Vanish

Vanish (stylized as VANish) is a 2015 thriller film written and directed by Bryan Bockbrader. It stars Maiara Walsh, Austin Abke, Bockbrader, and Adam Guthrie. Tony Todd and Danny Trejo appear in cameos. Walsh plays a kidnapping victim who both manipulates her captors and becomes a pawn in their individual plots. The entire film takes place from inside the van used to kidnap her character. Dark Sky Films released it to video on demand and on DVD on February 24, 2015. Plot While driving a van through Los Angeles, half-brothers Jack and Max argue about Jack's ex-girlfriend, Jasmine, who has called him to demand he retrieve his possessions from her place. Max says Jasmine never loved Jack and has always been obsessed with her dead boyfriend, who died in a carjacking. After arriving at a posh mansion, they don masks, pull out pistols, and kidnap Emma, who fights back. As they subdue her, Max shoots a neighbor who comes over to investigate, angering Jack, who did not want to resort to violence. Emma, who Max knocked unconscious, wakes while a third conspirator, Shane, is unmasked. When Shane uses Max's real name, the others exasperatedly remove their masks, reasoning that their cover has been blown. They force Emma to record a ransom demand for her wealthy father. She reveals she has not spoken to her father in several years and calls her kidnappers incompetent amateurs. Afterward, she warns the men that her father will likely not pay the ransom, but when he calls them back, Jack threatens to kill Emma unless he does. Shane, Jack's war buddy from Iraq, drives them to a motel, where they stash Emma. While they are in their rooms, Mexican cartel hit men search the van and recognize the name of the owner as a possible hit they performed, though they are not sure. Jack surprises them, kills one, and questions the other. Jack learns they tracked the kidnappers through Emma's cell phone and that Carlos, Emma's father and a major cartel boss, has no intention of paying the ransom. After executing the remaining hit man, he quickly gathers the others, and they flee the motel.