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Ten years ago, director Ron Howard released his adaptation of author Dan Brown’s controversial thriller, The Da Vinci Code, a story about secret societies and religious conspiracies. His third film in the series, Inferno, isn’t nearly as controversial—but it’s every bit as wild and complex.
Inferno once again stars Tom Hanks as renowned symbologist Robert Langdon, who wakes to find himself in a hospital in Florence with a mysterious head wound and no memory of the past 48 hours. When an armed attacker comes after him in the hospital, he finds himself under the protection of Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), a young doctor who rushes him to safety. And as he begins slowly regaining his memories, he ends up in a race to track down a deadly virus before it kills half of the planet.
If you’ve seen the previous films in the Robert Langdon series, you’ll know what to expect from this one: mystery, chases, innumerable plot twists, and a head-spinning scavenger hunt that uses a series of obscure references to guide the characters from one gorgeous historical building after another in a race against time to save the lives of billions of people.
This time around, however, Langdon isn’t just trying to solve a mystery to save the world; he’s also trying to piece his own memories back together. As he follows the clues, he begins to discover more about what he’s done and where he’s been during the previous couple of days—and that sometimes gets him into even more trouble. With all of the flashbacks, lost memories, and strange hallucinations, it’s a bit like a much more serious version of The Hangover—only with less booze and more references to classic works of art and literature.
Like its predecessors, though, Inferno is filled with twists and turns, with schemes and shifting loyalties. There are so many big twists, in fact, that audiences will come to expect them—and, after a while, see them coming. The drama, meanwhile, is rather overplayed, and the story requires a major suspension of disbelief. It’s definitely fast and frantic for a very good reason: because the more time you have to stop and think about the details, the less sense it all makes.
Inferno is another fast-moving Dan Brown thriller, with beautiful settings and an undeniably likable main character. But the predictable twists, the layers upon layers of complexities, and the all-too-convenient story make it a maddening mystery.
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