Searching

In San Jose, California, David Kim looks through past videos of his daughter Margot and his late wife Pamela. After Pamela died from cancer, David and Margot’s relationship grew more distant. One night, Margot leaves to be with her study group. While David sleeps, Margot calls him three times. David discovers the missed calls the next morning. He attempts to call her, but she does not answer and he assumes that she is attending a piano lesson. However, her piano instructor reveals that she canceled her lessons six months ago. David discovers that Margot put the money he gave her for the lessons into her bank account and transferred $2500 to a now deleted Venmo account.

David decides to report her as missing. His case is assigned to San Jose PD Detective Rosemary Vick, who asks David to give her more information about Margot. David contacts all of Margot’s friends after successfully logging into her Facebook, and finds out that she has no close friends. After Vick finds out that Margot made a fake ID for herself, she suggests to David that his daughter may have simply stolen his money and run away. David discovers that Margot had a YouCast (video blogging) account, and that Margot frequently spoke to a user called fish_n_chips. Through her various social media accounts, David finds that Margot frequently visited Barbosa Lake and contacts Vick about his discovery.

While being interrogated, Vick reveals that her son, Robert, used the fish_n_chips username to catfish Margot. After befriending Margot using the knowledge he gained from stalking her, Robert led Margot into believing that his family was in need of money. After Margot paid Robert $2500 through Venmo, he began to feel guilty and decided to give back the cash. Fearing how Margot would react if he revealed himself to be fish_n_chips in public, he followed her late at night to Barbosa Lake. Robert then entered Margot’s car without warning, causing her to attack him in fear; in the resulting confusion, Robert accidentally shoved Margot into a ravine before desperately calling his mother for help. To protect Robert, Vick shoved Margot’s car into the lake so no one would find it, manipulated evidence and the crime scene, and forced Cartoff to falsely admit to killing Margot before murdering him. David and the police rush to the ravine, where Margot is found alive.

Classification: 12A