransom while also not having to share it with Knuckles.
Once Lisa is checked and taken to her house, Paterson arrives and meets with Will on the driveway, saying that Knuckles has signed the confession, admitting to all the charges of kidnapping. The detective informs us that although Knuckles’ version is the only valid account of what happened after the abduction, as everyone else is dead and Lisa would not know about it, It seems, Paterson mentions, that Oscar had seen the entire incident on the security camera footage and had decided to cut in a share of the ransom for himself. On his way to Frank’s camp, he must have picked up Lisa’s phone from the gas station, which had dropped when she was abducted. Paterson also reveals that not all the bodies in the barn had died from the explosion, suggesting that he knew that Will had killed them, but the policeman does not mind letting it slide. Finally, as it starts to rain outside, Lisa comes out and asks Will to join her and her family inside, suggesting a very loving reunion between the two. After all, “Last Seen Alive” does hold the potential to seem like an extensively convoluted plot to save a failing marriage.
“Last Seen Alive” is a 2022 Drama Thriller film directed by Brian Goodman.
