Where was The Vanishing filmed?

Jeff and Diane start out on their vacation. The two engage in a mild argument, and Diane grabs a guidebook on the hunt for some natural disaster sites they can visit together. They go through a tunnel and notice their car isn’t running correctly. They run out of gas in a tunnel, and the two begin to fight. Stuck at the side of the tunnel, Diane worries that they will be hit by oncoming traffic and begins to panic. Jeff gets out of the vehicle, intending to walk to the nearest gas station. Diane shouts at him not to leave her alone as he walks off toward town.

Jeff returns to the car to find Diane gone. He fills the car with the gas he purchased and drives off, looking for her. He finds her sitting just outside the tunnel on the side of the road. She gets in the car, and they continue on their journey. Jeff apologizes, saying:

Jeff: Look, I shouldn’t have left you, I lost my head. I don’t know why I did it. I love you; I’m sorry.”

You’ll find this particular movie location a few miles outside the gas station. Travel along WA 520E, watching for the upcoming toll road. Merge onto I-405 N, taking the exit towards Everett/Renton and merging onto I-405 S. Turn off at exit 11, merging onto I-90E towards Spokane. Follow along this route until exit 31 towards N Bend/WA 202 W. When you arrive at the traffic circle, follow the third exit, heading towards WA-202 W/N Bend Boulevard. This route will lead you through the tunnel where Jeff and Diane run out of gas and argue.

In one of the best scenes in The Vanishing, Jeff and Diane stop at a gas station for a bathroom break and supplies run. Diane asks Jeff, “Want a cold beer or something?” Jeff says, “A cold beer would be great.” Diane waves to Jeff as she walks away toward the gas station. She goes into the bathroom and then exits the facilities to purchase drinks for her and Jeff before the couple gets back on the road.

Back at the car, waiting for her, Jeff wonders what is taking Diane so long. He finally enters the gas station and asks if anyone has seen his girlfriend. It soon dawns on him that something terrible has happened. This singular scene set the stage for the rest of the film, Jeff’s obsession to find Diane and what happened to her.

This filming location is found just past the tunnel in the town of North Bend, Washington.

Barney arrives at Jeff’s apartment and tells him that he is the man that Jeff has been looking for all these years. Jeff becomes enraged, and the two men break into a violent fight. Jeff kicks Barney down a flight of stairs and continues to vigorously kick him while his neighbor, Miss Carmichael, looks on from an apartment upstairs.

The fighting stops, and Barney struggles to try to get to his feet. He says to Jeff, “Kill me if you want to. You have every right to beat me to a bloody pulp. But if I die, you’ll never know…I’m sorry; were you done?”

To get to this The Vanishing location, simply follow I-5 N to exit 167, continuing onto Mercer Street.

Make a right turn onto Taylor Avenue North, driving past the Domino’s Pizza found on the right. Take a left onto Aloha Street, and the apartment complex can be seen on the right-hand side.

Arriving home after an argument with Jeff, Rita notices their answering machine message has been changed, and on closer listening, realizes that Barney’s voice is in the background. Worried an altercation and kidnapping may have occurred, she goes next door to ask her neighbor, Miss Carmichael, if she saw or heard the attack. This conversation occurs in this The Vanishing scene:

Miss Carmichael: Your boyfriend took to whopping on that man’s head then got in the car with him and drove off.

Rita: Oh, G*d! Miss Carmichael…what else? Do you remember anything else?

Miss Carmichael: Yes, come to think of it, I do. Something odd.

Rita: What?

Miss Carmichael: In the middle of everything, that little green leprechaun popped off my Lucky Charms box and started dancing around. “Magically delicious! Magically delicious!”

Rita: Thank you!

Miss Carmichael: Oh, and if you wanna know the license plate number of the car, let me know.

To see this The Vanishing film set, simply wander next door from the site of Jeff and Rita’s apartment found at the Aloha House Apartments in Seattle. Though you cannot tour the inside of these facilities, you can view them from the street. The facades are quite similar to what was seen in the film.

In one of the most harrowing The Vanishing action scenes, Barney places an unconscious Jeff in a coffin and buries him in a shallow grave outside his cabin. As he shovels dirt on top of the open coffin, he talks to Jeff, saying, “I told you I would show exactly what happened to Diane, and I am a man of my word.”

Jeff awakens and uses his lighter to try to provide enough light to ascertain his whereabouts. He quickly discovers that Barney has buried him alive. He screams no and begins to panic.

A The Vanishing production site that is featured several times throughout this film, you can access Camp Pigott by taking US 2-E and then making a left onto Woods Creek Road. The camp can be found a mile up the lane on the left-hand side.

In the final The Vanishing film scene, Rita has given Barney poisoned coffee, believing it will render him unconscious almost immediately. She races to the grave that contains Jeff and frantically starts digging him free. Barney attacks her from behind, and the two begin to struggle. Jeff, still in the grave, starts to regain consciousness. Barney, with a saw in his hand, threatens Rita. He holds her down while she struggles to break free. Suddenly, Barney falls to the side, and it is revealed that Jeff hit him over the head with a shovel. He slowly backs away from Jeff, but Jeff hits him several more times with the shovel until Barney is finally dead.

Jeff and Rita embrace while Jeff repeats to her, “It’s over. It’s over.”

This film site is located on the same property where the burial scene occurred. Plan to spend some time exploring the area to catch a view of Barney’s cabin and the spots where fight sequences, the burials, and Barney’s murder occurred.