The tourist trap

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Movie
German title The tourist trap
Original title Restless natives
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1985
length 86 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Michael Hoffman
script Ninian Dunnett
production Rick Stevenson
music Stuart Adamson
camera Oliver Stapleton
cut Sean Barton
occupation

The tourist trap , also published with the addition of Robin Hood's daredevil heirs , English original title Restless Natives , is a crime comedy from 1985 produced in Scotland and also located there by the plot .

action

Will, a somewhat simple-minded youth, still lives with his parents in Edinburgh . He has given up his job as a street sweeper because careless people had made his work difficult for him. His father lets him clearly feel that he thinks he is a failure. Will's best buddy is Ronnie, who is about the same age and who works as a salesman in a shop for carnival and joke items , but is also dissatisfied with them. Since both of them suffer from chronic lack of money, they decide to ride Ronnie's Suzuki motorcycle to the Highlands to ambush drivers on remote roads and rob them. A first attempt ends with little success: the arrested couple thinks they are fundraisers, slips them a coin and simply leaves them where they are.

Now equipped with a toy pistol and a similar rifle and masked as a clown and wolf person, Will and Ronnie want to take the Highlands coaches with tourists on board as a more rewarding destination. This makes them much more successful, but quickly arouses both media and police interest. Senior Inspector Baird and his department are put in charge of the investigation. Since the attacked are mainly tourists from the USA, they are assigned CIA agent Bender as support. He actually only wanted to spend his vacation in Scotland, but also has a personal interest in the case: as a passenger on one of the ambushed buses, he interfered and thereupon a load from Ronnie's rifle, consisting of a mixture of Juck - Sneeze - and Curry powder , got it.

During one of the robberies, Will falls in love with the tour guide Margot. Even though on the way home he persuades Ronnie to turn around and follow the bus. Through the open side window he hands Margot a hastily picked bouquet of flowers from the roadside. Will succeeds in locating Margot in Edinburgh and reveals himself to her, as a result the two become a couple.

Time and again, Ronnie and Will succeed in cheating the police. When they are surrounded by a large contingent in a small coastal town, they can nevertheless escape via the beach. The attacks by clown and wolf man as well as the constant failure of the police are increasingly developing into a media spectacle that is attracting worldwide attention. A television team even came from Japan to document how successful a motorcycle from domestic production can be. At the instigation of Will, the two donate part of the money they have captured to financially disadvantaged fellow citizens. All this and the fact that the stolen are supposedly wealthy Americans leads to the duo being perceived positively in public and as a mixture of Robin Hood and Rob Roy . Tourists are increasingly inquiring about trips on which a robbery is to be expected because they want to experience one. A Scottish Liberation Front and a Caledonian National Federation are free riders and confess to the raids.

In a mixture of a thirst for recognition and the desire to be able to share in the wealth of experience of others, Ronnie seeks contact with the local underworld on his own. The chairman of a petty criminal cooperative , Pyle, cannot convince him to join. On the other hand, ex-inmate Nigel, who thinks little of Pyle's cooperative ideas and presents himself as clearly more violent, is different. He also instructs Ronnie in the use of real firearms.

The failure of Inspector Baird to put an end to the illegal activities and the well-founded suspicion that his department secretly sympathizes with the perpetrators means that Bender is given the lead of the investigation. He remembers the incident with the bouquet and has Margot arrested. Among her utensils he discovers a calendar that not only suggests that she has at least been informed, but also when and where the next attack will take place. He keeps this knowledge to himself when dealing with Baird.

Meanwhile, Will's younger sister, Isla, found out that her brother was involved. She blackmailed him into giving her playmates one or the other looted piece of jewelry. Mary, one of the recipients, arouses the interest of a passing policeman about her necklace and is therefore interrogated by Baird. Despite a large selection of sweets, dolls and toys of all kinds, she still refuses to provide information about the origin of the chain. Will is dissatisfied with the fact that Ronnie took Nigel on as a partner without prior consultation, and there is a crisis between the two lovers because Margot is increasingly critical of Will's doings. All of this makes Will and Ronnie realize that their mutual criminal careers are coming to an end. They decide to carry out the robbery planned for the next day, of which they know that Margot has been assigned as a travel companion, and then to leave it behind.

The drive there through Edinburgh the next morning turns into a triumphal procession: passers-by, who recognize the clown and the wolf man on their motorcycle, stop spontaneously and applaud them, the young people of the city celebrate them as heroes. Once again the two manage to detach their pursuers from the police, this time with the help of one of the herds of sheep that are omnipresent on the rural roads of Scotland. The attack goes as planned, the bus stops and Will and Ronnie get on. The travel companion in the front row turns out not to be Margot, but Bender in a costume with a wig and earrings, who threatens the two boys with a gun. Thereupon Nigel, who was already on board the bus as a badly disguised elderly lady, rushes forward with his pistol drawn and tries to take Margot, who is also present, hostage. Ronnie incapacitates him with a charge from his rifle, and all four are arrested.

Surprisingly, Inspector Baird turns up at the crime scene, takes over the vehicle in which Will, Ronnie and Margot and the motorcycle are waiting for their removal, and drives away with him. He stops at the top of a cliff and tells the three of the latest developments: since the appearance of the clown and wolf man, the number of tourists in Scotland has risen by 15%, the two are now better known as "the monster of Loch Ness ". The Scottish Prime Minister had therefore instructed him to solve the problem as inconspicuously as possible. But he couldn't just let the trio go. As a result, the smashed motorcycle and one of the masks on the seashore at the foot of the cliffs are presented to the public, along with the explanation that the perpetrators fell to their death while trying to escape.

Ronnie, Will and Margot, on the other hand, have gone to New Mexico and are having a good time there. They want to go back to Scotland as soon as the grass is on the cause. A remark from Ronnie indicates that he is not averse to a possible revival of the legend of the clown and the wolfman. The final shot shows the three at the point from which they allegedly threw themselves to their death.

production

The film was shot in Edinburgh, Glasgow and various locations in the Highlands, including Fort William , Loch Tulla and Rannoch Moor and the Rest and Be Thankful pass . The place where the two were encircled and then escaped is Lochgoilhead , the last attack with subsequent arrest took place at Loch Achtriochtan in Glen Coe . Big Country contributed the soundtrack .

Reviews

The lexicon of the international film described The Tourist Trap as a "harmless comedy with a lack of realism, but which is entertaining thanks to the likeable actors in the leading roles and some funny ideas".

Awards

Winner of the Lloyds Bank National Screenwriting Competition, organized by the Oxford Film Foundation in 1984

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Restless Natives - Scotland the Movie Location Guide -. In: scotlandthemovie.com. Accessed November 10, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Two thousand and one. Film Lexicon FILMS from AZ - The tourist trap - Robin Hood's daring heirs. In: zweiausendeins.de. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .