the tourist documentary

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'The Last Tourist' documentary reveals the dark side of tourism that 'can kill a place'

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A newly released documentary, The Last Tourist , shines a light on the dark side of tourism, and the true cost of taking a trip to some of the most popular travel destinations in the world.

“Tourism can kill a place,” the documentary states. “A place that was so beautiful can become overused, exploited and trashed.”

“Mass tourism has led to destruction of the very thing they have come to see.”

Filmmaker Tyson Sadler spent three years travelling to 14 different countries, interviewing travel experts, tour operators and academics to expose the real cost of travel on local communities, the environment and wildlife.

The Last Tourist starts out the documentary with Costas Christ, editor at large at National Geographic Traveler magazine. Christ tells the story about being the first tourist to Ko Pha Ngan in Thailand in 1979, sharing a photo and map, which then spread to more people visiting the location. Years later he saw thousands of people there, destroying the area to have parties.

Where The Last Tourist succeeds is its ability to not oversimplify the message to say, we shouldn’t be travelling, but rather, calls on the tourism industry to involve local communities in local tourism efforts, while also making travellers face the reality of their actions, imploring us to think more critically about how we travel.

Arnie Weissman, editor in chief at Travel Weekly, presents the idea of over tourism, meaning too many people in the same “honeypot destinations” at the same time, which is too much for the landscape, environment and local people to manage.

Dr. Rachel Dodds, professor at Toronto’s 'X' University, states that in addition to travelling to the same places in larger numbers, what we expect when travelling has also shifted throughout time. Specifically now, tourists are looking for that great photo, or selfie, opportunity, with many travellers using their trip abroad as a “status symbol.”

'Tourism can perpetuate poverty by not integrating communities'

Cruise travel is an incredibly popular form of travel, even seeing significant rebound after widespread COVID-19 infections two years ago, and exemplifies that tourism is only beneficial for local communities if they’re actually involved.

Bruce Poon Tip, the founder of G Adventures, indicates that the cruise experience, some even equipped with go-karts on the ship, is more like transferring one Western experience to another location, instead of really immersing yourself in a new destination.

Dr. Martha Honey, executive director of the Center for Responsible Travel, highlighted that the goal of a cruise is to keep as much money flowing back to the ship as possible.

Cruise travellers are told where to shop and spend their money when they get off the boat, often being warned that they “can’t trust the locals” if they steer off the path of the cruise operator.

Similarly, all-inclusive vacations are the same in the way that there is no real integration with the community during the travel experience.

The Last Tourist shares that, for example in Kenya, about 14 per cent of travel revenue stays in the country, with the rest used for things like food that has to be brought in and foreign-owned hotels.

“Tourism can perpetuate poverty by not integrating communities,” Honey says.

'This wallet is a voter…sending a message'

The Last Tourist also addresses the brutal treatment of animals at popular wildlife attractions internationally.

“This wallet is a voter…sending a message, I like this, do more of this,” Jonathan Tourtellot, CEO of the Destination Stewardship Center says in the documentary.

Specifically looking at elephant attractions in Thailand, with people being able to get up close, and on top of, the elephants, Melissa Matlow, campaign director at World Animal Protection gets honest about what that really means.

“Any elephant that’s forced to give tourists rides, or perform circus-like tricks for them, was beaten into submission,” Matlow states, adding that this also leads to post-traumatic stress, seen physically by elephants swaying and pacing back and forth.

Elephants, from the time they are babies, are beaten to be trained to perform, oftentimes with their trunks tied so they don’t kill themselves, Sangduen Lek Chailert, founder of the Save Elephant Foundation reveals.

'Would this happen in your own country?'

Another striking aspect of The Last Tourist is really going behind the curtain of volunteer tourism, one of the fastest growing aspects of the industry that is often largely unregulated.

Clarissa Elakis, project coordinator for ChildSafe International, highlights the problem perfectly. Imagine a bus load of tourists coming into a school, disrupting class to play with a group of children, hold babies, give them candy and expect them to perform. Elakis asks, “would this happen in your own country?”

Through interviews with individuals who participated in these volunteer trips to places like Cambodia (experiences that exemplify a “saviour complex”), they now recognize that the affection they saw was evidence of an attachment disorder, making it harder for these kids to form healthy bonds later in life.

With COVID-19 stalling much of the global travel industry for a period of time, The Last Tourist presents an opportunity for travel lovers to move forward with their trips from a different perspective, tourism based on supporting local people and the local environment.

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The Last Tourist

Cast & crew.

Dr. Jane Godall

Lek Chailert

Elizabeth Becker

Bruce Poon Tip

Judy Kepher-Gona

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The Last Tourist

Travel is at a tipping point. Forgotten voices reveal the real conditions and consequences of one of the world's most profitable industries. more

Travel is at a tipping point. Forgotten voices reveal the real co ... More

Director: Tyson Sadler

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'The Last Tourist' Film Will Make You Approach Travel Differently

The world needs travel, but not the kind of tourism that's being done now.

Katherine Martinko is an expert in sustainable living. She holds a degree in English Literature and History from the University of Toronto.

• University of Toronto

• Harvard University Extension School

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You may have a niggling suspicion that the tourism industry is in bad shape. But until you watch " The Last Tourist ," a new documentary film, it may be difficult to pinpoint what exactly feels so uncomfortable about it. 

The film, written and directed by Tyson Sadler and produced by Bruce Poon Tip (also the founder of G Adventures ), is a feature-length production that dives deeply into the range of issues plaguing tourism today.

There's overtourism , which refers to having too many people in too few places that are unable to sustain such crowds. Think of St. Mark's Square in Venice on a summer day, the ruins of Machu Picchu, the ancient temples at Angkor Wat. These places are sometimes referred to as "honeypot destinations," where people want to go just to say they've been there. (This is a real phenomenon, as the film says 29% of Millennial travelers have said they wouldn't go to a destination if they couldn't post about it on Instagram.)

Making matters worse is the hedonistic attitude that so many people take with them to their vacation destinations. They're inclined to live more frivolously, to eat more, drink more, and shower longer, because they think the same rules don't apply as at home. This comes at a cost to the host communities, which may already be strapped for resources and often miss out on the financial benefits of tourism.

These lost benefits are particularly egregious for cruise ship destinations , where locals rarely make money from passengers' brief visits to shore—unless, as the film says, they've struck a deal with the cruise ship companies to be added to a recommended shopping map and pay out a commission.

The Last Tourist

It's clear that producer Bruce Poon Tip has little patience for cruises, and it's not hard to understand why after seeing the film footage of excessive consumption; one might even call it debauchery. "Maybe we should just think of another word for it, because it's not travel any more. Because you're being transplanted from one Western environment to another Western environment. So let's just call it a transfer of environments," he suggests on camera.

"The Last Tourist" takes a darker turn to reveal the cruelty against animals used for wildlife attractions, such as elephants, dolphins, tigers, and monkeys, in countries like Thailand. (National Geographic did a profound exposé on this in June 2019, called " The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism .") Many tourists pay to attend shows that anthropomorphize the animals, making them do tricks that amuse the naïve audience greatly, or setting them up for selfies . What many may not realize is how unnatural these behaviors are for the animals and what's required to force them to do it. 

A similarly disturbing trend in tourism is that of volunteering in orphanages. Apparently it's one of the fastest growing sectors in tourism, with orphanages in Kenya, Cambodia, and elsewhere receiving a steady stream of volunteers who, despite their best intentions, show up for a few hours or days, get to know the kids, and then leave. This is a deeply troubling arrangement not least of all for the arrogance required to assume someone without education, training, linguistic ability, or even maturity has something to teach the kids, but also for the industry it perpetuates. 

The film states that 80% of children living in orphanages have at least one living parent, and that the number of orphanages in developing countries is increasing drastically in response to tourists' interest. Visitors show up by the busload, disturb classes, distribute candy, take selfies, and expect performances. It's a kind of entertainment that would never be acceptable in their home countries, so why is it allowed elsewhere? Judy Kepher-Gona, the Kenyan founder of Sustainable Travel & Tourism Agenda, says, "It's a mirror of what we do with animals in a zoo."

A New Way Forward

The latter part of the film has a hopeful tone. It looks at the transformative power of tourism—how it can help lift local people out of poverty and to promote conservation—as long as travelers ask the right questions of the places they visit, take time to learn, and realize that they are guests in somebody else's home and land.

As Poon Tip says, "The tourist has to understand the power they have. If people just took the time to do a bit of research on where their money's going, you have this ability to suddenly make your holiday a transformative experience for so many people who would be impacted by your decision to just go on holiday."

Jane Goodall, who appears throughout the film, agrees. "Responsible tourism can be really beneficial to the animals, to the environment, to the local people, to the government, and to the tourist."

We need people not to stop traveling, but to change the way they approach it. They should strive to be mindful, respectful, and to do extensive research before visiting to ensure their visit can have a greatest positive impact.

As Poon Tip told Treehugger over email, the film couldn't have been released at a more relevant time: "As the world opens up again more travellers are demonstrating a curiosity as to where their dollars are going. It only takes a small number of people to make the conscious decision to travel in a more responsible way to make a huge difference. Travel is a privilege not a right, and the feedback we are receiving following the film's U.S. release is very encouraging. I am hopeful it will help move the dial towards travel being a two-way experience for more people."

Some Parting Suggestions

• Tip generously. That's one of the best person-to-person activities you can do in a foreign country. 
• If you're visiting a social project or orphanage, ask yourself if this would be appropriate in your own country. If not, you probably shouldn't do it. 
• When it comes to exotic animals, if you can ride it, hug it, or take a selfie with it, there's a high likelihood it's cruel, so don't do it. 

"The Last Tourist" is now available on demand in the U.S. It launches in select theaters across Canada on April 1 and will be available for streaming there on April 5. See trailer below.

• What Is Sustainable Tourism and Why Is It Important?
• Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions for Every Day of April
• What Is Ecotourism? Definition, Examples, and Pros and Cons
• What Is Overtourism and Why Is It Such a Big Problem?
• Some Advice on How to Travel More Intentionally
• How to Be a Sustainable Traveler: 18 Tips
• Regenerative Travel: What It Is and How It's Outperforming Sustainable Tourism
• Philadelphia Urges Residents to Be Tourists in Their Own City
• Best of Green Awards 2021: Sustainable Travel
• Costa Rica’s Keys to Success as a Sustainable Tourism Pioneer
• How to Make Travel More Sustainable
• From Grassroots to Global, Group Works to Improve Animal Conditions
• Could You Start Having 4-Minute Showers?
• 10 Great Places to Visit for Thanksgiving
• It's Beyond Time to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages in New York City
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• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Last Tourist’ on Hulu, A Doc Promoting Responsible Tourism Over The Excess And Ignorance Of Travel Today

Where to stream:.

• The Last Tourist
• documentaries

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Netflix's true crime doc 'what jennifer did' accused of using a.i. manipulated images, stream it or skip it: ‘an american bombing: the road to april 19th’ on max, a documentary tackling the repercussions of the 1995 oklahoma city bombing, 'brandy hellville & the cult of fast fashion': hbo doc reveals disturbing behind-the-scenes stories of teen employees at one of the biggest retailers of the 2010's.

The Last Tourist (Hulu) examines the effects of mass tourism on our planet, and an industry often unmoored from the land and local communities that it promotes as destinations. Written and directed by Tyson Sadler, the doc is truly global in scope, traveling to Kenya, Thailand, Peru, and the Caribbean to tell its story of an industry and its consumers facing a paradigmatic moment.  

THE LAST TOURIST : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: According to one expert in The Last Tourist , eighty percent of the world’s countries consider tourism a top revenue generator. From Thailand (39.8 million tourists annually) and Cambodia (6.2 million), to the Bahamas (7.2 million) and Jamaica (4.3 million), to France, where over 90 million annual visitors take selfies at the Eiffel Tower and herd into the Louvre, tourism is a bomb that just keeps detonating. But while numbers at that scale mean money being spent, mass tourism also puts immense strain on environments, extracts resources from local communities, and even shuts them out completely. In Kenya, for example, only fourteen percent of every dollar spent stays within the country, with the rest siphoned off to travel companies and international interests, even though it’s a region’s most vulnerable people bearing the brunt of tourism’s effect. Locals, says sustainable travel advocate Judy Kepher-Gona, “are not integrated into the tourism value chain.”

The internet is a driver here. “The advent of social media has completely changed the way we travel,” says Dr. Rachel Dodds of Ryerson University. “We’re going after a photograph.” And Last Tourist is populated with reams of millennials articulating careful camera setups before the massive 12th century bulk of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, or propping themselves up on the seamless flagstones of Machu Picchu. But beyond contemporary travel as a mechanism for Instagram posting, it’s also dominated by forces like cruise ship companies, who hawk boat-top go-kart tracks that overlook Alaskan glaciers, an intrusion only exacerbated by the companies keeping their consumers’ spending power captive aboard ship. There’s little to no connection with the local environment, and therefore a profound lack of local benefit. It’s not even travel, says Bruce Poon Tip, an adventure travel operator and a Last Tourist executive producer. “Let’s just call it a transfer of environments.”

As it transitions into its prospect for change, and profiles individuals and companies integrating the tenets of more responsible tourism into their business practices – a cab company in India that empowers women as independent drivers, or a sanctuary for elephants in Chiang Mai, Thailand that powers local infrastructure with portions of its tour profits – Last Tourist also highlights some of the most tragic parts of this global conversation. In Thailand, elephants are held captive, cruelly trained, and utterly demeaned as they become entertainment fodder for tourists. And in countries like Cambodia and Kenya, where orphanages have fueled the rise of a billion-dollar industry in “voluntourism,” local children are exploited in the service of foreign visitors’ savior complexes. It amounts to neocolonialism for the sake of a selfie.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The 2013 documentary Vendemmia explored the ecological, cultural, and political effects of tourists in the millions descending on a small community of ancient villages in Italy, and Bye Bye Barcelona (2014) searched for coexistence between the Spanish city’s residents and its status as a destination site for tourism on a massive scale.

Performance Worth Watching: Michelle Oliel isn’t afraid to implicate herself in the exploitative nature of “voluntourism.” She explains how her experience traveling to Africa and making fleeting visits to orphanages there revealed the instability within that system, and inspired her to become an international human rights lawyer and advocate for children’s rights.

Memorable Dialogue: Arnie Weissman, Editor-in-Chief of Travel Weekly , highlights Asia, Africa, South America as destinations that represent “the critical crossroads of poverty, indiginous culture, and biodiversity” being found in one place. “And this is where tourism is going right now.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: As a consciousness-raising tool, The Last Tourist is sharp and revelatory. The average person, listlessly trolling Expedia or Kayak for hot deals on an all-inclusive in Mexico, might not pause to consider how such a resort completely walls off the local population, and prevents their economic participation. Similarly, the visitor to Thailand who buys an elephant ride down the Kawai River becomes party to the cruelty that led the animal there. Last Tourist is most crusading when it prods individual travelers to consider how and where they’re spending their money, and “leakage,” or the dissipation of tourism dollars from a local economy. “The idea we’ve had of a tourist has to end,” Bruce Poon Tip says. “We need a new tourist, a new traveler.”

It does take some time for the doc to get there. Last Tourist features some incredible scenery, from aerials of snow-covered mountains and drone cameras drifting across crimson red crags, to the slow pad through a rainforest to an ancient waterfall in the Ecuadorian Amazon. There are scenes of our built environment, too, as a woman darts her cab through the clog and tumult of New Delhi, and African grasslands give way to poor villages. But wherever on Earth it goes, the film aligns its vistas and hideaways against the inevitability of tourists. A string of figures traipsing through the foreground with backpacks and hiking boots, or a glut of camera-wielding bus trippers descending on a village. It’s a little bewildering, traveling to so many places on the scale of a nature documentary while being told how contemporary travel disconnects visitors from the place to which they’re traveling.

Will you stream or skip the tourism documentary #TheLastTourist on @hulu ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) June 7, 2022

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Last Tourist highlights a lot of the most glaring issues plaguing global travel today, but it also illustrates the physical wonder and sense of community that still thrives in our world.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

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Travel is at a tipping point. Tourists are unintentionally destroying the very things they have come to see. Overtourism has magnified its impact on the environment, wildlife, and vulnerable communities around the globe. Filmed in over 16 countries and guided by the world’s leading tourism and conservation visionaries, THE LAST TOURIST reveals the real conditions and consequences of one of the largest industries worldwide through the forgotten voices of those working in its shadow. The role of the modern tourist is on trial.

Elizabeth Becker

Author, Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism

Sangduen Lek Chailert

Founder, Save Elephant Foundation

Costas Christ

Editor at Large, National Geographic Traveler

Dr. Rachel Dodds

Professor, Ryerson University

Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE

Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

Dr. Martha Honey

Executive Director, Center for Responsible Travel

Judy Kepher-Gona

Founder, Sustainable Travel & Tourism Agenda

CEO, National Geographic Partners

Melissa Matlow

Campaign Director, World Animal Protection

Yachak Delfin Pauchi Yalishara

Founder, Pimpilala Lodge

Bruce Poon Tip

Founder, G Adventures

Francisca Qquerar Mayta

Founder, Ccaccaccollo Women's Weaving Cooperative

Jonathan Tourtellot

CEO, Destination Stewardship Center

Meenu Vadera

Founder, Sakha Cabs For Women

Arnie Weissmann

Editor in Chief, Travel Weekly

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

As a filmmaker, I’ve had the privilege of travelling to some of the world’s most remote, fragile, and beautiful places.  These experiences have shaped me but also given me a sense of responsibility for ensuring that future generations can experience these wonders.

Over the past 3 years, this film took us on a journey to 14 different countries where we interviewed dozens of leading travel experts, tour operators, academics, as well as travellers and service workers in host communities who are leveraging tourism to improve their quality of life. In the process, we amassed nearly 400 hours of footage that was edited into a 90 minute film that pulls back the curtain and shows us the true cost of travel – on the environment, wildlife, and host communities.

The process of creating this film has been an incredible learning and growth experience. The miracle intersection of technology and modern travel allows us to book a flight with the click of a button and board a plane to virtually every corner of the globe – but isn’t without its challenges. Massive crowds of tourists are causing environmental degradation, dangerous conditions, as well as the economic impoverishment and pricing-out of locals. We need to rethink the way we travel or else our impact will be irreversible.

Despite the harsh impacts that travel can have on our planet, travel is also a force for good. It’s a universal language that connects people regardless of their age or their gender or their income or where they come from. And if we actually get out into the world and explore it, we uncover amazing things and make ourselves better people and hopefully have a positive impact too.

This filmmaking journey culminated during a global pandemic where international travel has been virtually halted. As the world slowly opens its borders again, we, as travellers, have the opportunity to be the driving force that paves a new way to travel. A more thoughtful way that protects both people and places, and secures a positive future for destinations and host communities for generations to come.

THE FILMMAKERS

Tyson Sadler

Director & Writer

Editor and Writer

Stephen Chandler Whitehead

Director of Photography

Executive Producer

Liane Thomas

Anthony Fung

Composer, Original Score

Anton Peterson

Sound Editor and Sound Designer

Marc Swenker

CO-PRODUCERS

Dave Daga, Kyle Jordan, Lauren Michell & Ashley Monaghan

DISTRIBUTION

Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE photo credit: Marco Grob

Copyright © (2022) 2628893 ONTARIO LIMITED

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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

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An Irishman wakes up in Australia with amnesia in this pulse-pounding series packed with humour and philosophical questions

F anging it down an outback road when he is rammed by a truck driver from hell, Jamie Dornan experiences a terrible accident that gives him amnesia – making him forget about all that bondage paraphernalia from Fifty Shades of Grey .

In the explosively entertaining six-part series The Tourist, created and written by Harry and Jack Williams, the Irish actor and former Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein studmuffin plays a louche loner who can’t remember who is he, what he is doing in Australia or why he appears to have “kill me” stamped figuratively speaking across his forehead.

Dornan joins a coterie of famous foreign actors who have been plonked in the thick of arid, unforgiving Australian land and left to fry in the sun for our dramatic amusement. See also: Gary Bond in Wake in Fright , who drank a lot of beer and went mad; Dennis Hopper in Mad Dog Morgan , who drank a lot of moonshine and went mad; Johnathon Schaech in Welcome to Woop Woop , who spent a lot of time with the locals and went mad; and soon to be Zac Efron in Gold, who, the trailer suggests, finds gold in them thar desert and then goes mad.

Come to think of it, Dornan’s character in The Tourist – billed as “The Man” – is pretty sane compared with these rather rabid fellows. He’s like Guy Pearce in Memento in that he’s determined but displaced (in this instance geographically as well as mentally) and constantly banging against the walls of his own mind. If the whole being rammed into near-oblivion wasn’t enough, “The Man” is also a mite concerned when, after meeting the friendly and charming Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin) at a diner, there appears to be another (rather spectacular) attempt on his life.

The show’s central mystery has something to do with a man who has been buried alive and calls “The Man” from inside a barrel, begging to be found post-haste. Director Chris Sweeney (who helmed episodes one to three, with Daniel Nettheim steering the others) shoves a camera inside a tight coffin-esque space, evoking memories of Ryan Reynolds in Buried.

A big, beefy, cowboy shirt-wearing villain emerges in Billy (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), who whistles cheerfully but with absolute menace, his merry tune a harbinger of impending doom. In the series’ second half, Alex Dimitriades emerges as another prominent bad guy, hamming it up in super-villain style.

Certain characters aren’t who they say they are, though that does not apply to Helen Chambers – a fair dinkum what-you-see-is-what-you-get probationary constable battling with low self-esteem. She is superbly portrayed by Danielle Macdonald (who played the gossip columnist Lillian Roxon in I am Woman ), bringing loads of colour and detail to what could have been the simple sweet hick. Macdonald’s performance vividly contrasts with the rough and tough Dornan – also perfect in a high-intensity role as a man who is something of a blank slate, frightened by who he is or who he may be. There are philosophical questions about identity to ponder – if viewers pause for a breather and stop chewing their nails – including to what extent each of us are defined by our past actions.

There’s also an oddly good performance from the ever-reliable Damon Herriman, offsetting his recent menacing work by playing a detective inspector in a way that’s both funny weird and funny ha-ha, suiting the show’s quite dry approach to comedy. Many scenes are humorous in a cagey way, sans explicit signposting: at one point for instance we discover a traffic pile-up has been created by two turtles rooting in the middle of the road. Elsewhere, in the aftermath of an intense confrontation, in a shot one could imagine belonging to a Coen brothers movie, the show cuts to a framed picture on a wall bearing the following message: “LIFE IS MADE OF CHOICES. WIPE YOUR FEET OR SCRUB THE FLOOR.”

The Tourist is very well shot by Ben Wheeler and Geoffrey Hall (who was also the cinematographer for Chopper , Red Dog: True Blue and Eden ), with colour grading that’s a little off, a little sickly, as if the blues and greens (hard to find in arid outback) in particular have been poisoned from the inside. This is a clever way of visualising the feeling that something isn’t quite right. Sweeney and Nettheim (whose directorial work includes episodes of Halifax: Retribution , Tidelands and Line of Duty) establish a cracker pace that creeps, creeps, creeps up on you, then explodes with a great big thunderclap of action then creeps, creeps, creeps up again.

The “bugger me dead, it’s hot!” action-thriller, as it shall henceforth be known, is by now very familiar, but The Tourist is different: a pulse-pounder that feels fresh despite many genre elements, particularly of the neo-noir variety. The show has a great forwards and backwards momentum, contrasting cliffhanger moments with questions about the past and the ambiguities therein. It’s a vision of Australiana that’s less “ where the bloody hell are you? ” than who the bloody hell are you, and what the bloody hell will happen next? And – summarising my personal response – bloody hell, this is good.

• Australian television
• Jamie Dornan

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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

• Chris Sweeney
• Daniel Nettheim

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The Tourist (2022–2024)

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