The Vanished ending explained: What happened to Taylor and Miranda?

We’re breaking down The Vanished ending and all the lingering questions.

Released last summer, The Vanished is a thriller film written by Twilight actor Peter Facinelli starring Anne Heche and Thomas Jane as parents who lose their daughter on a camping trip. The Vanished ending is packed with some crazy twists that we’re going to breakdown in full below.

It should go without saying, given the nature of this post, but here is a serious spoiler warning if you haven’t watched the movie yet and want to see The Vanished ending play out without any hints as to what’s to come!

That said, maybe you are watching the film, and it’s dragging on endlessly, and you don’t want to stick it out the end and would rather just spoil yourself so you can turn it off. I came close to doing the same thing because, despite the movie running under two hours, it feels endless, and it leaves many unresolved mysteries.

What happened to Taylor?

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The central plot of the film revolves around parents Paul and Wendy Michaelson losing their 10-year-old daughter Taylor. On Thanksgiving weekend, the pair drive their RV to a campground and intend to spend the time with their daughter.

But during a small window of time when Wendy is at the store, and Paul is distracted by their sexy campground neighbor Miranda, Taylor seemingly vanishes into thin air. What happened to her? Was she kidnapped?

Nope. It turns out that Taylor was never there at all. She died several years before. Paul and Wendy have a shared psychosis called folie à deux that causes them to imagine Taylor is still alive. This isn’t the first time they’ve panicked about her “disappearing” either, although usually, it doesn’t end with such disastrous results.

The reveal happens when Sheriff Baker (Jason Patric) notices an old photo of Wendy pregnant when the two towers will standing in New York City. The timeline doesn’t add up. So then he has his deputy (Facinelli) reach out to Paul’s brother to confirm.

Why wouldn’t the brother have gotten in touch with them earlier, or why wouldn’t they have reached out to family members? They did a press conference on television. Surely someone would have seen and tipped him off especially if the Michaelsons are known for doing this repeatedly.

Who was the camper that Wendy killed?

Shortly after Taylor first goes missing, Wendy and Paul traipse into the nearby woods to search for her for themselves. They’ve been made aware that a convict escaped from a local prison and roamed in the woods. They happen to stumble upon a sleeping camper with a gun next to him and assume that he is the convict.

Wendy tries to take the gun so they can threaten the man to tell them where Taylor is, believing he might have kidnapped her. But he suddenly jerks awake, causing Wendy to fire the gun, killing him instantly. Later, Paul and Wendy find out that the guy wasn’t the convict after all. He was just a random survivalist who likes to go to the woods periodically to live off the land.

But before we the confrontation in the woods, we get a quick scene of this guy doing something violent in the woods. The sound effects, according to Netflix, are of a “woman whimpering.” So it indicates that this man is kidnapping or hurting a woman or young girl.

The Vanished ending doesn’t even explain what the guy was doing out there. I have a theory.

Before we find out what really happened to Taylor, Wendy discovers the campground owner Tom (John D. Hickman) is part of an underground child pornography ring. Yeah, this movie is wild. Of course, it turns out to be a red herring as Taylor wasn’t kidnapped. I’m guessing that the “camper” in the woods was part of the ring because one of the police officers mentions that they still don’t know who the “leader” of the ring was. Maybe it was that guy.

What happened to Miranda Hudson?

Another frustrating question left unanswered by The Vanished ending is that we never find out what happened to Miranda Hudson. Miranda and Eric end up on the unfortunate receiving end of the Michaelson’s fury after the couple accuses them of kidnapping Taylor. Wendy even tricks them into accompanying them on a lake search in a fishing boat. Ultimately they come to blows with Wendy pulling a gun on Eric. He tries to take the gun from her, and Paul leaps to stop him. The two men fall overboard, and Paul winds up stabbing Eric to death.

Miranda seemingly also falls overboard and is never seen again. My only theory is that Tom might have found her and taken her. My reason for thinking this is that Wendy initially grows suspicious of Tom when she sees him coming out of a room labeled “Authorized Personnel Only,” and it sounds like a woman is whimpering on the other side. It could have just been one of his gross videos.

When Tom finds Wendy sneaking around and duct tapes her, he knows the jig is up and rushes outside to check something in his truck’s bed. He’s about to open a metal container out there that is maybe hiding a body when Paul approaches. Tom quickly redirects his focus, concealing the metal container from view. We never find out if there is anything inside of it. Maybe he killed Miranda? Either that or she drowned and is out in the lake somewhere. I think Wendy’s gun did go off on the boat, so it’s possible she shot and killed Miranda by mistake.

What did you think about The Vanished ending? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.