Netflix’s new thriller, "Vanished into the Night," or "Svaniti Nella Notte" in Italian, focuses on a couple going through a divorce and fighting for custody of their kids.
Elena (Annabelle Wallis) and Pietro (Riccardo Scamarcio) both have problems the other can use for leverage.
She's a former psychotherapist in the U.S. who wants to return to her successful career, but her addiction to painkillers gives Pietro an argument with which to fight for custody.
Meanwhile, Pietro, who struggles with a gambling addiction, has racked up 250,000 euros of debt, which Elena is quick to use against him.
Read on for an overview of what comes next — including how "Vanished into the Night" ends.
What happens in 'Vanished into the Night'?
Before their separation, Elena and Pietro planned to renovate a farmhouse they had bought together.
While Elena is away on a trip, Pietro takes the kids to the farmhouse — where they are kidnapped during the night. Pietro gets a call demanding 150,000 euros in exchange for his kids. The kidnappers don’t say who they are, but it can be assumed that they have something to do with Pietro’s gambling.
Out of options, Pietro goes to his longtime friend Nicola to ask for the money. Nicola tells him he can have the money, as long as he does a “small job” which involves transporting cocaine from Greece. Although dangerous, Pietro agrees to do it for his kids.
Right before leaving, he and Elena share a passionate kiss.
While the job turns out to be no small feat, Pietro’s determination ensures that he makes it back to Bari with the drugs in hand. Pietro demands the cash he’s owed from Nicola and races to Elena’s apartment.
Much to his surprise, his kids are calmly eating breakfast at the table, unfazed by anything that may or may not have happened. When he confronts Elena, she also has no idea what he is talking about and says he hallucinated everything. She calls him crazy and threatens to call the police, leaving Pietro battered, bruised and confused.
How does ‘Vanished into the Night’ end?
On his way home, Pietro receives a recording from Elena of the conversation they just had. In it, he talks about the ransom money and getting cocaine from Greece — and he sounds unstable.
Elena tells him that if he doesn’t give up custody of the kids, she will use the recording against him once she gets back to America. Pietro races to ask his kids what really happened, and gets inconsistent answers. To prove that he was set up, Pietro finds oxycodone in Elena’s apartment and matches the pill box to remnants of a box he found in the bathroom of the farmhouse.
It becomes clear that Elena drugged the kids and “kidnapped” them herself. She also set Pietro up with Nicola with an intention to get "dirty money."
Pietro confronts Elena at the airport with the evidence, saying, “You drugged our children. You could have killed them. You are getting on that plane alone." If she does take them, he says he will report her.
Elena confesses she believed it was the only path she saw to keeping her kids. "They were never in danger," she insists.
"What choice did I have? You never wanted to come to a compromise or any agreement. I had no way out. This is not my life," she says.
Knowing he has won the intense custody battle, Pietro motions to leave the airport with the kids. Elena says she refuses to leave, but seems to relent.
He gives Elena a "way out" because he doesn't want their kids to know "what their mother did to them," he says. Elena, looking on, cries.
At the last second, Elena blurts out that the kiss they had shared the night before was real, suggesting that she still loves him.
In the final scene, Pietro looks longingly at an old picture of his broken family. While his expression saddens, his kids laugh and play in the living room — still unaware of everything that just happened.
Outside the window, a blurry figure appears. Although we can only see this person for a second, it is unmistakably Elena. As Pietro continues to stare, the audience is left wondering why she is back, what she might want, and if she is truly outside or just a figment of his imagination.
