A 1988 thriller film directed by
Roman Polanski, starring
Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner.
Dr. Richard Walker (Ford) is a surgeon visiting Paris with his wife Sondra for a medical convention. At their hotel Sondra is unable to unlock her suitcase, and Walker realises she's picked up the wrong one at the airport. While Walker is taking a shower, his wife mysteriously disappears from their hotel.
A witness claims to have seen Sondra being forced into a car, but both the French police and the U.S. embassy are skeptical, assuming she’s just run off with another man. Forced to investigate the matter himself, Walker runs into the owner of the suitcase, a young French girl called Michelle (Seigner) who works as a smuggler. As Michelle's contact (who was going to pay her) has been murdered, she and Walker must work together, finding themselves caught between two rival Middle East factions trying to get their hands on whatever it was Michelle was smuggling.
This film provides examples of:
- Action Survivor: Walker
- And Another Thing: The French detective does this trick on Walker.
- Badass Israeli: Mossad's famed professionalism is subverted — one of the two Israelis is short-tempered and unprofessional.
- Empty Quiver: The item Michelle was smuggling turns out to be a krytron, a small electronic switch used in the detonators of nuclear devices.
- Come Back to Bed, Honey: Walker pretends to do this to stop two agents from roughing up Michelle (actually Walker had just sneaked in through the bedroom window).
- Dead Foot Leadfoot: Walker nearly gets run down by an Arab agent who is shot during the botched first Hostage for MacGuffin exchange.
- Downer Ending: Walker gets his wife back but Michelle gets killed during the exchange.
- Ear Worm (In-Universe): Grace Jones singing "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" is heard during key moments of the film, and Walker even asks what song it is at one point.
- Ennio Morricone
- French Jerk: Averted; while most Frenchmen are skeptical and reluctant to help Walker, no-one is openly rude about it.
- Gay Paree: A modern and multicultural Paris; you don't even catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower until nearly the end of the movie.
- Going by the Matchbook: Walker's first clue is a matchbook of the Blue Parrot nightclub, with the number of Michelle's contact written on it.
- Grey and Gray Morality: The film takes no sides with Arabs vs. Israelis, and both use morally dubious methods.
- Hand or Object Underwear: Ford does this with a stuffed animal during the Come Back to Bed, Honey scene. He manages to hold it there even after being savate-kicked unconscious.
- Hot in Leather: Emmanuelle Seigner, especially with her Commissar Cap.
- Hostage for MacGuffin
- I Have Your Wife: What the protagonist is frantic about.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Michelle slips the kryton into Walker's pocket as she's dying.
- The Nameless: The Mossad agents are described in the credits as "Man in Tweed" and "Man in Leather", while the Arab agents are "The Kidnapper" and "The Bodyguard".
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: Walker ends up throwing the krytron into the river, so neither the Arabs or the Israelis can get it.
- Manly Tears: Shed while Walker is trying to pretend to his daughter back in the States that everything is normal.
- Mating Dance: Walker is rather uncomfortable when Michelle starts dancing sensuously close to him in a tight red dress in the nightclub scene.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Everyone except Walker assumes his wife has run off with another man, and refuses to take seriously his talk of kidnapping. Likewise whenever one of Walker's medical colleagues sees him with Michelle. Walker however uses this trope for his advantage when the French detectives start to question Michelle.
- Mistaken for Spies: The Walkers are assumed to be the next stage in the smuggling ring when they pick up the wrong suitcase.
- Nothing Good Ever Happens in a Parking Garage
- Not What It Looks Like: Walker runs into some friends at the airport when he goes with Michelle to recover the suitcase; it's obvious what they think he's up to with a young trashy-looking French girl.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The U.S. Embassy officials and the French police. The former in particular are portrayed as moronic.
- Shirtless Scene: A couple involving Ford, and there's a Toplessness From the Back scene of Seigner changing her shirt.
- Take It To The Bridge: The climax of the film takes place underneath the pont de Grenelle.
- Translation Convention: Played straight but realistically — those Frenchmen who can speak English have a reason to do so, e.g. officialdom, travelers to the U.S., or a connection to the tourist trade.
- Ransacked Room: Walker returns to his hotel room to find it's been thoroughly searched.
- Red Herring: The suitcase doesn't contain drugs as Walker initially believes.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The MacGuffin was likely inspired by attempts in The Eighties by Pakistani and Israeli agents to buy nuclear triggers in the United States.
- Too Dumb to Live: Michelle trying to get her payment from the Arabs, even after Walker had previously offered to reimburse her.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Loads of this due to the Odd Couple relationship between Happily Married Walker and Wrong Side of the Tracks Michelle.
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