The Vanishing (1993 film)
1993 film directed by George Sluizer
The Vanishing is a 1993 American psychological thriller horror film directed by George Sluizer and starring Jeff Bridges, Kiefer Sutherland, Nancy Travis, and Sandra Bullock. It is a remake of Sluizer's 1988 French-Dutch film of the same name.
Plot
The film begins with chemistry professor Barney Cousins at his cabin, seemingly perfecting methods to conduct a kidnapping. He is so dedicated to his work that his wife Helene and his daughter Denise suspect he is having an affair.
Jeff Harriman goes on vacation with his girlfriend Diane Shaver, who vanishes at a gas station. Three years later, Jeff has become obsessed with finding out what happened, posting fliers and following leads. Exhausted, he stops at a diner and meets a waitress named Rita who sympathizes with his plight and looks after him. A year later, the two are a couple and have settled in an apartment in Seattle. Jeff, who is attempting to write a novel, meets with a publisher who suggests that he write a book about the disappearance. Knowing this will upset Rita, he hides his project, buys a used military uniform, and uses army reserve drills as a cover to continue his search.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Vanishing (1993 film)” is 1993 film directed by George Sluizer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Vanishing, film and directed, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1993 film directed by George Sluizer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q616301. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1993 and 1988.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Vanishing (1993 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.