Last Seen Alive
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Brian Goodman
Written by	Marc Frydman
Produced by	Gerard Butler Taylor Conrod Marc Frydman Brian Pitt Bob Shapiro David Shojai Alan Siegel
Starring	Gerard Butler Jaimie Alexander Russell Hornsby Ethan Embry
Cinematography	Peter Holland
Edited by	Julia Wong
Music by	Sam Ewing
Production companies	Voltage Pictures Perfection Hunter Productions G-BASE Marc Frydman Productions
Distributed by	Voltage Pictures Vertical Entertainment
Release date	June 3, 2022
Running time	95 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$5.9 million[2]

Last Seen Alive is a 2022 American action thriller film^[3] directed by Brian Goodman and written by Marc Frydman. It stars Gerard Butler, who also produced the film, Jaimie Alexander and Russell Hornsby. Formerly known as Chase, the film follows a man who takes the law into his own hands after he begins searching for his missing wife. It was released in the US on June 3, 2022 and was panned by critics.^[4]

Plot[edit]

The movie opens with a brief scene of Detective Paterson accusing Knuckles of kidnapping and threatening him with life in prison. As the Detective squeezes his throat, Knuckles finally reveals, “she’s dead.”

Estranged husband and wife, Will and Lisa Spann, are driving to Lisa’s parents’ house, as she’s requested some time apart. Before reaching the house, they stop for gas and Lisa heads inside. As Lisa walks out of the gas station, she’s stopped by an unknown man and a large white truck pulls up, blocking the rest of their interaction from view. Will finishes gassing up and looks for Lisa, but cannot find her in the store or bathrooms. He starts to panic, frantically looking around the entire area, calling her phone, and asking if anyone’s seen her. He finally calls the local police department to report her disappearance and heads to her parents’ house.

Lisa’s parents, Barry and Anna Adams, get into a small argument with Will as he tries to tell them what happened and ask for their help in locating her. A flashback reveals the tension between the couple, where Lisa initially suggests they have some time apart and can’t explain why she’s no longer invested in their marriage. Will heads back to the gas station and meets Detective Paterson, who asks the gas station clerk, Oscar, questions and for security footage, to which Oscar claims the cameras are broken. Finding no leads, the detective returns to the station and Will questions Oscar once more. Noticing the cameras are recording, he starts to suspect Oscar, and gets into a fight with him until he’s able to rip the CCTV box from the wall. He shows the footage to Paterson at the station immediately. They watch the start of Lisa’s interaction with the man until the white truck cuts off view.

Detective Paterson then takes Will to be interrogated, implying his involvement in her disappearance due to their broken marriage. Will leaves angrily and shows Barry and Anna the picture of the man and his car in the security footage, and Anna and Barry identify the man as Knuckles, their handyman. Will pulls up to Knuckles’ trailer and questions him about Lisa. They get into a violent fight in which Will finally subdues Knuckles and takes his gun. Knuckles says he didn’t have a choice and was forced to leave Lisa with someone named Frank. Will duct tapes Knuckles and stuffs him in his trunk as he speeds off to find Frank, but gets pulled over for speeding. The cop forces Will to step out of his car to search it. Just before he finds Knuckles in the trunk, Will bolts for the nearby woods on the side of the road. The cop then finds Knuckles whimpering in the trunk. At the same time, Detective Paterson visits Barry and Anna, revealing her affair with “Clint,” but cut off all contact with him afterwards despite his attempts to reach out to her. Another flashback indicates Anna was distrustful of Will.

Will fast-talks a guard into letting him pass into Frank’s drug lab in the woods full of addicts and sees Oscar arrive, confirming his earlier suspicions. Will sneaks around the camp in search of Lisa and Detective Paterson questions Knuckles about Lisa’s kidnapping. A flashback reveals the moment Knuckles takes Lisa, threatening her into his car. Will quietly stalks Frank into a building, momentarily reminiscing on good times with his wife, before pulling a gun on Frank and begging him to tell him where his wife is. He ends up shooting dead Frank and one of his men as the building catches fire with all the drug chemicals and flammable tanks.

The beginning scene with Detective Paterson and Knuckles replays as Paterson pushes Knuckles to confess. Finally, Knuckles reveals Lisa is dead and how he had kidnapped her to ransom her off to Will, describing how he’d been forced by Frank to fix his “mistake” and dig a hole to bury her. Will, now free to search the camp, encounters Oscar, who reveals he has Lisa’s phone and that he knows where she is, demanding $20,000 for information. The building suddenly explodes, killing Oscar, and Detective Paterson arrives on-scene. He tells Will to stay and goes to investigate the hole, finding it not filled and empty. At the same time, Will hears banging from a nearby shed and finds a terrified but alive Lisa tied up. They embrace and he carries her out.

At the Adams’ house, Detective Paterson briefly stops by to inform Will that Knuckles confessed and implies that he knows not everyone at the drug lab died in the explosion due to gunshot wounds being found on some bodies. He smiles and drives off. Lisa tells Will she wants to show him something and they walk off, smiling and holding hands.

Cast[edit]

• Gerard Butler as Will Spann
• Jaimie Alexander as Lisa Spann
• Russell Hornsby as Detective Paterson
• Ethan Embry as Pete “Knuckles” Daniels
• Michael Irby as Oscar
• Cindy Hogan as Anna Adams, Lisa’s mother
• Bruce Altman as Barry Adams, Lisa’s father

Production[edit]

The film was shot under the title of Chase and was acquired for distribution by Voltage Pictures in July 2021.^[5]

Reception[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 15% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10.^[6] Common Sense Media gave the film 2 stars out of 5, claiming the film failed to “manage to create a sense of intrigue about any of its characters”.^[7]

Release[edit]

The movie has been added to Netflix in the United States on October 1, 2022.^[8]

Popular Culture[edit]

Opening scene is eerily similar to that of The Vanishing (1993) where Kiefer Sutherland‘s character loses his fiancé (played by Sandra Bullock) at a gas station/convenience store on their way to a vacation.