The Tourist
A 2010 movie with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in the main roles.
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. And unfortunately for Frank, their current suspect is him.
- Action Survivor: Frank, except he's not.
- The Beautiful Elite: Inevitably, when a movie's top-billers are two of the best-looking folks in the biz.
- Becoming the Mask: Elise was a cop at one point, 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.
- They are pretty creepy about it, too. 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.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Alexander.
- The Caper
- 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.
- Deadpan Snarker: Inspector Jones
- Didn't See That Coming: Frank turning out to be Alexander Pearce.
- 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 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 getting mistaken for himself was his plan all along.
- Hidden Wire: Elise wears one at the end.
- 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."
- Just Train Wrong: Where to begin? In less then five minutes they mange to screw it up four times. 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. Second of all, in the first aerial shot of the train we see an Italian Frecciarossa ETR 500 which is used only on Italian High Speed lines and therefor would have no business departing Gare de Lyon in France.Third of all for the second aerial shot, the rolling stock switches mysteriously to another Italian train (that had no business being in France) this time the tilting ETR 600 Pendolino also known as Frecciargento. As the shot changes, and we see the train enter a tunnel, we get the fourth mistake as the train switches back to a Frecciarossa.
- Knight Templar: Inspector Acheson.
- London Gangster: In his introductory scene Shaw is presented as Russian, but he's actually an English gangster who prefers to employ Russians.
- Loveable Rogue: Frank/Alexander.
- Mistaken Identity: The main plot revolves around Frank being mistaken for Alexander Pearce.
- Ms. Fanservice: The movie makes the most of Jolie's beauty.
- Opera Gloves: Elise wears opera-length gloves as accessories to her retro-glamor outfits throughout most of the movie.
- The Perfect Crime: By the end, Pearce gets the girl, his enemies are dead (killed by cops, no less), and he cuts the feds a check to get them off his back. Of course, 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. And 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 actually the same person.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Inspector Jones, as a foil to Inspector Acheson.
- Running Gag: Frank keeps speaking Spanish when he means to use Italian. It gets 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.
- With My Hands Tied: Frank manages to escape from handcuffs twice, albeit once with assistance from Elise.
- Xanatos 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 whole scheme would have come apart.
- 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.