The Missing is a 2003 film directed by Ron Howard, based on the novel The Last Ride by Thomas Eidson. This Western thriller set in 1880′s New Mexico is notable for the authentic use of the Apache language by various actors, some of whom spent long hours studying it. The film was produced by Revolution Studios and Imagine Entertainment and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Plot
Set in 19th-century New Mexico, Samuel Jones (Jones) reappears hoping to reconcile with his adult daughter Maggie Gilkeson (Blanchett). She is unable to forgive him for abandoning the family and leaving her mother to a hard life and early death. This situation changes when a Apache medicine man and a dozen of his followers who have left the reservation pass through the area, ritualistically killing settlers and taking their daughters to be sold into prostitution south of the American border. Among those captured is the eldest daughter of the family, Lily.
The U.S. Cavalry refuses to help retrieve the captive women as its resources are tied up conducting forced relocation of captive Native Americans. This leaves Maggie, her father, and the younger daughter alone in tracking the attackers. We discover that Jones had been a member of a Chiricahua band where he gained the name Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan (translates as “shit for luck”) during his wanderings. Among the captives is a young Chiricahua woman and it is finally the combined families who make a near suicidal attempt to free the women.
Jones fights El Brujo, the one responsible for kidnapping his granddaughter, Lilly. When Brujo attempts to kill Maggie, Jones sacrifices his life to save his daughter as both he and Brujo fall to their deaths. Maggie realizes her father’s love for her and finally forgives him at his death.
Main cast
- Tommy Lee Jones – Samuel Jones/Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan
- Cate Blanchett – Maggie Gilkeson
- Evan Rachel Wood – Lilly Gilkeson
- Jenna Boyd – Dot Gilkeson
- Aaron Eckhart – Brake Baldwin
- Val Kilmer – Lt. Jim Ducharme
- Sergio Calderón – Emiliano
- Eric Schweig – Pesh-Chidin/El Brujo
- Steve Reevis – Two Stone
- Jay Tavare – Kayitah
- Simon R. Baker – Honesco
