Searching (2018)

After his teenage daughter goes missing, a desperate father tries to find clues on her laptop.

Director:

Aneesh Chaganty

Writers:

Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian

Stars:

John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee

6 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Cho	...	David Kim
Sara Sohn	...	Pamela Nam Kim
Alex Jayne Go	...	Young Margot (5 yrs)
Megan Liu	...	Young Margot (7 yrs)
Kya Dawn Lau	...	Young Margot (9 yrs)
Michelle La	...	Margot
Joseph Lee	...	Peter
Dominic Hoffman	...	Michael Porter
Sylvia Minassian	...	Mrs. Shahinian (voice)
Melissa Disney	...	Isaac's Mom (voice)
Connor McRaith	...	Isaac
Colin Woodell	...	911 Operator (voice)
Debra Messing	...	Detective Vick
Joseph John Schirle	...	Jonah Emmi (voice) (as Joseph K. Shirle)
Ashley Edner	...	Margot's Friend #1 (voice)

Storyline

After David Kim (John Cho)'s 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter's laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter's digital footprints before she disappears forever.

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Plot Keywords:

internet | social media | father | missing person | father daughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

We are what we hide.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for thematic content, some drug and sexual references, and for language

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the movie, David Kim (John Cho) works at a company called AppEnsure, Inc. AppEnsure is a real company, one that was co-founded by the director Aneesh Chaganty's father, Sri Chaganty, who is the CTO there. Aneesh's mother, Subha Chaganty, also works there as the Director of offshore operations.

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Goofs

Early in the film, the very young version of Margot is shown learning to play the piano on a Yamaha DX7. This is extraordinarily unlikely, as that is a digital FM synthesizer from 1984 which has neither built-in speakers nor a pleasant acoustic piano simulation, and its keyboard is unweighted, like a cheap home Casio.

Very shortly afterwards, she is seen playing a tune on, yes, a cheap home keyboard, with the soundtrack following her - badly. The notes she plays are completely different than the soundtrack.

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Quotes

David Kim: I didn't know her. I didn't know my daughter.

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Connections

References Unfriended (2014)

User Reviews

Don't skip this movie just because of the "gimmick".

I was not planning on watching this but I saw the high rating on imdb and considering how bad most movies with this gimmick are it peaked my interest that people actually like this one. I am very surprised at just how good this movie was. I went in with low expectations despite how well received it was but this movie really did it right.

First thing first, they managed to get the internet right, or atleast as right as you can expect a movie to get it. It featured mostly real websites and stayed within the limits of reality when it comes to his snooping around the internet for clues.

Secondly the pacing is pretty good too with a solid story that keeps you engaged and offers surprises throughout.

While not the best acted movie, the acting is certainly solid enough to get through the movie and they manage to make you care about the characters in a short amount of time.

Overall I'm pleasently surprised and the high rating is a combination of the solid story and that fact someone managed to finally pull off this concept correctly. It definitely earned a bonus point for its uniqueness and willingness to be something different.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Instagram

Country:

USA Russia

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 August 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Searching

Box Office

Budget:

$880,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$388,769, 26 August 2018

Gross USA:

$26,020,957

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$75,462,037

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films, Bazelevs Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1