Three lighthouse keepers on the remote Flannan Isles find a hidden trunk of gold, leading to their mysterious disappearance.
There’s a brutal scene half-way through The Vanishing, director Kristoffer Nyholm’s “what if?” take on the Flannan Isle mystery.
It’s a fight between lighthouse keepers James Ducat (Gerard Butler) and Thomas Marshall (Peter Mullan), and two violent Scandinavian men who’ve appeared looking for their missing chest of gold.
James, dark-haired and bearded, big and brawny, takes on the also dark-haired and bearded, bigger and brawnier Boor (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson); while Thomas, older, grey-haired and wiry, struggles with the grey-haired and wirier Locke (Søren Malling).
It’s hard to work out who is who as they brawl, and it’s as if these ordinary Scottish men are starting to turn into lesser versions of their attackers, now death and greed have intruded.
It also serves to highlight the separateness of James and Thomas’s fellow lighthouse keeper, the much younger Donald (Connor Swindells), who from the off I wouldn’t want to spend six hours with, let alone a six-week stint in an isolated lighthouse. He’s one of those disruptive characters who creates unease simply by being.
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James at first seems as solidly straightforward as it’s possible to be. He has a wife and two children that he loves; he also loves the lighthouse machinery and getting it to work, and takes pride in the chores to keep everything going, from cleaning the light itself to making broth. After the first calamity James makes more broth, methodically chopping vegetables. Thomas has lost his family and he’s nearly done after 25 years’ lighthouse-keeping. They’re friends, though even James defers to Thomas in all matters.
Since they set off for their stint on the island, Donald has been an outsider: gently mocked for not knowing what no one’s told him yet about the job, but given no responsibility.
It’s Thomas who comes up with a vaguely workable plan when they discover the chest, a rowing boat and a dead man in a gully, the morning after a storm: say nothing to anyone, and wait for a full year before spending anything.
This find is the catalyst for a brutally violent thriller that turns into a psychological drama, with a surprising (and unexpectedly sad) ending. It occasionally jars, but mostly I found the changes in tone darkly elegant.
The Vanishing (formerly Keepers, and as a lover of film title puns how I wish they’d kept it) is inspired by the Flannan Isle mystery of 1900. Three lighthouse men disappeared from their posts, leaving only an upturned chair and a set of oilskins. No one knows what happened to them, though the most likely explanation is that they were swept away in a storm. But likely explanations aren’t very interesting, one reason why I doubt many of us really want famous historical mysteries to be solved (though how great if it turned out to be aliens).
It’s Donald who spots the body. He’s winched down to check it out, and as he’s tying the rope to the wooden chest, the dead sailor turns out to be anything but – attacking Donald from behind. It’s a stunning moment (literally) and leads to an extraordinary scene, almost comical in some ways, with James and Thomas calling down to Donald to “hold on there” while his attacker tries to kill him. It’s literally life or death yet no one tries to scramble down to help him until they have the rope.
Donald manages to kill the man, though he’s devastated at what he’s done. But when the bodies start to pile up, it’s James who’s in danger of losing his mind, staring-eyed but not seeing anything apart from what he’s done. Donald becomes more accepting of his own deeds and less accepting of the weakest link now it’s no longer him. “It’s been a hell of a week” he deadpans later, with sociopathic understatement.
Throughout all of this, I wasn’t sure whether the deaths change them or whether they can no longer hide the men they always were. I think that’s also James’s dilemma.
James’s emotional collapse can’t simply be caused by guilt at what they’ve done, though it includes a retreat into religiosity. He’s already suffered two big whacks to the head when the sailors turn up looking for their gold and is obviously seriously injured.
Still, Nyholm weaves into this new story other, long-accepted hazards of lighthouse-keeping. Mercury poisoning, arising from long-term exposure, can lead to hallucinations and depression. Mercury was used to make the light turn smoothly; there’s a mercury spillage soon after their arrival, along with a useful explanation of what it’s for.
Isolation is less important here – the men’s problem is too many people, not too few. If anything it all looks very enticing – wild and beautiful – and I can’t be the only mum watching it thinking “what I’d give to be stuck there with a pile of books I’ve been trying to read since 2010, and enough chocolate digestives to last six weeks”. (Plus I’m the only person I know who loves big lights.)
The sea, too, is hazardous and unpredictable. I loved its vast expanse with no rocks or land to frame them, just empty water.
I also loved the outfits: the earthy tones, baggy trousers held up with braces, workaday cotton shirts, and chunky jumpers (actually the same chunky jumper every day). I was in 19th century heaven. Who needs corsets, bon-mots and bonbons when you’ve got bearded Scotsmen melancholically smoking pipes, about to meet their doom?
There are perhaps too many suggestions left by Nyholm, to add to the air of forboding (though they’re all very enjoyable). “I’ll pray for you!” says the previous incumbent, eager to leave, as he hands over to James, Thomas and Donald when they land. The mercury spillage. Dead seagulls. The explanation of the woolding, pirate torture involving a rope tied round the forehead and twisted until the victim’s eyes pop out.
But while that pervading sense of menace starts off artificial, it soon feels very real. Fixing the radio becomes harder not easier, hands bumbling, now that it’s essential. Each violent development makes their cover story more complex and more likely to crack. As people’s true colours emerge under pressure, it’s clear they haven’t a chance of getting through a year keeping quiet, even if they can all get off the island.
The performances are impressive: Swindells is both bumptious and weaselly from the start. For Butler it’s a triumphant return as a character actor – a nuanced study of an injured man overwhelmed with agonising despair that he’s not the man he thought himself to be. Mullan is terrific as Thomas, already hardened by tragedy, the only anchor in a sea of panic.
James’s breakdown is heartbreaking, Donald increasingly as sinister as their opponents. And everyone relies on Thomas, to the very end.
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The keepers kill Locke and Boor in the fight, then chase someone else on the island who James then also kills. It turns out to be a boy. He’s from the Scandinavians’ boat, and only reminds James of his own son (it isn’t actually his son). James is losing his mind. Later he locks Thomas in a room and kills Donald. James and Thomas leave in the boat with the gold, but James is wracked with guilt and asks Thomas to help kill him. James climbs into the water and Thomas holds his head under until James drowns (I found that scene unbearably sad). Thomas sails off into the distance.
By the way if you’re worried about the occasionally-appearing dog, I think he stays in the lighthouse.
thank you for a well deserved positive review. and you don’t have to apologise for Gerard in this one!! i couldn’t put my finger on why Donald was so …. but you got it spot on!! this is the best work we have seen from Gerard in quite a while. i love this film. and the little sea shanty didn’t hurt either.
in what there is of a real story, James Ducat was actually the senior rank. and the upturned chair a fabrication by a local journalist. just part om my secondary history lessons. for what its worth.
Thank you 🙂 That’s interesting about the fabrications and changes, I guess these stories must take on a life of their own over the years.
What is the explanation for the dead seagulls?
I think it’s just from the storm, but meant to add to the sense of foreboding (I did actually google before writing my review in case it was a sailors’ superstition – it’s bad luck to kill a bird but nothing about if they turn up dead in front of your lighthouse!)
True. But birds can be stunned and appear dead for quite some time. So I wonder if they did in-fact kill some Inadvertently. Thank you for an informative review. I’d be happy to accompany you for your lighthouse escape. I make a mean broth. .
Who was Charlie…where did he come from?
Thank you! No one seems to be wondering that! It was a good movie but the whole Charlie character just seemed to show up out of no where and messed up everything! I feel like they just through him in to make the movie play out the way it needed to.
From what I could find this is what really happened.
The boy James killed only reminded him of his son, Charlie. In fact, he was a member of the 3-man Norwegian crew of the boat circling the island. The reason the boat was still able to operate after the two men were put ashore was because the boy was still piloting the boat. I enjoyed this movie. It reminded me a bit of another favorite–“A Simple Plan.” But this film wasn’t only about greed. Madness is a symptom of mercury poisoning–as was alluded to early on in this movie.
Hope that helps
This is what I assumed too. The boy James kills is from the Norwegians’ boat, and reminds James of his son (and also James sees what he’s become, killing a kid essentially, hence his later breakdown). Thrillx, I liked all the hints of what’s adding to their distress too: mercury poisoning, the isolation, and the influence that their decision to steal the gold has on them, breaking down trust between them etc.
Locke is a reflexion of Thomas, Boor a reflexion of James, so the boy is… Donald. Donald isn’t sinister, he’s childlike in appearance and behavior. The dead boy reminds James of his son Charlie but in fact he’s Donald, who looks to James as a father figure, wrestling and pranking him, to which James is good natured and tolerant. Donald alluded to being a bastard implying that he never had a real father in his life. And when things go wrong, James (addled by mercury) does what many parents do and blames his child for his own mistakes. Thomas could be the grandfather in this analogy, father to James. James kills his “son” and Thomas reluctantly does the same.
George, this is a great analysis of what are not obvious parallels in the story until they are mentioned. Nice work!
I think a number of people watching may have failed to grasp the subtle clue left by the director in the form of mercury. As James (Gerard Butler’s character) sits on duty in the lighthouse there is a small amount of quicksilver, about quarter sized, pooled on a surface near James. It was a quick shot and perhaps too quick for some viewers. If you remember they donned age old hazmat suits to clean up the original spill. Then, during the cleanup they referenced how many a lighthouse keeper had been lost due to mercury. The shot of the small continued spillage was to show that it was an ongoing problem that was never fully fixed. It was this exposure that led to James’ downward spiral and his mental instability. The killing of the Norwegian cabin boy that REMINDED James of his son named Charlie was just the nail in the coffin for him and was the beginning of the end for him. His mind addled by mercury exposure was unable to come to grips with all the death. Even if some of it was done in the name of self defense.
Keepers would’ve had my vote as the movie title as opposed to The Vanishing…
In further exploration of the symptoms of mercury poisoning, one could also conclude that Thomas and Donald may have also been suffering from the effects as well. The trouble sleeping, the moodiness, being quick to anger, headaches, although they all at some point suffered from blows to the head.
Still would like to know how Charlie fits into the story?
His name wasn’t Charlie it was a boy from the Norwegian boat.. it just reminded him of his son Charlie
Agreed who was Charlie? No one seems to be worried about the key turning point in the movie that just showed up out of no where on a island?? And it was a kid no less, does he live on that island alone?? Best guess is there is a family that lives on the island but that still seems random and distant at best
The boy is from the Norwegian boat… he just reminds him of his son… Charlie
I was also having the same who and how question on the Charlie character. But, the cast list at the end of the movie states a character of a Galley Hand which tends to confirm on Sarah’s assumption of a third member of the Scandinavian pirate boat and Charlie was just James’ imagination of his own son.
I absolutely love Gerard Butler, but I had a really hard time with this movie. It’s very hard to understand at some times, well actually a lot of times. The Scottish accent is so deep it’s almost impossible to follow. I love the Scottish accent. I’m a huge fan of movies like Braveheart with Mel Gibson. I figured out the story line about James being reminded of his own son when he kills the boy, that apparently was on the boat with the other two scandinavians. Between not being able to understand them and the ending being alittle strange, I just wasn’t really impressed and I so wanted to be.
Lori, if I’m watching at home, if subtitles are available I always put them on – my hearing is fine, I just find everyone mumbles such a lot! There are so many times I think they’ve said one thing but the subtitles tell a different story…
The tale is THREE men went missing. The movie only depicts TWO men disappearing with Thomas still in the boat. What happens to him? He’s still alive? Or did he tie the chest to his feet and throw himself overboard too? This part frustrates me and maybe I am missing something…
He’s vanishing because no one ever finds him because he runs away with the gold :/
I’ll bet the gold eventually sinks him–like a true Captain, he’ll go down with the ship!
The introduction of “Charlie” was problematic for a lot of people it seems. Maybe a simple line like, “James! He’s not your boy!” would’ve helped. I cut Butler’s character some slack with the idea of brain damage from the three crushing blows the Norwegian gave him.
Hi I am just wondering what happened to the poor dog did they leave him there to starve S a dog lover I feel its very cruel.
The next shift of lighthouse keepers would be there shortly plus he woulda had all the seagulls to eat.
What happened to Thomas when everyone else died!
Did he go back and tell the truth and hand the gold bars in!
I wish we had closure!
Good film though.
We must assume Thomas disappeared somewhere with the gold or died since the movie is about the disappearance of 3 men, not 2. If he had turned himself in, then only 2 men would have been reported missing and “The Vanishing” would not be a mystery.
If this film is supposed to be set in 1900, the year of the historical disappearance, then the use of audio transmission radios rather than (early) shortwave wireless devices is problematic as they weren’t available until the 1920’s.
Did Mary die in childbirth?
We see Thomas looking through binoculars quite early in the movie and he sees two people on a boat .
Why didn’t he
mention that?