The Passenger

Locke, a disaffected television journalist, travels to northern Chad to interview rebel fighters. His Land Rover becomes stuck in a sand dune after being abandoned by guides, forcing him to hike back to his hotel through the Sahara. Exhausted, he discovers that a fellow guest, Robertson, has died in his room that same night.

Facing the evidence, Locke decides to assume Robertson's identity and reports his own death at the front desk to cover his tracks. He then seizes Robertson's belongings—the pistol, the appointment book, and the passport—and alters the passport photo to carry his own image.

In London, Locke's unfaithful wife Rachel is wracked with guilt when she learns of his purported death. She enlists Knight, a BBC producer, to track down Robertson and uncover what happened in Locke's last days.

Locke flies to Munich and discovers an airport locker containing a folder with price-lists and photocopied pages about armaments. Acting on a whim, he follows a white horse and carriage to a wedding in a baroque chapel, where he waits at the back as the ceremony ends. Afterward, two men who saw him demand the papers; they give him money and tell him the second half is in Barcelona, revealing that Robertson was an arms dealer for the rebels.

In Barcelona, Locke spots Knight, who is trying to find Robertson. He hides in a Gaudí building and encounters an architecture student known only as 'Girl.' Later at La Pedrera, Locke asks the girl to fetch his belongings from a hotel so Knight won't see him, but Knight overhears her retrieval outside.

Knight overhears the girl collecting Locke's baggage and confronts her, leading to a tense exchange outside the building. The girl offers to take Locke to meet Robertson, but somehow Locke loses his pursuer.

Locke and the girl become lovers as they flee Barcelona, flush with cash from the down payment on undelivered arms. The money fuels their escape, and Locke remains fixated on the scheduled meeting described in Robertson's diary.

The planned contact in Robertson's diary does not show up; the men arranging the arms deal are abducted, interrogated, and beaten by hitmen working for the Chadian government. This sequence reveals the dangerous level of involvement and the stakes of Locke's impersonation.

Back in London, Rachel receives Locke's belongings and opens the passport to find Robertson's photo pasted inside. Realizing the truth, she travels to Spain to find him, while the hitmen shadow her, believing she pursues Robertson.

As the pursuit intensifies, Locke sends the girl away with instructions to meet him three days later in Tangiers; he remains largely trapped and continues moving through Spain.

Locke checks into a hotel in Osuna, where the girl returns and books a double room posing as Mrs. Robertson to stay close. He tries to persuade her to leave, but she stays by his side as they ride out the danger.

Hitmen arrive but depart just before the police; Rachel arrives with the Spanish police, and the girl joins them in pursuing Locke. The police discover Locke dead in his Osuna hotel room, and the final exchange leaves Rachel claiming she never knew him while the girl says 'Yes', recognizing him.