10 Times Movies Secretly Spoiled Their Own Story
3. All The "Hidden" Clues - Searching
Searching follows a desperate father, David Kim (John Cho), as he frantically attempts to track down his missing daughter, Margot (Michelle La), by any technological means necessary.
In the end, it turns out that Margot was "catfished" by Robert (Steven Michael Eich), the son of Detective Vick (Debra Messing). After Robert attempted to come clean to Margot, he accidentally pushed her off a cliff, causing her to become trapped at the bottom of a ravine.
Robert's mother then used her detective nous to help cover up Robert's involvement, even killing an ex-con and framing him for Margot's supposed murder.
It's a wonderfully twisty narrative, and co-writer-director Aneesh Chaganty ensured to include a number of sneaky hints towards the big reveal throughout the film.
In the movie's opening montage of Margot growing up, she and her father are stood next to a high school sign which reads, "Home of the Catfish," while later a news headline slyly reads, "Trapped hiker survives 9 days in Sierras," nodding towards Margot's improbable - but not impossible - survival in the ravine.
Elsewhere, Robert is listed in the Kim family rolodex as having a crush on Margot, but because he's listed under "Robbie Abolt" and Detective Vick uses her maiden name of Vick, David is unable to make any sort of connection between the two.
And finally, when Kim looks up Detective Vick on Facebook, her header contains a telling Agatha Christie quote - "A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world." Indeed.
There are doubtless many more hints just waiting to be uncovered by viewers committed enough to scan through every single frame of the movie, but these are the most obvious tells.