The Three Magi (Les Rois Mages in French) is a 2001 French Time Travel comedy film starring the comedy trio Les Inconnus — Didier Bourdon, Bernard Campan and Pascal Légitimus, and written and directed by two of them (Bourdon and Campan). It is the trio's second film together after 1995's The Three Brothers.
The Wise Men/Magi mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (though numbered as three and named by later sources), Balthazar (Bourdon), Melchior (Campan) and Caspar (Légitimus), were on their way to see and pay homage to Jesus upon his birth, when they found themselves involuntarily travelling in time from the First Century AD to 2001. They land in three separate points of the world, and end up reunited in Paris. Comedic mayhem ensues as they wander in the modern world and keep trying to find the Messiah.
The Three Magis provides examples of the following tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Melchior (Bernard Campan) landing in Tibet. In one of Les Inconnus' early 1990s comedy sketches, Campan played the role of a sect's greedy guru who pretended to be from Tibet (with a heavy accent from the French city of Marseille).
- Arab Oil Sheikh: After getting rejected by a Parisian luxury hotel's manager for not being able to pay, Caspar and Balthazar bump into a rich Sheikh who just so happens to own the place. He's marveled by the ancient Arabic they speak, and immediately orders a room for them.
- Card Sharp: In Paris, Caspar and Balthazar end up ruining a three-card monte without meaning to.
- Cunning Linguist: The three Magi come from areas that are generally far from the ones they land in in 2001, and yet they have no problem talking with the locals or other people they come across. Particularly in languages that started shaping up way after the time they come from, like Spanish, ancient Arabic or especially French when they get to Paris. Melchior also speaks Latin, which is less improbable.
- Delinquents: In Paris, Melchior befriends Jo, a young guy of North African descent who "works" as a drug courier.
- Exotic Extended Marriage: The three Magi often mention their multiple wives. Balthazar alone has 18 wives.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: The three Magi have various surprised/amazed or bewildered reactions to modern things they come across, starting with their first travel by plane.
- Mission from God: The Magis are certain that they have to find the Messiah they've been guided to (Jesus). Even in modern-day.
- Mistaken For Crazy: Upon landing in Paris, Melchior exchanges the badge of a man from a group of Down syndrome and other mentally handicapped travellers with one with one of his rings. With what he says about "going to Bethlehem" and his attire, an airport agent thinks he's escaped from the asylum and redirects him to the aforementioned group of mentally handicapped travellers.
- Nice Guy: The African villagers, the Mexican townspeople and the Tibetan monks who are the first modern age people Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior meet don't think they are loonies but instead welcome them, believe what they say (the Mexicans even react to Balthazar as a "miracle") and even help them to find the nearest airport so they can go on their quest. The (Buddhist) Tibetans are especially notable with the knowledge and respect they have about founding elements of other religions/spiritualities, in that case Christianity.
- Our Time Travel Is Different: The "Instantaneous" kind. The three Magi are walking together in the desert in the First Century AD at the beginning. Then the star described in the Gospels that announced the birth of Jesus starts shining unusually bright, and they find themselves transported to 2001. They appear in bodies of water in three separate locations in the modern world — Caspar in a pond of water in a West African country, Balthazar in the sea on a coast of Mexico, and Melchior in a fountain in Tibet. The gifts all three men were holding for Jesus magically disappear from their hands as they arrive in modern-day, also.
- The Pollyanna: The three Magi are always cheerful and certain that the Providence will guide them where they have to go, despite being lost in time.
- Product Placement:
- Caspar and Balthazar buy a ton of burgers at a McDonald's at one point.
- At the hotel, Caspar thinks a small bottle of J&B Rare whisky is an ointment instead of a drink and pours it on his feet.
- Suffer the Slings: Melchior uses a sling to try hunting pigeons for lunch at one point.
- Symbolic Baptism: One of the possible explanations why the three Magi appear in bodies of water after travelling to 2001 — they were on their way to see Jesus, after all.
- Tagline: "Ils sont venus chercher le Messie... ils ont trouvé les emmerdes!" (which can be translated as: "They've come to seek the Messiah... they found themselves in deep shit!")
- The Three Wise Men: The protagonists are the Three Magi/Wise Men, and they involuntarily travel in time.
