10 Surprisingly Dark Moments In Laika's Missing Link
1. It Ends With The Implied Ruin Of A Civilization
Missing Link's final moment of darkness is hidden within the subtext of Frost's last few lines of the film. At the very end, Frost receives the Fiji mermaid in the mail and sets off for Atlantis. To understand how dark this truly is, it's important to understand why the entire third act of Missing Link plays out the way it does.
It's made abundantly clear that the yetis won't help Lionel Frost because they know that being discovered by humans could endanger their entire way of life. As seen in the film, rare creatures are able to construct full societies when left to their own devices. The yetis have an entire kingdom, not to mention their own customs and even primitive weapons. Their greatest fear is that the society they've built will be jeopardized by outside interference.
Seeing as it's a known objective of The Optimates Club to wipe such creatures from the face of the planet, the yetis are right to be afraid. Yet after learning this information firsthand, Frost still decides at the end of the film that he's going to discover Atlantis and become famous for it. Even worse, he believes he has the key to succeeding. In other words, he's going to subject Atlantis to the exact same fate the yetis only barely managed to escape.
To be somewhat fair, we don't technically know that Frost's discovery of Atlantis would endanger the seafaring society. On the other hand, most of The Optimates Club are alive and well. Piggot-Dunceby may have been their greatest offender, but there's no reason to assume that his death means safety for hidden societies such as the yetis and the Atlanteans.
Short of Aquaman stepping in to lend a hand, Frost's drive to become famous on the backs of the Atlanteans will likely doom their society, bringing about the exact same sort of destruction so narrowly avoided by the inhabitants of Shangri-La. Frost's character arc was supposed to teach him how to care about others. In the end, he's never actually learned that lesson, and others are bound to pay for his continued ignorance.