To make the cyber-thriller Searching, these indie filmmakers turned to video games

Techno thriller Searching is a video game movie — but you won’t find Dwayne Johnson battling demons on Mars (or critics on Twitter) or Michael Fassbender swan-diving into a bale of hay. Instead, writer and producer Sev Ohanian, along with writer and director Aneesh Chaganty have cleverly incorporated game mechanics into their film. For inspiration, they’ve looked to a wide variety of titles like Fulbright’s Gone Home, Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, and Valve’s classic puzzler Portal. In the process, they’ve learned how to do the thing that games do best: interactivity.

At its heart, Searching is a mystery film. Widower David Kim (John Cho) must find his missing daughter, Margot Kim (Michelle La). But in this scenario, he isn’t an action hero. He’s a concerned dad who can’t do anything besides scour the Internet for traces of his daughter’s existence. The entire movie takes place on screens, inhabiting digital spaces like Facebook and Twitter and relying on FaceTime and faux YouTube videos to give its stars a chance to shine. David never meets Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) in person, even though she’s helping him track down Margot. Instead, they call each other and swap emails and Google Sheets filled with bewildering reams of information.