the tourist film wiki

Recently, we've done several changes to help out this wiki, from deleting empty pages, improving the navigation, adding a rules page, as well as merging film infoboxes.

You can check out the latest overhauls that we have done on this wiki so far, as well as upcoming updates in our announcement post here .

• French-language films
• Italian-language films
• Russian-language films
• Spanish-language films
• American romantic comedy films
• Columbia Pictures films
• Rated PG-13

The Tourist

The Tourist is a 2010 American romantic comedy thriller film co-written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starring Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, and Timothy Dalton. It is based on the screenplay for Anthony Zimmer. GK Films financed and produced the film, with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions releasing it in most countries through Columbia Pictures. The $100 million budget film went on to gross $278 million at the worldwide box office.

Despite negative reception from the critics, the film was nominated for three Golden Globes, with a debate arising over the question as to whether it was a comedy or a drama. Henckel von Donnersmarck repeatedly stated it was neither genre, calling it "a travel romance with thriller elements," but that if he had to choose between the two, he would choose comedy.

• 4.1 Posters
• 5 External link

Synopsys [ ]

Elise (Angelina Jolie) sits next to an American tourist, Frank (Johnny Depp), on a train going to Venice. She has chosen him as a decoy, making believe that he is her lover who is wanted by police. Not only will they need to evade the police, but also the mobster whose money her lover stole.

A woman named Elise (Angelina Jolie) is being trailed in Paris by French police working with Scotland Yard. At a cafe, she receives a letter from Alexander Pearce, a former lover, with explicit directions to board a train to Venice, Italy, pick out a man who resembles him, and make the police believe that this man is Alexander Pearce. A mysterious stranger, not involved with the police, also seems to be watching Elise. Elise burns the letter and boards a train.

She takes a seat across from Frank (Johnny Depp), an American tourist reading a spy novel. Frank is instantly attracted to her. The train arrives in Venice, and she invites him to go with her on a boat to the Hotel Danieli. At dinner, much to Frank's dismay, Elise admits to having feelings for another man, presumably Alexander Pearce. Later, on her room's balcony they share a kiss, witnessed by the men following her.

The next day, Frank awakens to find Elise gone. Men suddenly try to break into the hotel room. Frank barely escapes by running over several roofs in his pajamas, but is caught by the Italian police. A sympathetic detective listens to Frank's story that he does not know why these men are after him. He takes Frank from the jail and tells him that his story checks out and that the men after him were Belarusians, who have placed a price on his head and believe Frank to be someone else. The detective, however, then delivers Frank into the clutches of these same men, in order to collect the money they promised.

Elise suddenly appears with a boat to rescue Frank, and they flee together. Elise finally tells Frank that all this is happening because she kissed him and made the police believe that he was Alexander Pearce. Frank learns that Pearce stole two billion dollars from a gangster named Shaw (Steven Berkoff) and is also wanted by the British Government for tax evasion. Stunned by the news, Frank says he still does not regret kissing Elise.

Elise apologizes for getting him involved at all and tricks Frank off the boat. Frank says he loves her. Elise goes to a government building. She turns out to be a British secret agent. She sees her fellow British agent Acheson (Paul Bettany), who was among those following her in Paris. Elise was supposed to work undercover against Pearce but fell in love with him and had disappeared from her job until now. She tells Acheson that she is ready to help him find Pearce now because she wants to prevent anybody else from getting hurt.

Elise goes to a ball Pearce has invited her to attend, wearing a wire. She is handed a letter by the same mysterious stranger from Paris. The letter is from Pearce, saying where to meet him. As Elise turns to leave, Frank appears and prevents her exit. They dance. Elise leaves to find Pearce, and agent Acheson's men apprehend Frank. They both watch on surveillance equipment as Elise walks into a trap set by the gangster Shaw. The gangster threatens to kill her unless she reveals the location of the safe holding the money Pearce stole from him. Agent Acheson doesn't intervene for his colleague Elise, confident that Pearce will show up to rescue her.

Elise reveals the safe's location but does not know its code. Frank watches in horror as Elise is threatened yet again. Seeing that Acheson won't help Elise, Frank picks the lock to his handcuffs and escapes to help her. Frank pretends to be Pearce. Elise begs him to stop or he will be killed. Frank, acting as Pearce, tells Shaw that he will get his money, but only if Elise is first released and safe. As Frank pretends that he is about to open the safe, Elise mouths "I love you."

All of a sudden, Chief Inspector Jones (Timothy Dalton) gives the order for the police snipers to shoot Shaw and his men. Frank and Elise are unharmed. As the police survey the scene, agent Acheson can't believe that Pearce did not save Elise, and Jones is furious with him for exposing her to danger. Jones then informs Elise that she has been terminated from the force. A police report informs them that Pearce has just been caught. As the room clears, Elise and Frank embrace. He asks her if she loves both him and Alexander Pearce. Elise answers yes. To spare her from this dilemma, Frank demonstrates that he is the real Alexander Pearce by entering the correct code for the safe. Pearce had gotten plastic surgery, so he could have a new life.

Meanwhile, the arrested man believed to be Pearce explains to police that he was paid to pose as him but that he is really just a tourist. Elise and Frank/Pearce leave on a boat with the money, finally being able to be together. In the open safe, police find a bankers check for the 744 million pounds in back taxes Pearce owed the British government.

• Angelina Jolie as Elise Clifton-Ward
• Johnny Depp as Frank Tupelo/Alexander Pearce
• Paul Bettany as Insp. John Acheson
• Timothy Dalton as Chief Insp. Jones
• Steven Berkoff as Reginald Shaw
• Rufus Sewell as Lawrence
• Christian De Sica as Col. Lombardi
• Alessio Boni as Sgt. Cerato
• Daniele Pecci as Lt. Narduzzi
• Giovanni Guidelli as Lt. Tommassini
• Raoul Bova as Count Filippo Gaggia
• Igor Jijikine as Virginsky
• Bruno Wolkowitch as Capt. Courson
• Mhamed Arezki as Achmed Tchebali
• Marc Ruchmann as Brigadier Kaiser
• Julien Baumgartner as Brigadier Ricuort
• François Vincentelli as Brigadier Marion
• Nino Frassica as Brigadier Mele
• Neri Marcorè as Alessio, the hotel concierge
• Renato Scarpa as Arturo, a tailor
• Maurizio Casagrande as Antonio, a waiter

Gallery [ ]

Posters [ ].

External link [ ]

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Tourist

• Revolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path.
• Elise (Angelina Jolie) sits next to an American tourist, Frank (Johnny Depp), on a train going to Venice. She has chosen him as a decoy, making believe that he is her lover who is wanted by police. Not only will they need to evade the police, but also the mobster whose money her lover stole. — Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
• A woman sitting in a Parisian café reads a letter telling her to take the train to Venice, pick a man of the sender's height and build, and chat him up. She's being watched: Scotland Yard and a mobster with a crew of Russian thugs are looking for a man she knows. On the train, she talks to an American, Frank, suggests they have dinner, and, once in Venice, invites him to her hotel. The bait is set: the Russians think Frank is the man they want: Alexander Pearce, who stole billions from the mobster. Scotland Yard realizes Frank is a just a tourist, but by now he's in danger, smitten by the mystery woman, and in their way. Can the Yard keep Frank from death and still catch Pearce? — <[email protected]>
• A middle-aged female travels overseas to unlock a hidden secret that could change everything. Along the way, she is helped by a middle-aged male who pretends to be someone else who claims that he does not know how to unlock the deep hidden secret. — RECB3
• A woman named Elise (Angelina Jolie) is being trailed in Paris by French police working with Scotland Yard. At a cafe, she receives a letter from Alexander Pearce, a former lover, with explicit directions to board a train to Venice, Italy, pick out a man who resembles him, and make the police believe that this man is Alexander Pearce. A mysterious stranger, not involved with the police, also seems to be watching Elise. Elise burns the letter and boards a train. She takes a seat across from Frank (Johnny Depp), an American tourist reading a spy novel. Frank is instantly attracted to her. The train arrives in Venice, and she invites him to go with her on a boat to the Hotel Danieli. At dinner, much to Frank's dismay, Elise admits to having feelings for another man, presumably Alexander Pearce. Later, on her room's balcony they share a kiss, witnessed by the men following her. The next day, Frank awakens to find Elise gone. Men suddenly try to break into the hotel room. Frank barely escapes by running over several roofs in his pajamas, but is caught by the Italian police. A sympathetic detective listens to Frank's story that he does not know why these men are after him. He takes Frank from the jail and tells him that his story checks out and that the men after him were Belarusians, who have placed a price on his head and believe Frank to be someone else. The detective, however, then delivers Frank into the clutches of these same men, in order to collect the money they promised. Elise suddenly appears with a boat to rescue Frank, and they flee together. Elise finally tells Frank that all this is happening because she kissed him and made the police believe that he was Alexander Pearce. Frank learns that Pearce stole two billion dollars from a gangster named Shaw (Steven Berkoff) and is also wanted by the British Government for tax evasion. Stunned by the news, Frank says he still does not regret kissing Elise. Elise apologizes for getting him involved at all and tricks Frank off the boat. Frank says he loves her. Elise goes to a government building. She turns out to be a British secret agent. She sees her fellow British agent Acheson (Paul Bettany), who was among those following her in Paris. Elise was supposed to work undercover against Pearce but fell in love with him and had disappeared from her job until now. She tells Acheson that she is ready to help him find Pearce now because she wants to prevent anybody else from getting hurt. Elise goes to a ball Pearce has invited her to attend, wearing a wire. She is handed a letter by the same mysterious stranger from Paris. The letter is from Pearce, saying where to meet him. As Elise turns to leave, Frank appears and prevents her exit. They dance. Elise leaves to find Pearce, and agent Acheson's men apprehend Frank. They both watch on surveillance equipment as Elise walks into a trap set by the gangster Shaw. The gangster threatens to kill her unless she reveals the location of the safe holding the money Pearce stole from him. Agent Acheson doesn't intervene for his colleague Elise, confident that Pearce will show up to rescue her. Elise reveals the safe's location but does not know its code. Frank watches in horror as Elise is threatened yet again. Seeing that Acheson won't help Elise, Frank picks the lock to his handcuffs and escapes to help her. Frank pretends to be Pearce. Elise begs him to stop or he will be killed. Frank, acting as Pearce, tells Shaw that he will get his money, but only if Elise is first released and safe. As Frank pretends that he is about to open the safe, Elise mouths "I love you." All of a sudden, Chief Inspector Jones (Timothy Dalton) gives the order for the police snipers to shoot Shaw and his men. Frank and Elise are unharmed. As the police survey the scene, agent Acheson can't believe that Pearce did not save Elise, and Jones is furious with him for exposing her to danger. Jones then informs Elise that she has been terminated from the force. A police report informs them that Pearce has just been caught. As the room clears, Elise and Frank embrace. He asks her if she loves both him and Alexander Pearce. Elise answers yes. To spare her from this dilemma, Frank demonstrates that he is the real Alexander Pearce by entering the correct code for the safe. Pearce had gotten plastic surgery, so he could have a new life. Meanwhile, the arrested man believed to be Pearce explains to police that he was paid to pose as him but that he is really just a tourist. Elise and Frank/Pearce leave on a boat with the money, finally being able to be together. In the open safe, police find a bankers check for the 744 million pounds in back taxes Pearce owed the British government.

Contribute to this page

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheTourist

The Tourist » Film

The film opens with Elise (Jolie), a beautiful Londoner in Paris, taking in her breakfast at her usual bistro while a van filled with policemen observe her. There she receives a mysterious letter telling her to take a specific train and introduce herself to a random man of the same height and build as one Alexander Pearce. Though the police, led by the extremely driven Inspector John Acheson ( Paul Bettany ) attempt to follow, she loses them en route to the Gare de Lyon and boards her intended train. There she meets math teacher Frank Tupelo (Depp), a tourist from Wisconsin who is fond of spy novels and nervous around his new acquaintance. He thinks he's met the girl of his dreams, and what turns into light flirtation on the train holds the potential for so much more as Elise invites him back to her hotel in Venice.

Just when Frank begins to think his luck couldn't get any better, a slew of foreign thugs descend upon him. Suddenly, he finds himself hunted by mobsters, crooked cops, and Scotland Yard's finance division as everyone seems eager to track down criminal mastermind Alexander Pearce. Unfortunately for Frank, their current suspect is him.

This film provides examples of:

• Action Survivor : Frank, is not one of these because he planned the whole thing.
• Artistic License : There's a shot where we see one of the police snipers. He is clearly silhouetted against the lit wall behind him, and is obviously a sniper. He could've turned off the light switch for whatever's behind him, but he doesn't care about being seen.
• Becoming the Mask : Elise was a cop at one point and she was assigned to go undercover to nab Alexander Pearce. Unfortunately, she fell in love with him. In the words of Inspector Acheson, she could never decide whether she was with Pearce or the cops.
• Big Bad : The gangster boss, Reginald Shaw.
• Big Brother Is Watching : Much of the early scenes are shown from the point of view of cops watching Elise through hidden cameras and such: zooming in her ass, speculating whether or not she's wearing panties. This early scene gets retroactively creepier later in the movie, as it turns out she's one of their coworkers.
• Cassandra Truth : When Frank confesses to being Alexander Pearce. Zig-zagged in that he expected only some of his listeners to believe him.
• Da Chief : Chief Inspector Jones, played by Timothy Dalton of all people
• Did Not See That Coming : Pearce’s plan hinged on Elise choosing a random man of his height and build to act as a patsy for the cops and criminals so he could act unimpeded. Elise unwittingly choosing his newly disguised self as the decoy cripples his distraction scheme, and he spends the rest of the film scrambling to salvage the situation.
• Dirty Cop : Colonnello Lombardi, the Italian cop Frank first goes to when he realizes there are men out to kill him.
• Foreign Remake : Of the French film Anthony Zimmer.
• Gambit Pileup : Everyone's conspiring against each other, and poor Frank is caught in the middle of it. Except that he's the one who got everyone else caught in this mess: Frank IS Alexander, and being mistaken for himself was his plan all along.
• Gambit Roulette : Alexander's plan. He told his wife to get on a particular train and pick out someone of his height and build at random. His entire plan depends on her picking one guy in particular who, it turns out, is actually him. If that first guy she had locked eyes with hadn't been with someone, the scheme would have come apart. The point of it all is to provide a decoy that will keep the police and the crooks from catching Alexander. If the decoy is Alexander all along, how does that work?
• Inspector Javert : Inspector Acheson. He wants to continue pursuing Alexander Pearce, even after Pearce leaves a check to cover the 'seven hundred and forty four million' he owed in back taxes, but Chief Inspector Jones declares the operation closed. "What is it (Pearce) really did? He stole money from a gangster. A dead gangster... I can't say I don't wish him well."
• First of all the designation of the train Elise boards in Gare de Lyon is Ter, which stands for Transport express régional in French and is thus a regional, not an international train.
• There's no direct line between Paris and Venice.
• "ten minutes" outside of Venice finds us looking at lush green hills. This is Venice , a city built in a swamp and surrounded by industrial wasteland...
• Knight Templar : Partially subverted with Inspector Acheson since he never explicitly says his actions are for the greater good (and it becomes clear he's motivated by greed, jealousy, or something else personal).
• London Gangster : In his introductory scene Shaw is presented as Russian , but he's actually an English gangster who prefers to employ Russians.
• Mistaken Identity : The main plot revolves around Frank being mistaken for Alexander Pearce.
• Mob-Boss Suit Fitting : Reginald Shaw has a Mob Boss Suit Fitting, even insisting that the tailor remain when his mooks arrive. He takes a report from his cronies, and uses the tailor's measuring tape to strangle one of them when he makes a mistake. Only at the end of the scene does he comment to the tailor, mentioning that the suit fits him very nicely.
• Ms. Fanservice : The movie makes the most of Jolie's beauty.
• The Perfect Crime : By the end, Pearce gets the girl, his enemies are dead (killed by cops, no less), he cuts the feds a check for his back taxes to get them off his back and he still has several billion dollars for his efforts .
• Polyamory : Torn between her love for Alexander and her love for Frank, Elise finally decide that she loves both of them. She quickly find out that choosing one of them over the other would have sucked a lot for BOTH Alexander and Frank, since they are the same person.
• Precision F-Strike : Frank turns around to see Elise in her evening gown. Frank : "Fuck!"
• Reasonable Authority Figure : Inspector Jones, as a foil to Inspector Acheson.
• Running Gag : Frank keeps speaking Spanish when he means to use Italian. It's lampshaded at one point.
• Scenery Porn : The cinematographer(s) took full advantage of the Venice setting. (Several of the interiors are gorgeous too.)
• Shout-Out : Paul Bettany mentioning Lichtenstein can't be a coincidence.
• Undercover Cop Reveal : Elise is a cop tracking down Alexander.
• With My Hands Tied : Frank escapes from handcuffs twice, albeit once with assistance from Elise.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness : Shaw does this to one of his mooks. By strangling him with a measuring tape, in the middle of being fitted for a new suit. Oddly enough, they all agree that his suit looks very good on him after that.
• Thanksgiving (2023)
• Creator/Spyglass Media Group
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)
• Creator/StudioCanal
• Train to Busan
• The Tooth Fairy
• Films of 2010–2014
• Total Recall (2012)
• Creator/Columbia Pictures
• To Rome with Love
• Vacation Films
• Tourist Trap

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Image Fixer
• New Articles
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, who am i supposed to be.

Now streaming on:

There’s a way to make a movie like "The Tourist," but Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck doesn’t find that way. Here is a romantic comedy crossed with a crime thriller, shot in Paris and Venice, involving a glamorous mystery woman and a math teacher from Wisconsin. The plot is preposterous. So what you need is a movie that floats with bemusement above the cockamamie, and actors who tease each other.

As the mystery woman, Angelina Jolie does her darnedest. She gets the joke. Here is a movie in which she begins in a Paris cafe, eludes cops by dashing into the Metro, takes an overnight train to Venice, picks up a strange man ( Johnny Depp ) and checks them both into the Royal Danelli without one wrinkle on her dress or one hair out of place. And is sexy as hell. This is the Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly role, and she knows it.

Depp is in the Cary Grant role of the obliging, love-struck straight man who finds himself neck deep in somebody else’s troubles. In theory, these two should engage in witty flirtation and droll understatement. In practice, no one seems to have alerted Depp that the movie is a farce. I refer to farce in the dictionary sense, of course: a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations. Depp, however, plays his math teacher seriously and with a touch of the morose.

The plot involves — oh, hell, you know, the usual mystery man who has stolen millions from a gangster and gone into hiding while smuggling instructions to Jolie, his lover, instructing her to take the train to Venice, etc. And the cops from Scotland Yard who are tailing her in hopes of nailing the guy. And the gangster and his hit men who are also on the thief’s trail. And chases over the rooftops of Venice, dinner on a train, a scene in a casino, designer gowns and a chase through the canals with Jolie at the controls of a motor taxi, and...

Well, there was really only one cliche left, and I was grateful when it arrived. You know how a man in a high place will look down and see a canvas awning that might break his fall, and he jumps into it? Yep. And it’s shielding a fruit cart at the open-air market and he lands on the oranges and runs off, leaving the cart owner shaking his fist. This is a rare example of the Vertical Fruit Cart Scene, in which the cart is struck not from the side but from the top.

The supporting roles are filled by excellent actors, and it’s a sign of the movie’s haplessness that none of them make a mark. You have Paul Bettany and Timothy Dalton as cops, Steven Berkoff as the gangster and Rufus Sewell as "The Englishman," who must be important because he hangs around without any apparent purpose. Once in London, I saw Berkoff play a cockroach in his adaptation of Kafka’s "Metamorphosis." It might have helped if he’d tried the cockroach again.

A depressing element is how much talent "The Tourist" has behind the camera. Writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck made " The Lives of Others ," which won the 2007 Oscar for best foreign film. The screenplay is by Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winner for " The Usual Suspects ") and Julian Fellowes (Oscar winner for " Gosford Park "), along with von Donnersmarck. It’s based on a French film written by Jerome Salle , which was nominated for a Cesar. All three "Tourist" writers seem to have used their awards as doorstops.

It doesn’t matter that the plot is absurd. That goes with the territory. But if it’s not going to be nonstop idiotic action, then the acting and dialogue need a little style and grace and kidding around. Jolie plays her femme fatale with flat-out, drop-dead sexuality. Depp plays his Wisconsin math teacher as a man waiting for the school bell to ring so he can go bowling. The other actors are concealed in the shadows of their archetypes. Cary Grant would have known how to treat a lady.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

The Nature of Love

Peyton robinson.

Glenn Kenny

Brian Tallerico

Doctor Jekyll

Clint worthington.

Christy Lemire

My Spy The Eternal City

Film credits.

The Tourist (2010)

Rated PG for violence and brief strong language

103 minutes

Paul Bettany as Acheson

Rufus Sewell as Englishman

Steven Berkoff as Ivan

Angelina Jolie as Elise

Johnny Depp as Frank

Timothy Dalton as Jones

Directed by

• Florian Henckel
• Christopher McQuarrie
• Julian Fellowes

Latest blog posts

The Box Office is Everything: In Praise of the Window at the Front of the Theater

The Fairy Tale Shoes: Interview With the Cast and Crew of Cuckoo

On the Trail: India Donaldson on Good One

The Texture of Night: How Collateral Revolutionized Movies