Inferno

Theatrical Release Poster

So a few days ago, I sat through two hours watching Tom Hank's Inferno and to be honest I didn't really enjoy it. Inferno is a Mystery Thriller based on the book Inferno by Dan Brown. The movie starts with Betrand Zobrist, a scientist who is intent on solving the problem of the world's overpopulation being chased by WHO officials. He ends up committing suicide. The next scene shows Dr Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) in a hospital in Florence, Italy. He wakes up not having memory of what happened prior to him being in the hospital. Doctor Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) tells him that he's suffering from amnesia which was caused by a bullet to his head. Langdon has visions of hell at the hospital and struggles to remember what happened to him.

Dr Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) & Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones)

A female assassin, Vayentha shows up at the hospital and shoots at Langdon and Brooks helps in escape. She takes him to her apartment where Langdon continues to have visions. Among his belongings, he finds a Faraday Pointer which has a version Sandro Botticelli's map of hell based on Dante's Inferno. Langdon and Brooks find out that the scientist who committed suicide at the beginning of the movie, Zobrist had a virus to reduce the world's population and planned to release it before his death. They are both chased by law enforcement agents and assassins so they go on the run. They follow clues with Langdon's knowledge of Dante's work to evade the assassins and agents. They find out that a security company working for Zobrist hired the assassin. 

Dr. Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) & Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones)

The WHO agents led by Elizabeth Sinskey are trying to stop the virus from getting released. When Langdon finds out that the virus is in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Sienna abandons him revealing to him that she was Zobrist's lover and plans to release the virus. Langdon soon remembers that Sinskey was his lover and it is also revealed that Sinskey wanted Langdon to help her interpret the images from the Faraday Pointer but was kidnapped by Sims and drugged with benzodiazepine which made him loose his memory and end up in the hospital.

Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones)

He joins forces with Sinskey and Sims, the head of the mysterious security company that hired the assassins to stop the virus from getting released.  Langdon, Sims and their team go to Istanbul to stop Sienna from releasing it at the Basilica Cistern. Meanwhile, Sienna has her plan to blow up the bag where the virus was kept under the water by Zobrist before his death. She goes to the Basilica Cistern with two other guys who have the same goal as her. Sinskey, Sims and Langdon are able to stop the virus from getting released but Sims and the two Turkish men are killed while Sienna commits suicide trying to release the virus. The WHO take the virus and Langdon goes back to Florence to return the stolen Dante Death Mask. 

    I didn't get the chance to read the book Inferno by Dan Brown but I feel like justice would still have been done to the movie. I mean you have Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones, who are both brilliant actors but I saw myself wanting to leave the theater just a few minutes into the movie. It was a little weak and didn't leave me feeling satisfied. Maybe it was the directing or the fact that it felt like they were trying to do as much as they could in 121 minutes. Such a movie is meant the leave the viewer with a few questions like population control and the implications of deadly viruses but it just wasn't that way for me. Inferno was quite dull and didn't live up to my expectations.


Based on Inferno by Dan Brown
Screenplay David Koepp
Director Ron Howard
Starring Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Irfan Khan
Release Date October 28
Running time 2hrs1min

Rating: 5/10

View the trailer below;