How to Disappear Completely

Trapped in a dead-end pet store job and suffocated by the expectations of suburban New Jersey, a fed-up 19-year-old hatches a robbery plan to escape the future closing in around her.

A short film by Joe Thayer

Poster for How to Disappear Completely, short film by Joe Thayer

The Short Film

A character-driven suburban New Jersey dark comedy with heist pressure and feature potential.

Project Details

Format: Short Film
Runtime: 13 minutes, 16 seconds
Genre: Character-driven dark comedy with heist pressure
Setting: Suburban New Jersey
Lead: Allie, 19
Tone: Darkly funny, emotionally sharp, grounded
Status: Complete • Festival submissions
Feature Potential: Proof of concept for an expanded feature screenplay

Festival / Press Inquiry Why This Film Now

Synopsis

One desperate decision starts to look like an exit.

Darkly funny and emotionally sharp.

Allie is 19, stuck in a dead-end pet store job in suburban New Jersey, and quietly unraveling under a wall of college rejection letters, money pressure, and the humiliations of a life that already feels too small. When her pregnant coworker India floats the idea of robbing the store during its cash-heavy “Super Sunday” weekend, Allie laughs it off — until the idea starts to feel less like a joke and more like an exit.

After one degrading shift pushes her past the point of pretending she can just keep going, Allie begins to see the store, her future, and herself differently. Darkly funny and emotionally sharp, How to Disappear Completely follows a young woman reaching the end of her patience with the life she has been handed — and making one desperate decision to escape before it defines her.

Character Showcase

Performance-forward roles with volatility, humor, and real emotional risk.

The cast appeal here is character-first: young people improvising their way toward adulthood, each chasing a version of escape that says as much about who they are as where they want to go.

Allie riding through her suburban neighborhood

Lead Role

Allie (19)

Allie is 19, fed up, sharp, and quietly unraveling under college rejection letters, money pressure, and a dead-end pet store job that makes her future feel prewritten.

Character Arc

Allie reaches the end of her patience with the life she has been handed. A robbery idea that first sounds absurd starts to feel like a desperate escape plan — the first decision that feels entirely her own.

Supporting Role

India (24)

India is pregnant, funny, and in desperate need of an exit strategy.

Character Arc

Pregnant, funny, and desperate for an exit of her own, India floats the idea of robbing the pet store during its cash-heavy Super Sunday weekend. What begins as a joke starts to feel increasingly possible.

Supporting Role

Mark (29)

Mark thinks he’s cooler than he is.

Character Arc

He manages the pet store better than he manages the line between appropriate and inappropriate. When his “friendliness” is not returned, his affections turn to petty revenge.

Supporting Role

Dante (22)

Dante is a small-time scammer and former junior Mensa member.

Character Arc

Dante is wasting his talents scamming people for their credit card info. When he connects with Allie during a failed scam call, they click and move onto bigger things...

Visual Language

Suburban space. Emotional containment. Quiet danger.

The visual language balances recognizable suburban realism with heightened emotional composition — controlled frames with themes of confinement and the recurring sense that every path is a dead end.

“Fuck this place.”

Why This Film Now

About the Film

For a generation coming of age inside shrinking opportunities, rising pressure, and a deep suspicion that the “right path” may not lead anywhere meaningful, How to Disappear Completely turns that frustration into a darkly funny, emotionally honest story about a young woman determined to escape her dead-end surroundings before they define her.

Director's Note

For me, the film begins with a very recognizable kind of pressure: being told there is a correct path forward while watching that path become narrower, more expensive, and less convincing in real time.

Allie is not chasing crime for the thrill of it. She is a young woman whose patience with her circumstances is running out. The robbery plan is impulsive, desperate, and pressure-driven — but the film itself finds dark humor in the workplace absurdity, social humiliation, and emotional contradictions surrounding her.

I wanted How to Disappear Completely to feel distinctly suburban New Jersey: familiar, boxed-in, a little ridiculous, and emotionally honest. The short stands on its own, while opening the door to a larger feature story about what happens when the fantasy of escape starts becoming a plan.

Joe Thayer

Joe Thayer is a New Jersey–based writer and director drawn to darkly funny, character-driven stories about people trying to break out of the lives they have been handed. How to Disappear Completely is his third short film and serves as a proof of concept for a feature screenplay that advanced to the Second Round at the Austin Film Festival. His work explores the pressure, absurdity, and emotional volatility of trying to become yourself when the path forward feels rigged.

About the Project

A complete short film with a larger world behind it.

How to Disappear Completely stands alone as a short film while introducing the world, tone, and central character of a larger feature story. The film serves as a proof of concept for a feature screenplay that expands Allie’s journey through suburban disillusionment, dead-end work, and the desperate fantasy of escape.

Contact

Festival, Press & Industry Inquiries

How to Disappear Completely is a complete short film and proof of concept for a feature screenplay. For festival programming, press, screening, representation, or feature inquiries, please reach out directly.

joethayer1211@gmail.com

“Fuck this place.”