FAQ

While on the train from Paris to Venice, American tourist Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) shares a seat with Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie), a beautiful but mysterious British woman. They strike up a conversation, have dinner together, and Elise invites Frank to share her hotel room. However, Frank is actually being set up. Elise has been ordered by her ex-lover, Alexander Pearce, who stole 2.3 billion dollars from British gangster Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff), to board that train, pick out a man who resembles him, and make it look like this man is Pearce in order to throw off Shaw and his Russian thugs, who believe Frank is really Pearce, as well as throwing off Scotland Yard, who knows Frank is just an innocent decoy but also wants Pearce for tax evasion.

The Tourist is a remake of Anthony Zimmer (2005), a 2005 French film written and directed by French film-maker Jérôme Salle. The screenplay for The Tourist was co-written by American screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, English screenwriter Julian Fellowes, and German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (who also directed).

Agents from Scotland Yard have been following Elise, hoping that she would lead them to Pearce. Having no photo of him but knowing that Pearce has recently undergone facial reconstruction surgery, they assume Frank is Pearce and photograph him having dinner with Elise. Yard Inspector John Acheson (Paul Bettany) receives the photo and does a face recognition, discovering that Frank is indeed Frank Tupelo, a simple math teacher from Wisconsin. However, an informer within the Yard notices the photo, concludes that it's a true photo of Pearce, and forwards it directly to Shaw. Shaw then turns around his private jet and heads to Venice.

It's revealed that Elise was sent to Russia as an undercover agent to find Pearce but that she "went dark". Acheson believes that she fell in love with Pearce and couldn't decide whether she was with him or with the Yard.This time she chooses to be "with" him.

The song is "Starlight" by Muse.

"Map of the Problematique" by Muse from their 2006 album Black Holes and Revelations.