Best Missing Father Movies & TV Shows

A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.

An urban fairy tale-romantic comedy, in which Nola, an aspiring songwriter, leaves an abusive Kansas home and journeys to New York to find her biological father. Once there, she finds more than she expected.

When American Andy pulls into a tiny Australian outback town to visit his father, he’s alarmed to discover that Hugo has vanished. He soon finds himself in increasing danger in a town full of secrets, where everyone is a suspect.

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil is a Canadian comedy/horror television series that follows a group of high school students who confront the effects of a demonic book. The series premiered on Space Channel on September 29, 2010 with two back-to-back episodes. The show was created for television by Craig David Wallace, Charles Picco, and Anthony Leo. Todd and the Book of Pure Evil is based on the short film of the same title written by Craig David Wallace and Max Reid, and directed by Wallace. The short film was produced through the Canadian Film Centre’s Short Dramatic Film Programme, and kicked off an international festival tour by premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2003. The series was developed for television through the National Screen Institute's Totally TV Program. A pilot for Todd and the Book of Pure Evil was shot for Space in 2009 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Like the low-budget short film, the series uses supernatural elements, profanity, graphic violence and non-sequitur lines. Sci-fi veteran David Winning directed four episodes. Each episode was produced with two variations of the audio track: a pre-watershed version with "clean" replacement dialogue dubbed in by the actors, and the original uncensored version with profanity.

In a world where people collect pocket-size monsters (Pokémon) to do battle, a boy comes across an intelligent monster who seeks to be a detective.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to track down the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world.

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

After the enforced absence of their father, the three Waterbury children move with their mother to Yorkshire, where they find themselves involved in several unexpected dramas along the railway by their new home.

Dora, a girl who has spent most of her life exploring the jungle with her parents, now must navigate her most dangerous adventure yet: high school. Always the explorer, Dora quickly finds herself leading Boots (her best friend, a monkey), Diego, and a rag tag group of teens on an adventure to save her parents and solve the impossible mystery behind a lost Inca civilization.

A journey deep into an uncharted and treacherous land, where fantastical creatures await the legendary Clades—a family of explorers whose differences threaten to topple their latest, and by far most crucial, mission.

Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) on a search expedition for the children's shipwrecked sea captain father. This Disney film was based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.

A young woman returns to her small hometown intent on killing her abusive father only to discover someone murdered him the day before. As the girl searches for answers, she uncovers a family legacy more dangerous than she'd imagined.

A haunting ghost story spanning two worlds, two centuries apart. When 13 year old Tolly finds he can mysteriously travel between the two, he begins an adventure that unlocks family secrets laid buried for generations.

After a plane crash, two opposing half-brothers find themselves on an amazing lost island where enlightened pacifist humans and intelligent talking dinosaurs have created a utopian medieval society. But imminent disaster approaches.

Meg and Charles Wallace are aided by Calvin and three interesting women in the search for their father who disappeared during a government experiment. Their travels take them around the universe to a place unlike any other.

The near future, a time when both hope and hardships drive humanity to look to the stars and beyond. While a mysterious phenomenon menaces to destroy life on planet Earth, astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across the immensity of space and its many perils to uncover the truth about a lost expedition that decades before boldly faced emptiness and silence in search of the unknown.

After the disappearance of a young scientist on a business trip, his son and wife struggle to cope, only to make a bizarre discovery years later - one that may bring him home.

While searching for their missing father, Alex & Cleo Bellows are drawn into the actual myths when entering the Cyber Museum. They encounter Gorgos, a trickster god, who wants to destroy the world by constantly changing the famous myths.

After watching the news on 9/11 with his family, Fernando travels from Mexico to New York City to find his father, an undocumented worker at the World Trade Center's famous Windows on the World restaurant.

In writer-director Nick Whitfield's black indie comedy, a pair of "exorcists" (Ed Gaughan and Andrew Buckley) with the power to rid people of their secrets agree to help a woman (Paprika Steen) whose daughter (Tuppence Middleton) is mute -- and whose husband is missing. Jason Isaacs co-stars as the mysterious Colonel, who seems to be calling the shots from the sidelines of the duo's shadowy enterprise.

A biplane pilot is saddled with a spoiled industrialist's daughter on a search for her missing father through Asia that eventually involves them in a struggle against a Chinese warlord.

An old Jewish baker struggles to keep his business afloat until his young Muslim apprentice accidentally drops cannabis in the dough and sends sales sky high.

Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.

The interlaced stories of several characters in a small town united by their use of CB (citizen's band) radio.

Jay and Silent Bob embark on a cross-country mission to stop Hollywood from rebooting a film based on their comic book characters Bluntman and Chronic.

Artemis Fowl is a 12-year-old genius and descendant of a long line of criminal masterminds. He soon finds himself in an epic battle against a race of powerful underground fairies who may be behind his father's disappearance.

Smith, a typical young college student who likes partying and engaging in acts of random sex and debauchery, has been having some interesting dreams revolving around two gorgeous women -- and is shocked when he meets the dream girls in real life. Lorelei looks just like his fantasy brunette, while a mysterious red-haired girl being chased by assassins draws him into an international conspiracy. Or is it all just a drug-induced hallucination?

Sent to spend the summer with their uncle on a remote island, young brothers Andy and Mark learn that their eccentric grandfather once owned the island, but vanished without a trace…taking with him the secret to a vast fortune. Delving into the mysterious past of the island, the brothers discover that their grandfather designed a complex treasure hunt, a hunt that could lead to unimaginable wealth and heal their broken family – if they can find it in time. Sinister forces also search for the money and will stop at nothing to keep the boys from their quest. As the adventure unfolds, the boys learn that the bonds of family are the most valuable riches of all, and that some family secrets can’t stay buried forever.

In this Hallmark story, Allan is a normal middleaged man with a wife and two kids. When Alan is suddenly attacked one night, he loses his memory, leading his family to believe that he is dead.

A coastal town is plagued by a supernatural man-eating shark. A ghost hunter joins forces with a sea captain to uncover the secrets of the area's dark past and find a way to exorcise the spectral predator.

A woman finds out she has a half sister when he father disappears and her half sister turns up dead.

Teenagers from a small town and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider, living in a cave nearby and getting hungry.

In the not-too-distant future, a young boy travels to an alien world to find his father and learn of his destiny.

A mother and her 8-year-old son struggle to survive in a bomb shelter after an unspecified apocalypse.

Following her father's puzzling disappearance, Kate and her city-bred companions brave the untamed backwoods in a desperate search for him. However, the harsh environment becomes a dangerous catalyst for their explosive mix of personalities, propelling them into a world of raw emotion and unbridled passion.

A young single mother, Mercedes, is about to marry solid, dependable Frank, when a dashing aviator, Clay, comes into her life. But when pilot Clay crash-lands on a small, remote island he sends the inhabitants into a tailspin.

A CIA agent and a geneticist battle to keep a deadly biological weapon from falling into the wrong hands when the weapon's inventor is kidnapped.

When her archaeologist father disappears on an expedition, Wanda sets out to look for him. What she finds is a secret underground world, where no one believes in life on the surface and where she and her father are taken for spies.

A 12-episode serial in which scholastic sports star Frank Merriwell leaves school to search for his missing father. His adventures involve a mysterious inscription on a ring, buried treasure, kidnaping and Indian raids. He saves his father and returns to school just in time to win a decisive baseball game with his remarkable pitching and hitting.

Bill saves a sheriff, left to die in the blazing sun by desert bandits.

A washed up musician on the brink of losing everything finds new hope through the gift of a dying father.

Hoppy and his pals arrive in a remote town to investigate the counterfeiting of both U.S. and Mexican money; his only clues are the name "Mordigan" and a drawing of a comet. He quickly finds out that Mordigan is the town "boss"; but what or who is "the comet", and why are Mordigan and his henchmen intent on persecuting a young woman, her drunken brother, and her deathly ill sister-in-law who've also just arrived in town?

Jim Gladden, a construction site foreman, is partially responsible for the accidental death of one of his workers, Fred Smith, and makes good on Fred's deathbed request to go to Scotch Valley and take care of his surviving wife and children. When Jim arrives in the small town, he is told that there are two Fred Smith families in Scotch Valley, the rich Smiths and the poor Smiths. Jim assumes that the Smiths he is looking for are the poor ones, and is directed to a house where four children live in poverty.

A Hawaiian beach bum finds himself surrogate uncle to five orphaned children, helping them stay together, in this pilot movie for a TV series which turned up briefly in the spring of 1979 as "The Mackenzies of Paradise Cove."

A doctor comes to the aid of local ranchers who are fighting to protect their water rights.

A 12-episode serial in which Tim Tyler goes to Africa in search of his father in gorilla country. He meets up with Laura, who is after Spider Webb who has framed her brother. Webb causes the death of Tim's father, but is eventually tracked down.