| Movie DescriptionUnder the watchful eyes of Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) initiates the Large Hadron Collider and creates, in three vials, suspended particles of antimatter larger than any that have ever been detected before. Immediately afterwards, someone kills Father Silvano and steals a vial.
The Roman Catholic Church mourns the death of Pope Pius XVI in Rome. Vatican City prepares for the papal conclave which will elect the next Pope. Camerlengo Patrick McKenna assumes temporary control of the Vatican while faithful members of the Church crowd into Saint Peter's Square, waiting for a successful vote. The Illuminati kidnap the 'preferiti' (the four most likely candidates to be elected pope) before the conclave enters seclusion. They threaten to kill one every hour and then destroy the Vatican in a burst of light at midnight. A stolen security camera shows the missing antimatter vial, which will catastrophically explode when the vial's battery dies and the magnetic containment field fails.
The Vatican summons symbologist Robert Langdon from Harvard University and Vittoria Vetra from CERN to help them solve the Illuminati's threat, save the four preferiti, and replace the vial's batteries. Langdon listens to the Illuminati message and deduces that the four cardinals will die at the four altars of the "Path of Illumination." However, no one knows where these altars are located.
Vetra calls for Father Silvano's diaries from Switzerland, hoping that they contain the name of the person with whom Silvano discussed the antimatter experiment. Langdon also demands access to the Vatican Secret Archives to see the original copy of Galileo Galilei's banned book. Using the clues from this book, Langdon, Vetra, Inspector General Ernesto Olivetti, and Lieutenant Valenti of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps race to the first church (Chigi Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo), only to find the first cardinal, Cardinal Ebner, dead, suffocated with dirt, eaten by rats and branded with an ambigrammatic word "Earth".
They verify the second altar's location (Saint Peter's Square) and arrive, only to witness the death of the second cardinal, Cardinal Lamassé, his lungs punctured and his body branded with an ambigrammatic word "Air". While Vetra studies Silvano's diaries, Langdon and the Vatican officers locate the third church (Santa Maria della Vittoria) and try to save the third cardinal, Cardinal Guidera, from burning to death, but the assassin appears and kills everyone but Langdon. The cardinal succumbs to the flames, his body branded with an ambigrammatic word "Fire". |
