The Beach (film) The Beach (film) The Beach is a 2000 English-language drama thriller film directed by Danny Boyle and based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Alex Garland, which was adapted for the film by John Hodge. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, and Robert Carlyle. It was filmed on the Thai island Koh Phi Phi. Richard, a young American seeking adventure in Bangkok, travels in a drab travelers hotel in Khao San Road where he meets a young French couple, Françoise and Étienne, and he immediately becomes attracted to Françoise. He also meets
The Beach (novel) the three finally reach the hidden beach — after bribing a local boat pilot, swimming from an adjacent island, discovering a cannabis plantation in the jungle and avoiding the armed owners, and eventually jumping over a waterfall — they discover a group of around 30 backpackers that have largely shut off the outside world to live a slow-paced life of leisure, under the "de facto" leadership of an American woman called Sal and her South African lover Bugs, who, along with Daffy, founded the community there in 1989. They live in a village of hand-built wooden huts and tents, located