The Missing

"How far would you go, how much would you sacrifice to get back what you have lost?"

2003 2h 15m EN

😐

6.3

MID

🥫

58%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.5

IMDB

★6.3TMDB · 717🥫58%Rotten Tomatoes●55Metacritic★6.5IMDB · 41,447

ThrillerWesternAdventure

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When rancher and single mother of two Maggie Gilkeson sees her teenage daughter, Lily, kidnapped by Apache rebels, she reluctantly accepts the help of her estranged father, Samuel, in tracking down the kidnappers. Along the way, the two must learn to reconcile the past and work together if they are going to have any hope of getting Lily back before she is taken over the border and forced to become a prostitute.

“How far would you go, how much would you sacrifice to get back what you have lost?”

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Cast

Cate Blanchett
Maggie Gilkeson
Tommy Lee Jones
Samuel Jones
Evan Rachel Wood
Lilly Gilkeson
Jenna Boyd
Dot Gilkeson
Aaron Eckhart
Brake Baldwin
Val Kilmer
Lt. Jim Ducharme
Eric Schweig
Pesh-Chidin / El Brujo
Steve Reevis
Two Stone

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Ken Kaufman
Languages: English, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 64% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 23 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Salvatore Totino. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Daniel P. Hanley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones and Evan Rachel Wood carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ron Howard directs. Salvatore Totino behind the camera. James Horner scores. Daniel P. Hanley cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Earned back only 64% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released 23 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Spanish.
5Directed by Ron Howard, shot by Salvatore Totino. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Daniel P. Hanley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones and Evan Rachel Wood carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "How far would you go, how much would you sacrifice to get back what you have lost?".
10IMDB entry: tt0338188 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 12 themes, including "daughter", "mexico", "based on novel or book", "new mexico".

The technical file

Cinematography: Salvatore Totino
Original score: James Horner
Editing: Daniel P. Hanley
Costume design: Julie Weiss
Makeup / hair: Leslie Devlin
Stunt coordinator: Walter Scott
Runtime: 135 min · 2h 15m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $60,000,000
Box office: $38,364,277
Return: 64% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Missing (2003)
Rotten Tomatoes: 58% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 55/100
IMDB rating: 6.5/10 · 41,447 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

2 wins & 8 nominations total

Also by

Ron Howard

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2017-06-19
★ 8/10
There's always the next something, Maggie. And that will take a man away. The Missing is directed by Ron Howard and adapted by Ken Kaufman from the novel The Last Ride written by Thomas Eidson. It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchet, Eric Schweig, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd, Ray McKinnon, Val Kilmer & Aaron Eckhart. James Horner scores the music and Salvatore Totino is the cinematographer. New Mexico 1885 and frontier doctor Maggie Gilkeson (Blanchet) has to seek help from her estranged father Samuel Jones/Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan (Lee Jones), when her eldest daughter is kidnapped by Pesh-Chidin/El Brujo (Schweig) an Apache Warlock who sells girls into prostitution. An obvious variation on John Ford's The Searchers, The Missing slipped under the radar some what of Western fans who were greatly served by Kevin Costner's Open Range released the same year. It was a box office flop; which in a genre that has rarely hit great heights in modern times is hardly surprising, but to dismiss Howard's film as a fop is just wrong. True enough it's hardly original on the page, but it manages to not sacrifice character depth as it crams in the Western staples. While there is plenty enough here for none Western fans to enjoy; from the many colourful characters on show (including a great horror movie like villain in Schweig), to the panoramic scenery, and the number of action sequences that flit in and out of the narrative. There's a little something for most movie loving fans. The cast, too, are value for money. Blanchet gives it guts and layers as Maggie, emotionally cold, is forced to put family dissension to one side and take up arms as a Western heroine, and Wood equally holds court with her transference from irksome waif to bold babe. Tommy Jones enjoys himself as he finds a cowboy role to suit his craggy features, features that impressively dovetail with Salvatore's stark photography of the landscapes. Along with the plucky and endearing young Jenna Boyd's performance it obviously only really mounts up to a broken family coming together under duress. But as a quartet, and with Schweig's vile turn as the "monster" of the piece in amongst them, they function so well, thus all character arcs are acted skilfully and please the senses. Also to be applauded is the use of genuine Apache language from some of the actors, a nice touch that shows a director taking his material seriously. There's a few endings available to view via DVD etc, but the one that Howard chose for its general release is the right one. It perhaps doesn't hold any great surprise, given the directors reputation and output thus far, but it works well in the context of the story and the period tone set throughout. A safe film, then, one that is very well made and tells its story efficiently in structure and verse. If only the script had dared to take a few more risks then this surely wouldn't have been the monetary flop it was. Still, give it a go and you may find as much to like as I did. 7/10

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