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HBO Max continues stealth drops of some of the best drama mini-series on television. Last year highlights included “The Head” and “ Station Eleven ,” and they start 2022 strongly with the fantastic “The Tourist,” a twisty tale that plays like an Aussie version of “ Fargo .” With sharp dialogue, clever plotting, and career-best work from Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald , this is a great little thriller, a show that constantly keeps you guessing and entertained in equal measure.

The “ Belfast ” and “ Fifty Shades of Grey ” star plays an unnamed man (at least for a while) who is driving through the very remote Australian outback. He stops at a station to use the bathroom, banters with the guy behind the counter, and hits the road again. Looking in the rearview mirror, he sees a truck gaining on him with remarkable speed. The Man twists off the road to avoid it and the trucker follows, revealing through a POV from his cab that this is very intentional—he’s trying to kill this tourist. They race through the desert until The Man’s car crashes. He wakes up in a hospital with no memory of who he is or how he got there.

Enter a small-town officer named Helen Chambers (Macdonald), engaged to an awful man named Ethan ( Greg Larsen ) and thrust into a mystery about who this handsome Irishman is in a hospital bed. When The Man finds a note with a time and a location in his pocket, he heads to a small town called Burnt Ridge, where he meets a woman named Luci ( Shalom Brune-Franklin ) who might know about his past, ends up crossing paths with a sociopath ( Ólafur Darri Ólafsson ) who clearly wants him dead, and gets a phone call from a man who’s been buried underground. And then things get even weirder.

Created by the people behind the excellent “ The Missing ” (which aired stateside on Starz), the writing on “The Tourist” is a metronomic back and forth between reveals and how those reveals propel the narrative in a new direction. Pushing their way through all the chaos are Dornan and Macdonald, both phenomenal. Dornan finds a quirky, unsettled way to play a man who doesn’t know who he is without resorting to the cliché of the lost soul. If anything, he leans into more of a blank slate interpretation of amnesia, playing a guy who’s more open to what comes next because he can’t remember what came before. And Macdonald is charming and so incredibly likable that she becomes the heart of a show that can be cold at times.

Echoes of “ Memento ” and “Fargo” aside, “The Tourist” also has its own quirky personality. Some of those quirks get a bit extreme in late-season episodes in ways I can’t spoil, but the show is never boring. It’s a reminder that the Dornan who was so great in “ The Fall ” is still out there, and I hope it leads him to more bizarre, challenging roles like this one. There’s an argument to be made that there’s an even-better 100-minute movie in this six-episode mini-series, but that’s not the world we’re in right now. A story like this has a better chance to be told in the TV system than the mid-budget film one, and the writers don’t drag their feet or spin their wheels like so many streaming thrillers. They’re constantly moving our hero forward, keeping us uncertain about his past and even his moral center.

Some will argue that “The Tourist” gets too convoluted and I’ll admit that I enjoyed the playful uncertainty of the first half of the season more than the intensity of the second half. Although the show does get deeper in how it unpacks lies we tell ourselves and those we listen to from other people. It turns out that everyone on "The Tourist" has a secret or two, and almost all of them could use a car accident to reset the hole they've dug for themselves. 

I'm not sure how intentional it is but the show never stopped reminding me of some of my favorite early Coen films—the noir danger of “ Blood Simple ,” the open roads of “ Raising Arizona ” (and a bearded hunter who seems unkillable), Macdonald’s very Marge Gunderson character—and yet these nods to greats are embedded in a breakneck plot that never slows down enough to distract from its own inspired storytelling. Take the trip.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

The Tourist (2022)

360 minutes

Jamie Dornan as The Man

Danielle Macdonald as Helen Chambers

Shalom Brune-Franklin as Luci

Damon Herriman as D.I. Lachlan Rogers

Alex Dimitriades as Kostas

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Billy

Greg Larsen as Ethan Krum

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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. Revolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Revolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path.

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
• Christopher McQuarrie
• Julian Fellowes
• Johnny Depp
• Angelina Jolie
• Paul Bettany
• 529 User reviews
• 326 Critic reviews
• 37 Metascore
• 4 wins & 4 nominations

• Frank Tupelo …

• Elise Clifton-Ward

• Inspector John Acheson

• Chief Inspector Jones

• Reginald Shaw

• The Englishman

• Colonnello Lombardi

• Sergente Cerato
• Tenente Narduzzi

• Tenente Tommassini

• Conte Filippo Gaggia

• Capitaine Courson
• Brigadier Kaiser

• Brigadier Ricuort

• Brigadier Marion

• Brigadier Rousseau

• Brigadier Cavillan
• Cafe Waiter Jean-Michel
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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Angelina Jolie admitted in an interview with Vogue Magazine that the only reason she agreed to do this movie was because she knew it would be a "quick shoot" in Venice, Italy.
• Goofs At the cafe in Paris when Elise orders her breakfast, the waiter says "un croissant beurre". On her plate, when she finishes reading her letter is a "pain au chocolat".

Elise : Invite me to dinner, Frank?

Frank Taylor : What?

[Elise gives Frank a look]

Frank Taylor : Would you like to have dinner?

Elise : Women don't like questions.

Frank Taylor : Join me for dinner.

Elise : Too demanding.

Frank Taylor : Join me for dinner?

Elise : Another question.

Frank Taylor : [thinks for a moment] I'm having dinner, if you'd care to join me.

[Elise smiles at Frank]

• Connections Featured in The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2011)
• Soundtracks Cat's Pyjamas Composed by Jack Alfred Courtesy of Extreme Music

User reviews 529

• May 26, 2011
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• What is 'The Tourist' about?
• Is 'The Tourist' based on a book?
• How does Shaw find out about Frank?
• December 10, 2010 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official site (France)
• Production Notes
• Du Khách Bí Ẩn
• Venice, Veneto, Italy
• Columbia Pictures
• Spyglass Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $100,000,000 (estimated)
• $67,631,157
• $16,472,458
• Dec 12, 2010
• $278,780,441

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 43 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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The Tourist

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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.

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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

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External link [ ]

• 1 Carl Nargle

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The Tourist series two review – Jamie Dornan is hugely charming in this gloriously fun show

This raucous, entertaining thriller is the perfect vehicle for the one-time Fifty Shades star. It’s twisty, funny and unfailingly engaging

W hen Fifty Shades of Grey arrived in cinemas in 2015, Dakota Johnson was its breakout star. She would delight the internet by going on to declare that her No 1 priority was sleeping , rhapsodising about limes and going viral with an awkward Ellen interview , while straddling indie darlings and the odd blockbuster to cement her A-list status.

But things have not been so smooth for her S&M trilogy co-star Jamie Dornan, who has largely been making forgettable action movies, failed awards bait and the utterly dire Wild Mountain Thyme . With the exception of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and his chilling turn as a serial killer in The Fall (which was sullied by his admission that he stalked a woman to get into character), his legacy is on shakier ground.

Thankfully, Dornan’s excellent turn in 2022’s twisted BBC thriller The Tourist, which pivoted between nauseatingly tense, blackly comic and surprisingly sweet, turns out not to have been a fluke; its second season is just as joyous a rollercoaster. The first series introduced Dornan as Elliot Stanley, an amnesiac Irishman in the Australian outback trying to piece together his past while a litany of figures tried to lock him up or kill him. His only ally came in the form of people-pleasing Constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald).

The pair ended the series having formed the beast with two backs and discovered that Elliot was something of a beast himself. We found out that he stole cash from a gangster for whom he used to smuggle heroin, with one of his victims pulling up her shirt in the finale to reveal how his human mules would be sliced open to retrieve the goods.

Evidently, Helen looked past this reddest of red flags. Season two begins with them on a train to Cambodia 14 months later, still blissfully ensconced in the honeymoon phase. But she has been keeping a secret. She reveals to bushy-bearded Elliot that she has kept a letter with a photograph that was sent to the police station from “Tommy”, telling Elliot it is now “time you found out who you really are”. The two travel to Ireland in search of answers, but needless to say this isn’t going to be a typical family reunion. An impressively violent, gloriously fun caper lies ahead.

The Tourist perfectly nails a tone that is grisly and rambunctious in equal measure. A heart-stoppingly tense chase through the countryside, in which a van threatens to squish our forgetful protagonist, ends on a superbly silly punchline, with him falling down a never-ending hill, each protracted tumble and roll getting more hilarious. Separated from his loving girlfriend, it’s a fight to stay alive as she tries to figure out what the hell is going on and why everyone in this sleepy patch of rural Ireland is bloodthirsty, deranged or both.

Meanwhile, poor Elliot is in a cycle of capture, escape and recapture by a sadistic crew connected to his colourful past. They are having a whale of a time playing Jigsaw-esque games with him, suggesting he saw off his own legs to escape. Dornan finds the humour with a bemused reaction to this gory but befuddling plan.

The twists come thick and fast: some funny, some cruel, almost all ludicrous. The Tourist is tautly plotted and performed with such flourish that it’s always engaging, even in its most implausible flights of fancy. Its no-holds-barred enthusiasm is hugely infectious.

By the time the fourth of the six episodes that were made available for review concludes, it’s hard to recall precisely how or why we ended up here. The creators’ penchant for a plot twist every 12 minutes or so, and a new villain being introduced just about as frequently, means the recaps at the start of each episode do a lot of the heavy lifting. But even if you struggle to follow exactly who wants what and why they are seeking revenge or a big payout, the show skates by on its charms. The Tourist proves that even if every project has not been able to showcase Dornan’s charms, he certainly has an ample supply at his disposal.

• Jamie Dornan

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'The Tourist' doesn't know who he is — just that someone wants him dead

John Powers

In The Tourist, "The Man" (Jamie Dornan) wakes up in a small town hospital in the Australian outback with no idea who he is or how he got there. HBO hide caption

In The Tourist, "The Man" (Jamie Dornan) wakes up in a small town hospital in the Australian outback with no idea who he is or how he got there.

Ever since the birth of mass communications, our culture has been haunted by the idea of amnesia. In high-class books by the likes of George Orwell or Milan Kundera , forgetting becomes a political metaphor for the erasure of truth. Things are less ambitious in pop entertainments like Memento or the Jason Bourne series . There, memory-loss is less a metaphor than a motor — a gimmick to drive the story forward.

This motor purrs like a Ferrari in The Tourist , a hit BBC series playing on HBO Max. Written by the Williams brothers, Harry and Jack — best known here for The Missing and Baptiste — this funny, suspenseful six-part thriller doesn't merely keep us guessing. It keeps its amnesiac hero guessing, too. He knows even less about his own story than we do.

A bearded, muscled-up Jamie Dornan stars as a T-shirt clad Irishman who gets in a car accident and winds up in a small town hospital in the Australian outback. Known simply as "The Man," he doesn't know who he is or how he got there. But soon after he leaves the hospital, he knows one thing for sure: Somebody wants to kill him.

As he seeks to find out who's after him and why, he's helped by two very different women. Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin) is a waitress who we aren't quite sure what to make of. In contrast, it's easy to trust probationary constable Helen Chambers, played by Danielle Macdonald. Helen's a newbie cop who struggles with her weight and with a fiancé who speaks of her appearance with such passive-aggressive meanness that I kept hoping he'd become one of the show's murder victims.

While The Man's search for his identity is grippingly plotted, the show lets the action breathe. It takes time to enjoy his encounters with a wide range of oddball types, be it a goofy chess-playing pilot, a Greek mobster, the affably nutty woman who offers him lodging, or the enormous, cowboy-hatted hitman who has the self-satisfied theatricality of an escapee from a Tarantino movie. That said, The Man knows he must keep moving to stay alive.

For all The Tourist 's inventiveness — Episode 5 is a trip — it reminds us that even good pop culture is often derivative. The show's opening car crash sequence mimics the Steven Spielberg movie Duel . More importantly, the Williams brothers are pretty clearly doing a Down Under riff on Fargo . Their series offers the same blend of violence and barbed humor, the same mythologizing of bleak, underpopulated places, and the same cavalcade of viciousness and folly that brings out the heroism in an ordinary person.

The show's moral center is Helen, who, in Macdonald's sensational performance, has our sympathy from the get-go. Her work is so scene-stealingly good that I would call this a career-making performance if I hadn't already said this about Macdonald's electric work as an aspiring New Jersey rapper in the indie film Patti Cake$ .

Helen's transparent goodness makes her the perfect counterpoint to The Man, a handsome hunk who's a mystery, even to himself. It's a great role for Dornan, who, earlier in his career, had a slightly synthetic prettiness that made him ideal for creepy characters like the S&M billionaire in Fifty Shades of Grey . Here, he's a bit older, thicker, and rougher. And just as Brad Pitt often seems liberated when his good looks are masked a bit, Dornan gives his best performance as a man who isn't sure whether or not he's the hero of his own life.

Over the course of the six episodes, The Man struggles to learn whether, back before his accident, he was a good guy or a bad guy. And if he had been a villain, does he have to stay one, even after he starts remembering his past? I won't reveal what he discovers, though I feel obligated to say that you won't get a definitive answer this season. You'll have to watch Season 2 of The Tourist , not yet made, which I bet you will be more than happy to do.

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• Why <i>The Tourist</i> Should Be Your Next Netflix Binge–And What to Know Before Watching

Why The Tourist Should Be Your Next Netflix Binge–And What to Know Before Watching

T ake a break from endlessly scrolling through Netflix searching for something new to watch and just press play on The Tourist, the BBC series which stars Jamie Dornan as a mysterious Irishman who wakes up in an Australian hospital with amnesia.

The wry thriller isn’t necessarily new—it premiered on the BBC in 2022 and quickly became one of the U.K.’s most-watched dramas of that year—but it is a recent addition to Netflix, which acquired the exclusive rights to the series last year and started streaming it in February. (Season 1 of The Tourist was previously available to stream in the U.S. on Max.) 

At just six episodes, The Tourist is a low-risk, high-reward viewing experience full of twists and turns that are sure to keep you on your toes. Think Memento if directed by the Coen Brothers . Even better, if you like what you see, you can launch right into season 2, which is now streaming.

Here is what you need to know about your next great Netflix binge . 

What is The Tourist about?

The Tourist begins with an Irish guy (played by Dornan) making a pit stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, Australia. Nothing seems too out of the ordinary; he fills up his car, questions the gas station attendant’s bathroom key policy, visits the absolutely filthy restroom, and is on his way. But things get weird once he gets back on the road. He finds himself being harassed by a tractor trailer that seems hellbent on mowing him down. Just when it appears that he’s in the clear, he’s T-boned by the truck and left for dead on the side of the dirt road. 

When he wakes up, he’s in the hospital and has no memory of the accident or who he is. He doesn’t have a wallet or ID or phone on him to help jog his memory. This nameless man is now a tourist in his own life, struggling to understand who he was and why someone wanted him dead so badly. With help from a few kind, but not necessarily trustworthy strangers including Probationary Constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), local waitress Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin), and Detective Inspector Lachlan Rogers (Damon Herriman), he embarks on a journey of self-discovery that leaves him with more questions than answers about his dark past. 

Why it’s worth your time

Let’s start with Jamie Dornan. He played the leading man in the Fifty Shades trilogy and the Academy Award-nominated 2021 drama Belfast , but The Tourist feels like the first time he’s been able to truly show his range as an actor. It’s hard to resist that Irish brogue, but it’s even harder to resist his “ get you a man that can do both ” charm. Fans of the superbly silly Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar already know how funny he can be—not to mention, what a great singer he is. But The Tourist lets him show off his dry, dark wit, while also letting him show off his romantic side. By the end of the series, you’ll be left wondering why he hasn’t yet been cast in a good rom-com. (Sorry, not sorry Wild Mountain Thyme .) In the show’s most gripping action sequences, he manages to channel another amnesiac with killer instincts, Jason Bourne. But thanks to his hangdog expression, Dornan is also able to pull off the existential dread his character feels after realizing he’s not the person he hoped he would be.

Obviously, it’s hard to take your eyes off Dornan, but the scenery in The Tourist isn’t too bad to look at either. The show, set in the Australian outback—like way, way out back—was filmed on location in South Australia around Adelaide, a city known for its coastline. (Adelaide's North Haven Beach serves as the show’s stand-in for Bali’s Kuta Beach.) It was also shot in the Flinders Ranges , the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, and in Peterborough, a small town in an area near Adelaide known as wheat country, which stood in for the sandy outback scenes. (Season 2 takes place in Ireland, so prepare yourself for greenery as far as the eye can see.) Despite all the drama onscreen, The Tourist makes Australia look like a nice place to visit.

What to remember before watching The Tourist season 2

Whether you’ve already finished the first season and need a bit of a refresher or you’re planning to skip straight to Season 2, this is what you need to know before watching the second season. 

Warning: major spoilers for The Tourist Season 1 ahead.

The Irish guy with amnesia is actually Elliot Stanley, and he’s done some really bad things in his life. 

While in the hospital, Elliot finds a note in his pants pocket with an address for a diner in a tiny town called Burnt Ridge. It’s there he meets Luci (Brune-Franklin), a waitress who is actually his ex-girlfriend. She only chooses to tell him his name and their relationship to one another after they discover a man’s dead body stashed in an oil drum that had been buried. The man was Marko (Damien Strouthos), who, like Elliot, worked for Kostas (Alex Dimitriades), an international drug lord and Luci’s fiancé.

Luci isn’t exactly who she claims to be. She’s a scammer who stole a rather sentimental bag of money from Kostas in order to run off with Elliot. Now the Greek gangster is back to collect. But Kostas isn’t all that interested in the cash; a million dollars is chump change to a guy like him. This is about ego. Kostas, a maniac who spikes his water with LSD to be able to speak with his dead brother, wants to punish Elliot for successfully stealing his girl.

Kostas decides to kidnap the wife of Detective Inspector Lachlan Rogers (Herriman) in hopes that it will scare the decorated officer into doing his bidding. It does; Lachlan apprehends Elliot and kills a young sergeant in the process, becoming one of the bad guys. But is Elliot also a bad guy? Probationary Constable Helen Chambers (Macdonald), the ambitious cop-in-training assigned to his case, doesn’t think so. She believes the fact that he was willing to save her from being shot by Kostas’ henchman means there is good in there somewhere, even if he has done bad things. But Elliot isn’t convinced that someone can really change. 

After drinking from Kostas’ LSD-laced water bottle, he has visions that offer some insight into who he may have been. He sees his first meeting with Kostas, where he’s hired as his accountant. He is able to relive his meet-cute with Luci and sees how toxic their relationship was. He discovers where he buried the bag of money and dreams of laying in bed with Helen. He also speaks to a Russian woman named Lena Pascal, who he’s seen before in his dreams. She tells him she’s in Adelaide and claims that she can help him “fill in the colors” of his past. 

Elliot worries that what he has seen aren’t memories, but hallucinations. When he finds the bag of money in the same spot he had envisioned it though, he believes that Lena may be real, too. Unfortunately, he can’t go looking for her just yet. After Kostas and Luci are killed in a shootout over the million dollars, Lachlan lies to the police in hopes of saving himself. He claims that Elliot and Helen kidnapped him and went on a shooting rampage à la Bonnie and Clyde, killing the young sergeant. Luckily, Helen is able to access the CCTV footage that shows Lachlan transporting Elliot in handcuffs, catching him in his lie. It saves both her and Elliott from going to jail and allows Elliot a chance to speak with Lena, who was not a figment of his imagination—though after their chat he wishes she was.

When Lena comes to meet him at the jail, she reveals that he wasn’t just Kostas’ accountant as he had dreamt, but helped train the drug mules, mostly young immigrant women who swallowed bags of heroin to transport across the globe. Lena tells a story of two girls who died instantly after the bags Elliot gave them exploded in their stomachs. Lena lived, but not without literal scars. She shows him the long gash across her stomach where she was cut open to retrieve the drugs. She claims Elliot was the one who ordered her to be butchered, worried the heroin would go to waste. He apologizes for his cruelty, but she doesn’t absolve him of his guilt. “You have to live with yourself,” she tells him as she leaves.

Elliot doesn’t think he can and attempts to have himself arrested, but Lena won’t press charges. He then attempts to lose his memory again by getting into another car crash. He flips his car over, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work. He can’t forget what Lena told him and neither can Helen, who after learning the evil that Elliot was capable of decides she can no longer see him. But she can’t stop thinking about him and wondering whether he or anyone should be defined by their worst mistakes. 

Elliot wonders the same, but the guilt is just too much. He decides that he can no longer live with himself and attempts to take his life with vodka and pills. Laid out on his bed, waiting to die, he gets a text: a burrito emoji from Helen.

The burrito references a scene earlier in the show, when Elliot and Helen were eating together in a Mexican restaurant. Helen is his hostage, but the night plays out like a first date. Elliot can’t remember what kind of food he likes so she suggests they order everything on the menu so he can figure out his taste now. She encourages him to stop thinking about who he was and start becoming the person he is meant to be. He later tells her that he equates burritos with happiness and her text becomes a lifeline. He might not be able to forget what he’s done, but she believes he has the capacity to change. The joy on his face when he sees her message makes it seem as if Elliot finally believes he can change too. But fans will have to wait until Season 2 to see if he’s able to become a better person.

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'The Tourist' Season 2 Review: Jamie Dornan’s Netflix Thriller Remains a Killer

This series continues to hit the mark with a punchy second season that is filled with unpredictable twists and turns.

The Big Picture

• The Tourist Season 2 continues its captivating storytelling in Ireland, filled with dark twists and unpredictable writing.
• Jamie Dornan shines as the leading man, showcasing versatile acting and dynamic emotions alongside co-star Danielle Macdonald.
• The series maintains its unique tone, blending genres like horror and comedy with influences from filmmakers like the Coen Brothers and David Lynch, as well as films like Saw and Psycho .

When The Tourist first premiered on Max in 2022, its smartly written ending felt like the perfect conclusion to the puzzling, dark comedy. The neo-Western reminiscent of Coen Brothers classics like Fargo and Blood Simple about one man’s amnesia-filled romp across the Australian outback was a captivating odyssey blending action, mystery, and dark humor. But despite showrunners Harry and Jack Williams and series star Jamie Dornan , insisting it was never meant to be more than one season, an abundance of critical acclaim and an astounding audience of 11.4 million viewers following its BBC run proved there was more story to tell. With The Tourist making its anticipated U.S. debut on Netflix this month, Season 2 tonally hits all the right notes for a uniquely twisted, action-thriller that is genuinely fun and engrossing .

Originally produced for the BBC and premiering Season 2 on its new streaming home at Netflix on February 29, The Tourist continues to show its strengths by not wasting any time. Trading the desert-hued ambiance of the Australian outback for lush, sprawling vistas of Ireland where Dornan’s character Elliot Stanley is from, things take a wild turn when he returns home for answers. Though the premise feels similar to the first season, as Elliot still can’t remember who he is, The Tourist remains self-assured while crafting a real sense of distinction through unpredictable writing and authentic performances that will keep you glued to your seat.

What Is 'The Tourist' Season 2 About?

After a heartbroken Elliot (Jamie Dornan) swallows a bottle of pills and former Constable Helen Chambers ( Danielle Macdonald ) decides to give him another chance in the Season 1 finale, we learn the two nomads are eagerly traveling the globe together. The series quickly establishes their relationship, revealing the pair are very much in love . While they are in the middle of their Southeast Asian trip, Helen tells Elliot she received a letter from someone named “Tommy,” who claims to know him. When they try and meet up with the mysterious stranger in Ireland, Elliot is shortly kidnapped by the Donal family in what is also one of the funniest scenes from the dark comedy , which finds Dornan running up a hill in a heartstopping chase as his assailants play The Pretenders’ “Don’t Get Me Wrong.”

Though it appears he’s escaped after tumbling down a long emerald hill, Elliot's pursuers find him and things get a little ugly — think Saw . Meanwhile, Helen calls the police and reports to Detective Ruairi Slater ( Conor MacNeill ) that her boyfriend is missing. While at the station, she meets Niamh Cassidy ( Olwen Fouéré ), who was sent a photograph of her kidnapped son Elliot – except, his name is “Eugene” and the last time she saw him was when he was 27.

How 'Reacher' & 'The Tourist' Depict Two Different Types of Action Hero

As Elliott and Helen try to find the truth and get stuck in the most outlandish situations while apart, their energizing love story raises the stakes for how The Tourist has evolved from Season 1 . Through smart and precise pacing that locks down interest through thoughtful writing, a lot happens across the show’s six episodes. As Elliot navigates all he learns about his past and discovers a bloody rivalry between two warring families, the Irish countryside is the perfect setting for his psyche as we go through literal peaks and valleys thanks to dark twists and turns. Whereas a barren and bleak outback served as a strong character in Season 1, the second season's new landscape is a clever addition to this chapter of Elliot’s life.

Jamie Dornan Is the Beating Heart of 'The Tourist' Season 2

One of the show’s greatest appeals is its cast. Showcasing a magnetic versatility, Dornan proves he is a tremendously watchable leading man . While audiences might be quick to think of him as Christian Grey, the actor has distinguished himself as a real force with a refreshing energy. In taking on the complex role of a man continually finding new information about himself, Dornan makes profound use of his diverse acting strengths as a character who has met some painful, fragmented truths. As Elliot makes sense of who he is, the actor’s approach blends complex emotions eloquently through striking expressions and delivery. These nuances, filled with wide-eyed panic and unease, find Dornan seamlessly embodying a multitude of emotions while remaining dry, humorous, and humbly charismatic.

Complimenting Dornan in the series is Danielle Macdonald, who is every bit as magnetic as her co-star . If Dornan is The Tourist 's heart, Macdonald is its compass. Her infectiously likable personality is a delight on-screen as she makes the darker tones of the series brighter with her genuine warmth . With all her character’s quirks and a discerning eye for the particulars, Macdonald’s portrayal gives off some big Marge Gundersen à la Fargo vitality. Her chemistry with Dornan is effervescent, giving the series the boost it needs amid shadowy elements .

The supporting cast rounds out The Tourist most impressively. While Season 2 sees the return of Helen’s (hilariously) awful ex-boyfriend Ethan ( Greg Larsen ) as he tries to make amends, his appearance makes for some laughable moments between him and Dornan’s Elliot. Olwen Fouréré joins the series in its second season as Elliot’s mother/badass crime lord matriarch. While her performance is focused and deep, she adds a nice weightiness to the series’ more shadowed tones. Also new to the show is the Garda detective played by Conor MacNeill ( best known for The Fall , which also stars Dornan), who portrays a gripping character rooted in some deeply grim events. While his character takes a serious turn and creates one of the show’s more WTF moments , it’s an absorbing juncture straight out of the shadiness of a Coen Brothers film and sets the tone for what more we can expect from these bizarre characters surrounding Elliot.

'The Tourist' Season 2 Excels With Its Smartly Applied Influences

With strong writing and ambitious plot turns that will give you serious whiplash, The Tourist is edgy, brutal, and laugh-out-loud funny. Taking audiences on an unpredictable journey through the glorious backroads of Ireland, there is a lot to love about this show and the various genres it pulls up most naturally . Playing with horror through strong nods to the aforementioned Saw and even Psycho , The Tourist is clever and gripping in every way imaginable without ever feeling overdone.

Thanks to atmospheric and unsettling sequences, The Tourist is every bit a neo-Western that sprinkles in the manic traits of the Coen Brothers, David Lynch , and Quentin Tarantino films. It might sample some of these filmmakers’ best works, but it’s a series all its own due in part to its enigmatic plots and characters. Accentuating themes of antiheroes and identity all wrapped into six compelling hours, showrunners Harry and Jack Williams have managed to create a world that evokes a deeply spirited, edgy, and pointed rhythm . Woven through a distinct narrative approach characterized by sharp dialogues and bold visuals, the series’ kinetic energy can get quite dark but is challenged by some very uncommon storytelling threads. The Tourist Season 2 can feel quirky and outlandish thanks to its consistent chaos, but it works; there is a distinguishable stylishness to the Williams siblings’ production that encompasses some deeply nail-biting suspense and snappy humor .

The Tourist

The Tourist remains pitch-perfect and hits all the right notes for a uniquely twisted and fun action-thriller.

• The Tourist remains self-assured while crafting a real sense of distinction through unpredictable writing and authentic performances.
• Dornan makes profound use of his diverse acting credits as a character that has met with some painful, fragmented truths.

The Tourist is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

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Series / The Tourist

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The Tourist is a Mystery Thriller TV drama written by Harry and Jack Williams and produced in part by The BBC as well as several other international companies. The first series, consisting of six episodes, was broadcast in 2022.

Jamie Dornan plays a man, initially known only as "The Man", who is involved in a car crash in the Australian Outback , and subsequently wakes up in hospital with complete amnesia. Using what limited clues he has, and with the help of a friendly local police officer called Helen (Danielle Macdonald), he tries to find out who he is . As the plot develops and various unsavoury characters start to take in interest in The Man, it becomes increasingly clear that his past is much, much murkier than first assumed.

For a time, it was the most-watched show on the BBC's iPlayer streaming platform, with the first episode ending up as the third most-watched individual programme on iPlayer in 2022.

This led to an originally-unplanned second series, in which The Man and Helen travel to Ireland to find out more about the former's past. It was broadcast in 2024.

The Tourist tropes:

• All Just a Dream : The first part of the fifth episode of the second series, in which Helen and Elliot return to Australia, only for Helen's insistence on finding out the story behind the missing plane to put a strain on their relationship, is revealed to have been the dream Helen is having while in a coma as a result of being shot in the stomach by Lena .
• Does Helen really think that St. Petersburg in Florida is the St. Petersburg where the Winter Palace is? See below under Global Ignorance for more.
• When Elliot and Helen wake up in bed together after getting drunk the previous night, it's unclear whether or not they had sex; Helen swears they went no further than kissing, although as she had consumed several dirty martinis after trying said cocktail for the first time, she may not remember everything .
• Did DS Slater murder his wife, or is he telling the truth about her dying of natural causes and him being too grief-stricken to report her death, leading him to conceal her body in the basement ?
• Amnesiac Dissonance : As Elliot learns more about his past, he becomes increasingly horrified and disgusted by the dubious and violent life he's led, which included being involved in organized crime. It comes to a head in the finale when he learns that not only was he an accountant for a drug-dealer, he was actively involved in coercing women into smuggling heroin across borders in their stomachs, and was thus responsible for the deaths of at least two of those women.
• Amnesia Loop : Played for laughs in the first episode. The first time the Man visits a gas station and is told by the attendant that he must sign the register to get the key to the outside toilet, he reacts with an incredulous "Why would you need to sign for it? It's not like you're trying to buy it". He says the same thing when he revisits the gas station after getting amnesia.
• Armour-Piercing Question : When Elliot has Frank McDonnell at gunpoint, he seems serious about killing him. Frank then asks why he would want to do this, given that he has no memory of the feud between their families and had stated that he does not care about said feud — meaning that if he did kill Frank, he would be doing so for no reason whatsoever. Elliot backs down as a result .
• Bait-and-Switch : Lena, who turns out to have been the one who lured Elliot back to Ireland , asks Donal if she can be the one to shoot Elliot after he and Helen are captured (again, in Elliot's case) by the McDonnells . Donal agrees, but instead of shooting Elliot as everyone expects, she shoots Helen , so Elliot can know the pain of watching a loved one die in front of him .
• Basement-Dweller : In the second series, Ruairi Slater provides a somewhat creepy example of this trope, given that the basement in question contains the decomposing body of his late wife and a mannequin dressed in her clothes .
• Big Bad : In the first series, combined with The Don in the case of Kosta — an international drug dealer who has one of Australia's best cops (Rogers) on his payroll. He's after The Man because he used to be a key man in Kosta's organisation before he ran off with $1,000,000 and Luci, who had previously been Kosta's girlfriend .
• Big Beautiful Woman : Helen. She's (adorkably) smart, too.
• In the aftermath of the diner blowing up, The Man necks a beer and follows it by remarking that he hopes he's not an alcoholic.
• When he gets kidnapped at the start of the second series, Elliot asks his kidnappers if this has anything to do with Kosta. They, having not heard of the Big Bad of the first series, are momentarily confused as to why them kidnapping someone would have anything to do with a coffee shop (Costa Coffee being a leading British chain of coffee shops, with over a hundred outlets in Ireland).
• Elliot's attempt to get away from his kidnappers in the first episode of the second series is accompanied by "Don't Get Me Wrong" by The Pretenders , which is playing on the radio of the kidnappers' van.
• Brick Joke : Everyone who goes to the gas station reacts with incredulity on learning that the proprietor makes visitors sign a register before allowing them to use the outside toilet.
• British Brevity : Two series, six episodes in each.
• Broken Ace : Detective Inspector Lachlan Rogers, although most Aussie cops just see him as The Ace as he does not appear to have told anyone about his terminal cancer diagnosis. Turns out, he's also a Dirty Cop who works for Kosta.
• Buried Alive : The fate of The Man's mystery caller at the end of the first episode. He and Luci rush to find him, but a sandstorm impedes their progress, and by the time they find him, he's dead.
• The Bus Came Back : As well as The Man and Helen, Ethan and Lena return for the second series. Billy also appears, but only in the coma dream Helen has after getting shot by Lena.
• Career Versus Man : Helen, who has recently become a police officer, is engaged to Ethan, who tries to convince her to give up on her new career. Given that he's a Gaslighting Jerkass , it comes as something of a relief when she finally dumps him . By the start of the second series, though, she is revealed to have quit the police in order to go travelling with Elliot, who's now her boyfriend .
• When Billy breaks a window, the camera focuses on a particular shard of glass. He is later killed as a result of being impaled on that very shard .
• Elliot's lighter, which offends the ticket inspector on the train, is later used to enable Elliot to make a Molotov cocktail in a bid to escape from the McDonnells .
• Ethan's rape whistle gets used to distract a heavy who's got Elliot at his mercy .
• Ethan again; although the fact that he has an app on his phone that tracks Helen's movements is rightly called out as stalking, it does help him and Elliot to try and find Helen when she goes missing .
• In the second series, Ruairi's next-door neighbour seems like a one-shot character but is actually this, as she's later revealed to be the widow of the real Elliot Stanley .
• Chekhov's Skill : Early on, it's mentioned that prior to interviewing The Man, Helen's police experience consists entirely of being a traffic cop. Ultimately, her speed camera spotting skills are what saves her and Elliot from being framed for murder.
• Cruel Mercy : In the final episode of the first series, Elliot finds out about the horrible things he did to Lena and her friends. He is willing to go to jail for it but Lena declines to talk to the cops. Having noticed that he has developed a conscience, she figures out that the guilt he will suffer for the rest of his life is the worst punishment she can offer him; prison would merely help him to assuage that guilt, and she wants him to have to live with it .
• DI Rogers has been diagnosed with cancer and is actually working for Kosta.
• Helen tried to kill herself after her father died. Ethan uses this as a means of convincing her that she should marry him because no other man would have her.
• And as for The Man ... Elliot was not just an accountant for Kosta's drug-smuggling operation, he was a key figure in that operation , coercing Lena and at least two other women to have their stomachs cut open in order to smuggle bags of heroin into Australia; the other two died after the bags exploded. When he learns of this, he's so disgusted that he tries to kill himself. Twice . In the second series, he finds out that he was a member of one of the two Feuding Families , and left Ireland after getting the wife of a member of the other family pregnant .
• The Determinator : Helen, especially in the second series.
• Didn't Think This Through : In his attempt to make amends with Helen (and, he hopes, win her back with his idea of a Grand Romantic Gesture ) in the second series, Ethan does not seem to have considered the notion that she has moved on. Unlike her, he hires a car when he gets to Ireland (she, by contrast, has to rely on taxis) but does not consider the prospect that it may need to be refuelled at some point.
• Driven to Suicide : On learning of the extent of his criminality, Elliot tries to kill himself, first by trying to crash his car, and when that doesn't work, he tries overdosing on what is presumably paracetamol .
• A Family Affair : An accidental example. When The Man had an affair with (and impregnated) Donal's wife Claire, he did not know that he and Donal were cousins .
• Feuding Families : The Cassidys and the McDonnells have been feuding for many years and the situation has been made worse by the fact that they both run extensive criminal networks competing for control of the local criminal underworld. They have been at an uneasy peace since Joe Cassidy was killed but Elliot's return to Ireland starts the violence up again. It turns out that the heads of the two families are actually brother and sister .
• Fighting Irish : In the second series, we have the Cassidys and the McDonnells , two feuding Irish criminal families. The Man is shown to be more than capable of handling himself in a Bar Brawl .
• Fish out of Water : The Man is an Irishman who (initially) has no idea who he is, or why he's in Australia. In the second series, Helen takes on this role as an Aussie visiting Ireland and trying to find Elliot, who's been kidnapped .
• Foreshadowing : In the final episode, Helen spots a speed limit sign and slows down to obey it. This foreshadows her use of her speed camera knowledge to prove that DI Rogers is lying.
• Gaslighting : Ethan constantly belittles Helen, makes her think that no other man would want her and mocks her for thinking she can make a success of being a police officer.
• Global Ignorance : When her conversation with The Man shifts from her and Ethan's intended honeymoon plans to travel in general, Helen remarks that she'd love to see the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg; given that she had just mentioned that they were going to go to Florida (which has a city of that name, named after the Russian original), it seems that she may have fallen victim to this trope. It's an ambiguous case , though, since she specifically mentioned where Ethan wanted to go when she mentioned Florida, and it's never confirmed whether or not she knows that the St. Petersburg where the Winter Palace is is actually the Russian one note  this omission in detail may be partially justified as a possible hint that her personal wishes normally take a backseat to Ethan's in their rather one-sided relationship, and thus she rarely has a chance to actually express them in discussion since they'd be irrelevant (to him); given how switched-on she turns out to be, it does seem unlikely that she would fall victim to this trope . It's possible that she simply assumes that The Man (with whom she shares the conversation) already understands the geographical distinction.
• Gruesome Grandparent : Niamh intended to kill her biological grandson, Fergal, because he was raised by and aligned with the McDonnells .
• Heel Realization : By the second series, Ethan seems to have realised how his behaviour affected Helen (to the point of joining a self-help group and correcting both himself and others over causal remarks that could be seen as misogynistic) and tries to make amends — although this is played for laughs to an extend, given that he quickly becomes The Load .
• Hidden Depths : Elliot is said to have been an accomplished ballet dancer as a younger man. He remembers nothing of this, but is shown to be a very good dancer in the final scene when Helen insists on hiring out a theatre to see what he can do .
• I Have Many Names : The Man finds out that his name is Elliot Stanley . It is, however, revealed in the second series that this was an alias, and his real name is Eugene Cassidy .
• Imaginary Friend : A somewhat sinister version. Kosta's brother Dimitri turns out to be an hallucination of the man Kostas thought he'd grow up to become; he thinks he died years ago, but in reality he's living in an ashram in India.
• Incest Is Relative : The second series ends with it being revealed that the Cassidys and the McDonnells are related due to the adultery of at least one earlier generation. Ethan makes a remark about incest, following which he quickly leaves the pub before someone beats him up for pointing this out .
• Insistent Terminology : Probationary Constable Helen Chambers.
• I Reject Your Reality : After The Reveal at the end of the second series, Niamh angrily refuses to accept that she is a half-sister of her sworn enemy .
• Jerkass : Ethan (Helen's fiancé), who constantly belittles her over he weight and tries to convince her that she's not good enough to be a police officer. She eventually calls him out on this, and dumps him.
• Kissing Cousins : Albeit unknowingly. Before leaving Ireland, Eugene Cassidy (a.k.a. Elliot Stanley, a.k.a. The Man) had an affair with Frank McDonnell 's daughter-in-law and fathered a child with her. Turns out, Frank is Eugene's biological uncle.
• Land Down Under : In the first series, the action takes place in the Australian Outback.
• Loss of Identity : Jamie Dornan's character can't remember his name or where he comes from or why he was in the Australian Outback to begin with. For the majority of the first episode he doesn't even get a temporary name, instead just continuing on nameless. In the credits, he is simply "The Man".
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe : Elliot is revealed, via DNA evidence from the kidnapping scene, to be the biological father of Fergal McDonnell . Later, it is revealed that Niamh was likely fathered by Frank McDonnell 's dad, making them half-siblings. Evidently, sleeping with the wives of enemy family members was an ongoing thing in the Cassidy- McDonnell feud .
• Mistaken for Murderer : When Ruairi goes to a hardware store and buys a shovel, some duct tape and a pair of heavy-duty rubber gloves, the cashier jokingly asks if he's murdered someone and is trying to dispose of the body. Ruairi's laughing response seems a little too forced, given that the second part of the question is, in fact, true .
• Police Are Useless : In season 2, the local Irish police turn out to be useless because they refuse to investigate any crime that might involve the Cassidys or the McDonnells .
• Quest for Identity : The whole basis of the plot is The Man trying to find out who he is, and where he was going before the crash.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending : The first series ends with Elliot, having just washed a load of pills down with vodka in a second attempt to kill himself, receiving a text from Helen, who had previously told him she wanted nothing more to do with him after learning of his criminal past. He smiles as the scene cuts to black for the closing credits.
• Relationship Upgrade : By the start of the second series, Elliot and Helen are in a relationship .
• At the end of the third episode, Luci tells The Man that his name is Elliot Stanley .
• Season 2 reveals that he is Eugene Cassidy and Elliot Stanley was just an alias.
• The climax of season 2 reveals that the heads of the the Cassidy and McDonnell families are half-siblings .
• The final scene of season 2 reveals that The Man/Elliot/Eugene might have actually been an undercover police officer .
• Revenge by Proxy : Lena shoots Helen in the stomach so The Man will have to live with the pain of watching a loved one die, just like she did. Fortunately Helen survives the ordeal .
• Everyone reacts with bewilderment because the owner of the gas station insists on people signing a register before he will give them the key to the outside toilet.
• The question "What shoots but doesn't kill?" is asked several times throughout the series and every time is responded to with the same incorrect, if logical, answer.
• Saved by Canon : Viewers watching the first series from mid-to-late 2023 onwards must surely have been aware that The Man and Helen would survive, given that it was widely reported that Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald were filming the second series.
• Serial Homewrecker : In season 1, The Man learns that he had previously run off with Kosta's girlfriend, Luci . Then in season 2 he discovers that he had an affair with Donal McDonnell 's wife and is the biological father of Fergal McDonnell . Both of these revelations have massive consequences for the plot.
• When The Man is revisits the gas station he was at just before the crash, he's revealed to have signed his name as " "Crocodile" Dundee " on the toilet register.
• When they go on the run, The Man and Helen are compared to Bonnie and Clyde and Thelma & Louise .
• When trying to explain the Cassidy- McDonnell feud to Helen, Ruairi asks her if she has heard of Hatfields & McCoys .
• Although it's not mentioned outright, Ruairi himself exhibits behaviour similar to that of Norman Bates .
• Stuff Blowing Up : The diner in the first episode, which The Man visits because there was a note in the pocket of his jeans telling him to be there at a certain time. Luci (who is later revealed to have written the note) ushers him out just before the explosion.
• Terminally-Ill Criminal : DI Lachlan Rogers, formerly an exemplary detective , upon discovering he had six months left to live from terminal stomach cancer, turned to moonlighting as an enforcer for Kosta so that he could acquire enough money to ensure his wife was looked after for the rest of her life.
• There Is Only One Bed : The Man sleeps on the floor of the honeymoon suite after he and Helen enjoy a drunken meal while on the run. Becomes a case of What Did I Do Last Night? when they both wake up in the bed the following morning, although Helen swears they just kissed.
• Time Skip : The second series begins some 14 months after the first series ends.
• Token Good Teammate : Fergal is by far the least evil of the McDonnells , and really isn't cut out for the life of crime he was born into.
• The Unreveal : We never learn Luci's real name. Even Victoria, the name Elliot knew her by pre-amnesia, was another alias.
• What Did I Do Last Night? : Elliot and Helen wake up in bed together after getting drunk while on the run. She swears they just kissed, although she may not remember everything from the night before .
• What Happened to the Mouse? : After Elliot escapes from the island , we hear no more of Orla McDonnell .
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"? : The Man queries why Donal's parents named him thusly, given that their surname was McDonnell . Lena later expresses surprise at there being so many Donal McDonnells listed in the Irish phonebooks.
• Would Hit a Girl : Donal McDonnell was a wife-beater even before he found out that his wife Claire had slept with Elliot .
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! : When Helen goes to the airport, she's shocked to encounter Ethan and Ruairi, who are planning to visit Budapest together.
• Creator/Max
• Warrior (2019)

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The Tourist

Where to watch.

Watch The Tourist with a subscription on Netflix.

Cast & Crew

Jamie Dornan

Danielle Macdonald

Helen Chambers

Shalom Brune-Franklin

Luci Miller

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson

Billy Nixon

Geneviève Lemon

Danny Adcock

Popular TV on Streaming

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