Searching

David Kim's sixteen-year-old daughter Margot disappears, and a police investigation led by Detective Vick gets underway. Roughly a day and a half later, with still no useful lead, David turns to the place nobody has checked: his daughter's laptop. Piecing together her messages, posts, photos and search history, he tries to reconstruct where she might have gone before it is too late. The story unfolds entirely through computer and phone screens, as David follows her digital traces and discovers how little he knew about the life she kept online.

Searching is a 2018 American drama, mystery and thriller directed by Aneesh Chaganty, who wrote it with Sev Ohanian. It was the first feature Chaganty directed, followed by Run in 2020, and was produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Adam Sidman and Natalie Qasabian. John Cho plays David, with Michelle La as Margot, Debra Messing as Detective Vick, Joseph Lee, Sara Sohn and Briana McLean among the cast. The production involved 45 credited cast members and 140 credited crew.

Made on a modest scale and released in August 2018, the film took about 76 million dollars worldwide, a strong return. Audiences rate it 7.6 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 192,000 votes and 7.6 out of 10 on TMDB from more than 4,000 votes, while critics give it 7.5 out of 10 from 260 reviews, so critical and audience assessments sit close together.