- Lennon, a new back-country ranger, travels alone through the dangerous wilderness, hoping to uncover the origins of a tragedy that has haunted her since she was a child.
- The film begins with a quote from John Muir: "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul." The words fade out and the scene becomes one at a park ranger's station. As voices on the radio go through a morning check in, Ranger Varney emerges from his small cabin, and tapes a piece of paper to the 'Ranger In' post with an ominous message written on it: "I owe this land a body." Ignoring calls from the radio for him, he disappears into the forest. It then cuts to various scenes of a deep dark forest, which become slightly more tilted until completely upside down. The camera then zooms up (into the ground) and the title of the movie appears in the cold black earth: "Lovely, Dark, and Deep."
Lennon (Georgina Campbell) is driving her car through the forest at night, listening to a radio station where people are talking about all the mysterious disappearances of campers in national parks, and how park rangers seem to do nothing about it. She stops her car to grab something from her glove box, and when she looks back up a black female deer is standing in the middle of the road looking at her. When Lennon looks down and back up again, the doe has mysteriously vanished.
At the main ranger's station, Lennon and some other rangers are getting ready for a meeting. The others, not aware that the new girl is Lennon, start talking about her. Ranger Jackson (Nick Blood) comes up and introduces Lennon to them, much to their embarrassment. Jackson remarks on how Lennon has wanted this job for quite some time. In the main meeting room, Head Ranger Zhang (Wai Ching Ho) finishes her training for all the Backcountry Rangers gathered. Lennon looks over at a Missing Poster on the wall; it is for Ranger Varney. "Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories, and kill nothing but time," Zhang reiterates to the group.
Later, as Lennon unpacks her car, a cute older couple come up to her. They are Mr. and Mrs. Finley, friends of Lennon's, and have come to say goodbye. They also mention that they will be hiking in the woods soon. They comment that Lennon's parents must be so proud of her for getting this new job, to which Lennon grimaces and simply says, "Yep."
Jackson and Lennon are taken by helicopter to their stations in the remote parts of the backcountry forest. Lennon is dropped off and the helicopter continues on. She walks to her cabin, which is the same one from the beginning of the film, but the ominous note taped on the post is gone. Lennon gets settled into her new home for the next three months. She puts her belongings away, such as food, supplies, and a small handgun for self-defense. Before going to bed Lennon marks "Ranger Station" in its location on a large map beside her bed. Lennon has previously marked the map with notes such as "Gone" and "Shoe." There's a Missing poster of a Jenny Lennon taped near the map. She looks at an old photograph of when she was a kid, with her little sister and mom and dad at the park. Lennon reads from a "Missing 411" book. (This is a real book. Written by David Paulides, it details disappearances in American forests the last four years, and points out supernatural similarities between many of them.) Before going to sleep she looks at the names of the former rangers etched into the side of the desk.
That night she has a creepy dream of her little sister Jenny saying, "Run like the birds" as the trees morph in ominous music.
The next morning after the morning's all-call on the radio, Lennon tapes a note to the 'Ranger In' post saying she'll be gone for three days. She then hikes off into the forest. As she walks through the trees she listens to a podcast discussing people going missing in the woods. The person's shoes going missing and being found elsewhere is one of the things discussed. Lennon camps in a small tent.
The next day while walking she gets a call on her radio. However, it is staticy. While going to change the batteries, she realizes she forgot to pack spares. That night, hearing something, she turns to see the black doe again in the trees. Suddenly, her radio bursts into static as if someone is trying to contact her, but when she checks it the batteries are still missing. When Lennon turns back, the doe has disappeared.
Ranger Jackson turns up, and they chat. They walk to a nice camping spot for the night. Jackson says he's been working in the Backcountries for ten years, and asks Lennon about herself. Lennon comments he probably already has heard a lot of rumors about her, but Jackson wants to hear it from the source. Lennon says she's not crazy, but Jackson says everyone that works out there has to be at least a little crazy. They sleep in separate tents that night, and in the morning Jackson gives Lennon some spare batteries for her radio.
Lennon walks back to her ranger station, and lying down has another memory of her sister Jenny running off into the woods. "Where's your sister?" her mom asks in the memory.
Lennon marks off on her map the places she has been to, and the next day heads off again. This continues for several days, traveling, searching, marking off the map, searching, returning, having the same memory repeated in her head of letting go of her sister's hand as they ran through the woods. At this point in the film it should be clear to the audience what has happened: as a kid, Lennon was in the forest with her little sister Jenny, who ran off into the woods and was never seen again. Lennon wanted this Backcountry Ranger job to search for answers in the forest she disappeared in.
One night, Lennon is awoken by a loud knocking on her cabin door. "We need help!" comes an anguished cry. Opening the door, an out-of-his-mind man desperately pleads, but before Lennon can get her shoes on, he races off into the woods like a crazy person. Lennon calls for backup on the radio, racing off into the dark forest to search for the man. She finds him, clutching his arm and saying, "She was right there. And then she wasn't."
The next morning Jackson, Zhang, Lennon, and other rangers prepare for the search and rescue efforts. Lennon bandages her foot. As all the other rangers go off to search for the missing person, named Sara, Jackson orders Lennon to stay at the camp. Lennon protests that her foot is fine but Jackson adamantly reiterates that Lennon should stay. Everyone takes off, and Lennon decides to disobey orders and go out looking anyway. Flashes of the past, with Lennon's parents calling out for Jenny, are inter-cut with the present as Lennon calls out for Sara.
Night falls. In the dark, Lennon hears twigs being stepped on. She turns, but it's just that black doe again. Continuing to look, she finds bloodied clothes on the ground, and then Sara, facing away, blood all over her legs and arms. Sara seems like she is some kind of trance until Lennon wakes her out of it. "Are you real?" Sara asks. "I'm real. I'm real," Lennon responds.
The rangers all gather, and Zhang tells Lennon to see her at the end of the week, that there are things they need to discuss. Jackson says he could tell her, but Zhang says she needs to do this herself. Zhang then tells Lennon that her season in the forest is over. She is to stay in her cabin and NOT LEAVE for the rest of the week, but to pack up her belongings. Jackson is upset at Lennon for not following his explicit instructions, and when Lennon says, "Yes, but we found her," he retorts back, "YOU found her."
Lennon decides not to listen to Zhang's instructions and goes off once more into the forest. Sleeping in her tent, the radio breaks into static again. Lennon leaves her tent to use the bathroom, and then sees something running through the tall grass. Turning, she sees someone crawling on the ground, who disappears behind her tent. But when she goes to the tent and looks, nothing is there. More noises come from the woods, and, terrified, she quickly darts back in her tent. She grabs her gun and loads it, as a mysterious shadow appears outside the tent, reaching, but then disappears. The radio goes off and Jackson's voice reports there is a missing person in Lennon's area. The next time Jackson comes on the radio, it is distorted and off-sounding. "You should go after him," the voice says.
Lennon goes out and searches, to find herself a bit later at the shore of a lake. "I think I'm lost," she tells the radio. "This looks like Bench Lake, but this is- it's impossible, I'm miles away from it." The voice over the radio then eerily responds, "No, this is where you need to be." Lennon is growing concerned. The voice tells Lennon the Ranger's Code from the start of the film: "Leave nothing. Take nothing. Kill nothing." Then, Jenny's voice comes on over the radio: "Run like the birds!" Startled, Lennon trips and falls, hitting her head on a rock.
In a flashback, Lennon is back where she lost Jenny. Their dad looks at a map, and Jenny tells Lennon to wake up now. Lennon comes to on the forest floor, and stumbles around, rubbing her head. She makes it back to the beach and begins drawing a map in the sand to get her bearings, but her being at this lake still doesn't make sense.
She grabs her radio to hear the voice tell Lennon that she has taken something from them. Lennon protests she hasn't, but the voice insists that she has. "Leave nothing. Take nothing. Kill nothing," the voice repeats. Behind her, a human figure scales down the side of a tree. It is Sara. Lennon freaks out seeing her, and covers her head, claiming that this can't be real. "Replace what you took or they'll keep you," Sara creepily whispers in Lennon's ear, and then disappears.
Lennon drops the radio to the ground and stumbles through the woods, coming across Mr. and Mrs. Finley from the start of the film. They are camping. But no matter how much she shouts or waves her arms in front of them, Mr. and Mrs. Finley remain completely oblivious to Lennon's presence.
Lennon sees someone walking through the woods, and it's. . . herself. Real Lennon follows fake Lennon around back to the Finley's camp, only the camp has reverted back to how it was earlier, like a time loop. The fake Lennon gives real Lennon instructions on how to use her hand gun, and then turns and shoots Mrs. Finley in the head. Real Lennon screams and runs off, to find hundreds of Missing posters plastered all over the trees. She passes by one for Varney, and then comes across the Missing poster for her sister, Jenny. She takes it off the tree and keeps it.
As she wanders forward, she finds herself again at the Finley's camp, only this time Mr. Finley is sitting eating his wife's intestines. Lennon runs off and vomits.
Back again. The Finley camp has reset. Lennon takes her gun and goes up to Mrs. Finley, but can't find it in herself to kill her. She drops the gun, and the Finleys walk on, breaking the loop.
Lennon sits under a tree, looking at Jenny's missing poster, wondering how to get out of there. She hears static, and turns to see her radio, clean and new, standing on a stump. The voice comes over the radio, asking why Lennon chose the park service. "I need to find her," Lennon replies. "She is not lost," the voice retorts back. Lennon claims that she will not kill anyone, and the voice says that if she doesn't, then they'll keep her. "Then keep me." The radio goes out.
Lennon returns to the beach to her drawn out map, and discovers that right underneath it under the sand is an actual map. She takes the map and folds it up, and continues on into the forest.
As she walks, she notices... her cabin? She walks up to it, and on the doorstep is the evidence bag from years earlier with one of Jenny's missing shoes in it. Flashback to Ranger Zhang handing the evidence bag to the mom, who is crying. The camera pans to the face of Zhang, but she has no face, just an exploded tangle of hair and blood shooting up from where the face should be.
Lennon stands up, ties the shoe to her uniform, and enters the cabin. Inside is not what should be there, but instead is the inside of Lennon's childhood home. Lennon enters the kitchen to see her younger self with Jenny talking to their mom. They decide to go to the park.
Jenny, excited, runs off into the other room. Real Lennon follows her, finding herself in a dark hallway. On a desk by the wall a cassette player plays a conversation that happened years ago. Zhang's voice: "I can see Jenny. Over." "Report when you're sure. Over." Silence. Then: "It is her. She's not lost. She's been taken. There's nothing I can do. Over." "Copy that. Pull everyone in. We'll talk to the parents. Over and out." Near the cassette player are two small figurines of deer.
Lennon hears a door open and shut down the hall, and when she investigates she finds herself back in the kitchen. The table is a mess, melted crayons everywhere, and the mom sits deranged in a chair. As she sits, she begins ripping out strings of skin and flesh from her fingers with her teeth.
Lennon races into the next room, which is now where Jenny's funeral took place. Young Lennon and her dad stand by the casket, and when young Lennon tries to take her dad's hand, he shrinks back from her, causing young Lennon to run out of the room. The dad doesn't seem to care. Real Lennon walks up to Jenny's casket to see what's inside. It is a dead black doe, the same one we've seen throughout the movie. Bloodied and ripped, maggots are seen crawling inside of it.
Lennon goes down another hall and sees a bathroom door. She seems terrified of this memory, but when she tries to run the other way the hallway has disappeared behind her, leaving nothing but a solid wall. So Lennon enters the bathroom. Her dad is in there. "This is just a nightmare sweetheart, go back to bed," the dad says, before stepping into the bathtub and stabbing himself in the chest with a butcher knife, blood spraying out.
Lennon runs out, and the lights in the hallway flicker out. Grabbing her flashlight, she sees a mysterious figure near the end of the hall. "Run!" Jenny yells, and Lennon races down the hall. Entering another room, Lennon finds Jenny standing there. "I'm so sorry," Lennon says. "I was supposed to be watching you. I should have been watching you." Jenny responds, "It wasn't your fault." Then, "They keep us here." Lennon hears Zhang calling her name and turns, and when she turns back around to ask who keeps them there, Jenny is gone.
Lennon walks through another door to find Ranger Varney, who screams an unearthly scream. The screen cuts to black, and a flashlight light appears. It is Ranger Zhang, who has come looking for Lennon. Lennon finds herself standing in the middle of the real woods, ankle deep in a puddle. "Are you real?" Lennon asks. Zhang assures her that she is real, and when Lennon explains that she hit her head, Zhang tells her it has nothing to do with her hitting her head. "I don't understand," Lennon pleads.
Zhang then explains everything: "They" take people, and the rangers let them. No one knows who "they" are, only that they live in the deep dark forests where it still gets dark and you can still see the stars. When new rangers come in and talk about the weird things they've experienced in the woods, that's when the main rangers explain. "They" usually allow them a chance to explain, in exchange for the rangers protecting their space. Zhang laments how many people she's given them, regretting Jenny the most. Zhang then decides to take Lennon's place as the person taken this time.
Blue hands come up from the puddle and drag Lennon under. Lennon swims downwards, which becomes up, and emerges from the surface of the lake in the middle of the day. Jackson is standing on the shore, and notices Lennon, then quickly swims out to her and drags her to shore. Jackson says Lennon was lost and then calls for help over the radio. "You all know, don't you?" Lennon asks. Jackson's silence is confirmation.
Much later, back in the main ranger station, Jackson is now Head Ranger. As he finishes up his orientation, Lennon looks over at the wall at a Missing poster for Zhang pinned to it.
Later, back in the ranger cabin, Lennon carves her name next to the other names of rangers that have been there before. In the morning, she sits and contemplates what she has learned. She now knows the truth about what happened to her sister and all the strange disappearances of people in the national parks. As she ponders this, a call comes over the radio for assistance in finding a missing hiker, named James. Lennon responds that she can help.
As Lennon hikes the woods looking for James, she finds him, in a sort of trance, looking into the distance. As she is about to radio that she found him, James asks, "Are you real?" Lennon realizes what has happened: James isn't lost, he has been taken by "them." She puts down the radio and answers that she is not real, to which James goes back to his dazed state looking at nothing. Lennon then moves past him, and continues walking on, leaving him as someone taken by "them," as so many other rangers have done before. And as so many rangers will continue to do.
Credits.
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