Disappearance At Clifton Hill ending explained: The shocking truth of Alex, revealed

The 2019 film, Disappearance At Clifton Hill, has its own set of unsettling stories that are rooted in themes such as childhood trauma, disintegrated memories, parental abuse, the dark side of the entertainment world, as well as commodification.

Helmed by Albert Shin, the film follows the plot of Abby, who, in her adulthood, is curious to unravel the truth behind a disturbing childhood memory that she had once witnessed. As a child, she saw a boy in a forest who was fatally injured in one eye. The memory still haunts Abby, and thus she now wants to get into details about the mystery behind the boy.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Disappearance At Clifton Hill. Reader discretion is advised.

In the course of the film, Abby makes a correlation between this boy and a news report from that time, which talked about a boy named Alex who had died by suicide. Abby does not buy the fact that the boy has taken his own life, so she investigates further. As a result, some disturbing truths about Alex are uncovered. In fact, towards the end of the film, it is suggested that Alex could be alive!

Let us take a deep dive into the actual truth of Alex in Disappearance At Clifton Hill.

What exactly happens to Alex in Disappearance At Clifton Hill?

At the beginning of Disappearance At Clifton Hill, we see Abby in her childhood when she lived at Niagara Falls. That is when she experienced a disturbing incident when she was out on a picnic trip with her family. At the age of seven, Abby witnesses a boy around her age who is brutally injured in one eye. That incident, undoubtedly, has shaken little Abby to the core.

Cut to Abby's adulthood. Her mother had passed away, and she went back to Niagara Falls to look after her family's business in a motel. But a part of her mind is still stuck with the childhood mystery that she has experienced. Abby is still engrossed in the "one-eyed boy" mystery, and her investigation begins.

It is revealed that Alex is the son of a famous magician couple, popularly called 'the Magnificent Moulins'. As suggested by Walter Bell, a conspiracy analyst, Alex's presumed death could be the work of an influential family, the Lakes.

Meanwhile, Abby comes across a couple named Beverly and Gerry Mole, who worked for the Moulins. It is then revealed that the Moulins were abusive towards their son Alex. They made him participate in circuses, and in one such incident, they compelled the boy to face a tiger in an act. As a result, Alex's eye gets injured by the attack of the tiger, leading to his parents' disappointment.

But what happens to Alex after that? Why was he in the forest when Abby saw him in the first scene of Disappearance At Clifton Hill?

At this crucial moment of the film, it is revealed that the Mole couple had abducted Alex in an attempt to intimidate the Moulins. Soon, the couple is arrested, and the case receives a lot of media attention. As the Lakes family was already suspected in the case, the head of the family, Charlie Lake, was convicted by the police. He desperately tries to clear his name, but to no avail.

Then the biggest twist happens at the end of Disappearance At Clifton Hill. An unknown man wearing an eye patch visits Abby and inquires if their paths have crossed before. Abby immediately shrugs at it, upon which the man reveals that Charlie Lake is, in fact, innocent. It was due to Charlie that Alex made it out alive.

Even though the scene does not explicitly clarify that the man is Alex, it has enough clues to establish that it could be him.

The film stars Tuppence Middleton, Hannah Gross, Marie-Josée Croze, Eric Johnson, Andy McQueen, Elizabeth Saunders, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, and Aaron Poole, among others.