Plot
Wealthy real-estate agent Will Spann and his wife Lisa are driving to Lisa's parents' house, as she is preoccupied with her internal struggles in their marriage. They pull over at a gas station for Will to refill the tank while Lisa enters the store to buy bottled water, only for her to never return back to his car. Paranoid, Will search around the gas station for whereabouts of his wife but to no avail, save for her personal belongings. He dials 911 to file a missing persons report, whose call is forwarded to Detective Paterson, who advises him to stay put.
Before Paterson could arrive, he heads to her parents' house to ask Barry and Anna Adams for the whereabouts of Lisa and any of her friends she spoken with, but yielded no information. Flashbacks suggest tension between the couple around their marriage and that her parents had not fully trusted Will. Returning to the gas station, he finally meets Detective Paterson, who proceeds to question the gas station clerk, Oscar. He claims the cameras are broken, but as Paterson leaves, Will notices one of the cameras positioned right at the store entrance is operational, making him suspect that Oscar is involved in Lisa's disappearance.
After a physical altercation, Will forcefully retrieves the CCTV recorder from Oscar and delivers it to the local police station. They spot Lisa leaving with a man, but lost sight of them due to a truck blocking their view, before the two, along with an old automobile had disappeared on sight. Will becomes aggravated by the line of questioning upon being mentioned of Lisa's life insurance and leaves, making Paterson suspicious.
Upon revealing the footage to the Adams', they recognize the man to be Knuckles, their handyman who had worked on their house and knows Lisa. Will tracks down, and subdues Knuckles, who confesses that he took her to Frank and offers to take him to his hideout. Will tapes Knuckles and is carried on the back of his SUV, but is forced to abandon it as he flees into the woods to escape from the police. After running aimlessly through the forest, he ruses an armed man to pointing towards Frank's hideout, which is a derelict drug den.
There, he finds Frank, as well as Oscar, confirming his earlier suspicions of the latter's involvement in Lisa's disappearance. He sneaks around the camp and holds both Frank and one of his men at gunpoint, demanding to know where Lisa is. The three exchange gunfire with both Frank and his henchman shot dead, leaving Will despondent that their whereabouts of Lisa died with them. Simultaneously, Detective Paterson presses Knuckles, who is revealed in a flashback that he was coerced by Frank into abducting Lisa and claims that she was dead.
At the camp, Will is confronted by Oscar, who demands a large sum of money for information on Lisa. At that moment, Oscar is incinerated as the drug lab explodes, caused by a fire that was started in the earlier firefight, attracting the attention of Paterson. He searches the camp for the hole where Knuckles claims he dug for Lisa, but finds it empty. Will hears banging from the shed behind him and finds a terrified but alive Lisa tied up.
At the Adams' residence, Detective Paterson confides to Will of Knuckles' confession. He also reveals there are gunshot wounds among the victims incinerated in the explosion but does not dig further and departs, wishing him well. The film ends as Lisa invites Will inside her home.
Production and release
The film was shot under the title of Chase and was acquired for distribution by Voltage Pictures in July 2021. [8] It was added to Netflix in the United States on October 1, 2022. Last Seen Alive became Netflix's most watched film following its release in the U.S., Philippines, [9] Thailand, [10] Vietnam [11] and Hong Kong. [12] [13] The film placed at #2 in Singapore, [14] Taiwan [15] and Indonesia [7] and #6 in India. [13]
On November 3, 2022, Variety reported that Last Seen Alive had 747 million minutes viewed on Netflix and the film debuted at number 6 on Nielsen Streaming Top 10 list. [16] On the week of January 30– February 5, 2023, Last Seen Alive placed at #1 on Netflix's list of most watched films, "Top 10 By Country" in Denmark, [17] #2 in Finland [18] and Sweden, [19] and #3 in Norway. [20]
