Le Visiteur Du Futur - Television Tropes & Idioms

Le Visiteur du Futur (The Visitor from the Future) is a French comedic Web series made by François Descraques about a time traveller from the future who always "warns" an ordinary guy named "Raph" about the impeding doom his (often ordinary) actions will bring to humankind. The plot gets more convoluted as time passes...

So far two seasons have been completed and a third is being shot. The first and second seasons have been subtitled into English.

Le Visiteur du Futur provides examples of:

The Alcoholic: The time cop who first appears in episode 5.
All Just a Delusion: Except it's an interrogation room for the Visitor
Artificial Human: The Henri Castafolte robots. Their literal Heroic BSOD, which occurs when they realize they're not human, is a Running Gag.
Ask a Stupid Question... (about killer robots): Raph: "They won't kill me, I hope" The Future Visitor: "No, these are just killer robots cleaning up. Of course they will kill you!"
Asshole Victim: Henri Bouchard, the model used to create the Henri Castafolte robots, is a mild example.
Bad Future
Badass in a Nice Suit: The Lombardis' mooks.
Badass Longcoat: The Visitor himself has one, as do Dario and Raul Lombardi (but Dario is more a Dirty Coward than a badass).
Badass Mustache: Henri Castafolte's in the second season despite it being fake which causes him to short circuit when he realizes the truth.
Bodyguard Crush: Mattéo to Judith.
Bulletproof Human Shield: Henri Castafolte, sometimes.
Butt Monkey: Raph in the first season.
Butterfly of Doom / For Want of a Nail: Discussed. Every single thing Raph does is one of these, according to the Visitor.
Catch Phrase: "Voilà ce qui va se passer!" ("Here's what gonna happen !"), for the Visitor.
- Signature Line
Childhood Friend Romance: Raph has a crush on Stella. She does not reciprocate.
- Or does she... ? (As seen in the season 2)
Cloning Blues: Robotic variant. Each Henri Castafolte robot is convinced to be the actual Henri Castafolte. There isn't any real Henri Castafolte, the closest would be the prototype of the Henri Castafolte series, who is himself convinced to be human and began creating a whole series of robotic clones of himself. This first robot is actually an attempt of creating the perfect robotic mind, designed by a scientist named Germain Castafolte recreating the appearance of a humourist called Henri Bouchard.
- Each Henri Castafolte is programmed to suffer from a Heroic BSOD when he discovers that he is a robot. When this happens, it is necessary to reprogramme him, probably to erase the memory of this event.
- After one of his Heroic BSOD, the main Henri Castafolte (the companion of the Visitor) manages to wake up before being reprogrammed and remembers that he is a robot. Depression ensues...
Comedic Sociopathy: The scene where the Time Inquisitor interrogates the Visitor.
Cool Guns: The characters can be seen using a couple of Beretta 92 and a Luger Parabellum (not counting futuristic firearms).
Les Cops Sportif: The time cop starts as this... IN THE FUTURE!
Cross Over: The Visitor appears in an episode of Flander's Company, another comedic French Web series.
Cut Himself Shaving: When asked by the time inquisitor how he got all the blood and bandages on his face (which is his usual appearance), the Visitor used this literal excuse.
The Danza: Raph is played by Raphael Descraques, François Descraques' brother.
Deadpan Snarker: Judith.
The Dog Was the Mastermind: Remember Those Two Guys accompanying Raph in the first episodes? Their future selves will create the Time Police.
The End of the World as We Know It: What the Visitor claims he's trying to avoid. The Trope Namer is also used in the credits of the first season.
Everyone is Bi: At least in the future where Judith and Mattéo come from.
- The trope is nearly literaly invoked by Judith :
Judith: In the future everyone is bi.
False Friend: Raph first meets the Time Inquisitor when she acts as if she's fallen in love with him in order to spy on the Visitor. Even after letting him in on her motive she keeps up the girlfriend act until she receives what she wants.
Fantastic Racism: The Visitor and Henri Castafolte mention racism toward zombies and robots.
Fingerless Gloves: Part of the Visitor and the Lombardi brothers' clothing.
Five-Man Band: In season two:
- The Hero: The Visitor
- The Lancer: Raph
- The Smart Guy: Doctor Henri Castafolte
- The Big Guy: Mattéo, aka the time cop.
- The Chick: Judith, aka the time inquisitor
The Food Poisoning Incident: averted due to a warning from the Visitor
Frivolous Lawsuit: One of the Butterflies of Doom, according to the Visitor.
Future Me Scares Me: The Visitor's is a delusional Wild Card ready to work for cigarettes and apparently indifferent to saving the world. Note, however, that the Visitor doesn't seem to mind; he's one of his Double's most frequent employers.
Gatling Good: Henri Castafolte uses one against the Lombardi's mooks during the finale of the second season.
Gender Bender: Mentioned as one of the Butterfly of Doom chain of events, but we don't see it actually happen.
Goggles Do Nothing: One of the accessories worn by the Visitor. However, he does put them on when showing Simon the acid rain.
Gone Horribly Right: In one episode the Visitor thanks Raph's pals for their participation in the missions by giving them copies of answers to their exams. They use them, get caught, and are expelled.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: The mildly heroic Visitor already has impressive scars. The ones of his addicted and cynical future self are even worse.
Grey and Gray Morality: Both seasons' plots lie upon this.
- In the first, the Visitor stalks Raph, using him as an Unwitting Pawn to prevent him from creating a Time Police organization. At the same time, the said organization (which is fond of Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique) uses Raph as an Unwitting Pawn to catch the Visitor and ensure its own creation.
- In the second, the antagonists are the three Lombardi siblings, who are struggling against the Visitor's time modification because preventing certain ecological disasters from happening will in turn prevent their own births.
Head Desk: When Raph has to deal with the Visitor spouting nonsense at him, a hologram from a Time Police agent spying on the conversation, and another hologram from the Future Visitor also trying to spy on the conversation... it ends this way.
Heel Face Turn: the time cop, becoming a Spanner in the Works.
- Heel Face Revolving Door: Judith.
Heroic Sacrifice:
- The Visitor knows that if he keeps altering time to prevent the disasters in the future, he will eventually create a Temporal Paradox which will delete him from existence. He keeps doing it.
- The Taking the Bullet example below is a subverted example of this trope: Castabot is repaired later in the series.
"Hey, You!" Haymaker: Done by the Visitor's Double to interrupt the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique used on the past Visitor.
Hilarious Outtakes: At the end of each episode of the first season.
Honey Trap: Poor Raph...
Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: The Time Police Inquisitor.
Incredibly Lame Pun: Unfortunately, they are really hard to translate from French to English.
I Banged Your Mom: The Visitor uses this as a threat. To sum up, it was something like: if you don't do what I told you, I'll travel to the past to bang your mom and you won't exist.
Improbable Hairstyle: Mild realistic example for Raph and the Visitor.
Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: The Time Police is really fond of them.
Jerkass: The Visitor (especially in the first season), Judith and Henri Bouchard.
Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: A couple of futuristic handguns appear from time to time in the series, but they just fire bullets.
Lampshade Hanging: It's often lampshaded that the time travel and paradoxes in the show don't make any sense, specifically for the Deus ex Machina in the ending of the first season.
Large Ham and Motor Mouth: The Visitor each time he details what will happen.
Milkman Conspiracy: According to the Visitor, in the future pizza companies rule the world economy.
Mind Screw: In-universe: The Visitor wakes up in a room and finds he has a girlfriend and that he is delusional - He's just an insane guy who thinks he's on a mission to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Actually, it's just a trap to interrogate him on how he always evades the Time Police.
Mundane Utility: Using time travel to secure a wine bottle from the past, hiding it somewhere, and recovering it in the present. There's also an episode where Raph uses the time travel to try to prove Stella didn't tell him when her birthday is.
No Name Given: Even though the Visitor is arguably the main character of the show, he has never given his name (and nobody's even cared to ask either). Moreover, most of the main characters are only known by their given name: Raph, Judith, Mattéo, Tim, Léo.
- There are two instances in the second season where the Visitor is about to give his name but then doesn't.
- His real name could be William Hunter (cf the WMG page).
Only Known by Their Nickname: Raph.
Our Zombies Are Different: Seems to be something combining F and V.
Pretty Little Headshots
Punch A Wall: When Raph tries to punch the Visitor just before the Visitor time travels away. His fist hits the door instead.
Red Right Hand: In the second season, half of the Visitor's Double's face is literally bloody red.
Robot Buddy: Henri Castafolte's Castabot.
Robotic Reveal: At least once each episode featuring a Henri Castafolte. The realization usually comes after seeing the barcode on his forearm, but sometimes also occurs when he is shot and doesn't bleed or feel pain.
Running Gag:
- The Visitor's sudden apparitions to explain what will happen if the person he's talking to doesn't follow his advice.
- The Henri Castafolte robots Heroic BSOD when they discover they are robots.
Sawed Off Shotgun: Weapon of choice of the Visitor's Double in the second season.
Saying Too Much: Visitor: "All I was trying to do from the beginning was to prevent Raph from creating the Time Police!"
Scare Chord: Played when the Visitor from the Future appears in the first episodes.
Scenery Gorn: The scenes happening in the Visitor's present.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What the Visitor is trying to do.
Space Clothes: Totally averted in the Visitor's present, where everyone wears rags resembling contemporary clothing. The same is true in the present of the Time Police: the Time Cop and the Time Inquisitor both wear formal clothes. The former wears a uniform resembling that of a French policeman with a few electronic gears and the later a skirt, shirt and jacket exactly like a businesswoman. Played straight with Judith and Mattéo in the second season, where the former wears a stripperiffic outfit and the latter a kind of futuristic military body armour.
Stalker with a Crush: Raph to Stella, in a very mild way.
Stripperiffic: Judith, sometimes. Also, the waitresses in the restaurant owned by Henri Bouchard.
Taking the Bullet: The Castabot helped Henri Castafolte to escape by taking a bullet fired by the Lombardis.
Time Police: The main antagonists from episode 5 to the end of the first season.
- In the second season, the Lombardis goal is to create one.
Time Travel: Obviously.
Time Travel Tense Trouble
Toilet Humour:
- One of the Visitor's early warnings is that a future economic disaster will be triggered because Raph will get really bad diarrhea after eating tainted pizza.
- The Visitor often has to poop after using time travel.
The Unreveal:
- The Visitor's name.
- Most of what happened in the future, especially what led to a Zombie Apocalypse.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Visitor and his gang. Their actions basically consist in annoying (and sometimes ruining the lives of) some people for the greater good (i.e. making disasters disappear in the Visitor's present).
- It works sometimes.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Usually averted with the Henri Castafolte, although he is sometimes suggested as a Bulletproof Human Shield. Played straight with the Castabot and the zombies.
Zombie Apocalypse: One happened some time before the Visitor's present, but there is very little information about the details.

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Le Visiteur du Futur provides examples of:

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Le Visiteur du Futur provides examples of:

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