There have been many cases of such happenings and there are probably some plausible theory or something for each but it’s fun to see how writers twist things around to suit or to make credible their stories.

Some examples:

1. In Ghost King (a reworking of the Arthurian legend) by David Gemmell, the Atlantean warrior Culain explains to Thuro how people from the sunk land of Atlantis like to meddle in ordinary people’s life and choose sides in wars. To make other dimensions/worlds credible, Gemmell uses the legendary disappearance of the Ninth legion, those five thousand or so Roman soldiers who were sent in Britain very long ago to crush a group of rebel tribes. According to Culain, to win his war he opened a gateway to another world and “they marched into it and out of history”.

It’s also interesting (although cliched) how he uses a “circle of stones” as the means of creating those magic gateways, thus also giving an explanation to the reasons of building monuments such as Stonehenge.

2. Dean Koontz also uses mass disappearances as a plot idea in his book Phantoms. Jennifer, a doctor, returns to her home town with her little sister to discover that the town is eerily silent. Everybody has disappeared leaving no trace. Well most of them have disappeared without a trace. Those who did leave clues left bloody, gory clues like severed heads in ovens for example.

The most thrilling part of this book is discovering how this (i.e. any disappearance in history on a massive scale including the disappearance of a whole army in the Pyrenees and the extinction of the dinosaurs) is all the work of the “devil”. That was a really scary book. I was foolish to read it at night when I was all alone.

3. Finally, Walt Disney’s Donald Duck claims that disappearances of what you are looking for are the work of mischievous fairies/gnomes/elves who get their kicks by hiding the stuff in question and then putting it back in its place when you don’t need it anymore. Haha as weird and mentally crazy as it might sound, every time I can’t find something I’m searching for I can’t help blaming it on the wicked fairies.

I know there are many other works explaining unexplained disappearances such as The Langoliers by Stephen King. But I don’t remember exactly how it relates to real life incidents. I sort of find King’s writing a bit heavy. Maybe it was the Bermuda Triangle or the Mary Celeste or something…

Anyway, if you know of any other movie or book, share share!!!