In The Beach, Leonardo DiCaprio portrays an American who arrives in Thailand, a rucksack on his back and adventure on his mind. Travel, he asserts, is the search for experience, the quest for something different; but trying to find anything like that on a planet saturated by guide books - that's the challenge.
He checks in to a cheap hotel in Bangkok and encounters Daffy, an older traveller, ravaged by years of sun and drugs. It is Daffy, rambling and paranoid, who tells Richard the improbable tale of a secret island, a paradise on earth on which can be found the perfect beach, unsullied by tourists. The next day, Richard finds a piece of paper pinned to his door. It is a hand drawn map of the island described by Daffy. This, Richard realises, may be the "something different" he has been looking for.
Along with two French travellers, Francoise and Etienne, he sets off on a journey, following Daffy's map. A journey that sees them risking their lives: swimming across an open sea from one island to another, crawling past armed guards and jumping from the top of a forty meter waterfall. Reaching their destination, they find a small community of travellers like themselves, existing in secret and tranquil harmony with the island. They are welcomed into the group and soon find that this island paradise has become their home, sapping them of all will to return to the world they knew before.
Yet beneath the surface, this heaven on earth is less than perfect. While personal conflict and petty jealousy ferment to create a violent rivalry, a series of tragic events fragments the community. Increasingly isolated and disturbed, Richard finds himself witness to an incident of murderous bloodshed. The dream has become a nightmare; paradise has turned to hell. Now his only goal is to leave, but escape will not be easy for the beach is a secret place, a secret that some will defend to the death.
During early 1999, Leonardo DiCaprio and the team behind the hit movie "Trainspotting", came to Thailand in search of paradise. They found it on Phi Phi Le island in Southern Thailand. Maya Bay was almost perfect with it's secluded beach and cliffs enclosing it on three sides. Other locations for their movie, "The Beach", included Phuket, Krabi and Khao Yai National Park in Central Thailand. This web site has been designed to introduce you to the locations used for the filming of "The Beach". We hope that after watching the movie you now want to come and visit Thailand.
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| A view of Maya Bay on Phi Phi Le island during the filming of The Beach in January 1999. The palm trees have now gone and the dune replaced together with the vegetation. |
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| For 14 months there was only web site that followed the making of The Beach in Thailand and beyond. This was the internationally acclaimed Footsteps on the Beach, which has more than 360 pages and 600 pictures. We also recommend The Beach Clips for all video downloads about the movie. |
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