Mr. Bean's Holiday - Plot

Plot

The film opens with Mr. Bean (Atkinson) attending a raffle in June. As the grand prize raffle number called to be 919, Mr. Bean is upset and throws his raffle ticket which ends up in a toy train cart. The ticket being 616 is read upside down and becomes 919. Mr. Bean grabs the ticket before the final call and claims his prize. The prize is a holiday involving a train journey to Cannes, a Sony video camera, and €200. Bean proceeds to film the entirety of his travels on the video camera.

Following a misunderstanding involving a taxi at the Gare du Nord railway station in Paris, Bean is forced to make his way on foot towards the Gare de Lyon to board his next train towards Cannes. Upon discovering the train won't leave for another hour, he has time to sample French seafood at Le Train Bleu restaurant. Unable to communicate in French, he accidentally orders oysters and langoustine, which he cannot bring himself to eat. He pours the oysters into a nearby lady's handbag, causing the lady to shriek when she was about to answer her mobile phone inside the bag, then Mr. Bean eats the whole langoustine without removing the shell.

Back on the platform, Bean asks a man, who happens to be a Cannes Film Festival jury member and Russian movie critic Emil Dachevsky (Roden), to use his camcorder to film his walking onto the train. By the time they are done, the TGV is about to leave. Although Bean manages to get onto the train, the doors close before Dachevsky can get on. Dachevsky's son, Stepan (Baldry) is left on board by himself. Bean attempts to befriend Stepan, who gets off at the next stop to meet his father. While confronting a threatening stranger who approaches Stepan, Bean accidentally misses the train's departure, leaving his bag aboard. The train that Stepan's father has boarded does not stop at the station, and he holds up a mobile number, but the last two digits are obscured. When their efforts at calling the number prove fruitless, they board the next train, accidentally leaving Bean's ticket, passport and money behind which results in the duo being forced off the train.

Attempts at busking by miming to Puccini's O mio babbino caro (sung by Rita Streich) and other music prove successful in a shopping area. Bean buys a bus ticket to Cannes but loses his ticket when it gets caught in the breeze and then snagged in the talon of a chicken, which is subsequently loaded into a farm pick-up. Bean steals a nearby bicycle and follows the pick-up, only to reach a large chicken pen with no hope of finding the ticket. While he is on the farm, the bicycle is run over by a passing tank. After attempting to steal a moped and almost getting killed by a lorry, Bean falls asleep in a village but wakes up to realise that he has stumbled onto a set for a TV advertisement, which he accidentally blows up, injuring the director Carson Clay (Dafoe).

Hitchhiking, Bean is picked up by actress Sabine (De Caunes), whom Bean encountered at the commercial filming, driving the same car as Bean. She is on her way to the 59th Cannes Film Festival where Carson Clay's film in which she makes her debut is going to be presented. When they stop at a service station, Bean finds Stepan in a café with musicians whom he met when he never got on the bus. He joins them. When Sabine falls deeply asleep on the way due to Bean accidentally activating a lullaby on her cellphone, he then drives the car himself happily, finally reaching Cannes.

When Sabine goes into a petrol station to change for the premiere, news depicting Bean as Stepan's kidnapper and Sabine as an accomplice spreads. Not wanting to miss the premiere, they plan to get into Cannes without being identified. Stepan dresses up as Sabine's daughter, while Mr. Bean dresses up as Sabine's mother. They manage to get through the search and Sabine arrives at the premiere on time.

After sneaking into the premiere, the trio begin to watch Clay's picture "Playback Time," a shameless vanity production written by, produced by, directed by, and starring Clay himself. From the first few moments, the audience is horribly bored. Sabine tells Bean that her big scene is coming up, but is disappointed to see that her role has been cut from the film. Bean, hoping to cheer up Sabine, goes to the screening room and plugs his video camera into the projector. The ensuing scenes, heavily featuring Sabine, fit director Clay's narration so well that the director, Sabine, and Bean all receive standing ovations. Clay's initial anger fades and he embraces Bean and takes credit for the film's success, while Stepan is finally reunited with his father.

After the screening, Bean leaves the building and goes to the beach, encountering many of the other characters including Sabine and Stepan. The film ends with Bean and all the other characters of the film miming a large French musical finale, lip-syncing the famous song by Charles Trenet, "La Mer" (Beyond the Sea).

In a post-credits scene, Mr. Bean writes "FIN" on the wet sand using his toe. He films it until the camera says "low battery" then the sea washes the words away then the camera turns off.