History Literature / AngelsAndDemons

* ArtisticLicenceHistory: During an university lecture, Langdon claims that "the practice of 'god-eating' — that is, Holy Communion — was borrowed from the Aztecs." In reality, the practice of the Holy Communion goes back to the 1st century, while Aztec culture did not rise until the 14th century - and in any case, there was no contact between Europeans and the inhabitants of Central America before 1492.

* TreacheryCoverUp: The Council of Cardinals and Professor Langdon decides it best to keep TheReveal of tge BigBad's plan private. [[spoiler: The Camerlengo's plot may have been evil, but it raised interest in religion and history, which they all deem more important than the truth. While Camerlengo immolated himself due to guilt over his misdeeds, his official cause of death is that he died of injuries due to crash-landing on the ground.]]

* ManlyTears: In the book [[spoiler: when Langdon failed to save preferito Baggia's life.]]

* ManOnFire: The fate of [[strike:Janus]] [[spoiler:the Camerlengo is [[DrivenToSuicide to set himself on fire]] after Langdon exposed his scheme]].

* FourElementEnsemble: The theme of the four elements is used in the murders of four Catholic Cardinals and in the clues to the location of the Illuminati's meeting place.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: A British camerawoman for the [[Creator/TheBBC British Broadcasting Corporation]] is referred to as "African American". Her partner is also allegedly British, but seems to think and speak using an awful lot of American terminology and in an ImagineSpot he likens himself to Dan Rather -- who is almost totally unknown in Britain. Even if the reporter has heard of Rather, if he were really British he would have likened himself to Trevor [=McDonald=].

** He again nearly suffocates when he is trapped in a sarcofagus later (in the book at least).
* AncientConspiracy: The crimes bear the calling card of the Illuminati, an anti-religious secret society dating back to the Enlightenment and assumed to be extinct. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} when it turns out the Illuminati are indeed extinct and were not behind the {{antimatter}} plot: it was all carried out by a hired thug and orchestrated by the Camerlengo, who intended to defeat the threat he had manufactured in order to set himself up as a fake hero and get himself elected pope.]]

-->'''Camerlengo''': Do you believe in God, sir?\\
'''Langdon''': Father, I simply believe that religion—\\
'''Camerlengo''': I did not ask if you believe what man says about God. I asked if you believe in God.\\
'''Langdon''': I'm an academic. My mind tells me I will never understand God.\\
'''Camerlengo''': And your heart?\\
'''Langdon''': Tells me I'm not meant to. Faith is a gift that I have yet to receive.\\
'''Camerlengo''': Be delicate with our treasures.
* ArtImitatesArt: In the film, the explosion of the helicopter carrying the antimatter illuminates the sky above the Vatican into something resembling ceiling frescos depicting the Apotheosis. [[spoiler:Which is kind of fitting as the Camerlengo was believed to have sacrificed himself in the explosion to save Rome in a somewhat Messianic manner.]]

** In the book, [[spoiler: the pope is revealed to have fathered a child with a nun as a young priest, through in vitro fertilization (IVF). After this fact has been revealed, the Cardinals try to justify it by saying that the man and woman in question committed no sins as they did not have physical sex and thus remained chaste (although the nun was of course kicked out of her order once it became obvious that she was pregnant). However, IVF has always been banned by the Catholic Church and procuring it has always been a mortal sin.]]
** At the end of the film, [[spoiler: the cardinals have reservations on making the Camerlengo the next Pope, including saying that he's too young. In truth, there is no age requirement on being elected to the papacy.]]

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: The secret CERN lab where the antimatter was kept was only accessible via retinal scan by Vittoria and her father/colleague. The assassin kills and rips out the eyes sockets of her father/colleague in order to gain access. The film even has a scene of Vittoria using the eye scanner at CERN, [[FailedASpotCheck not realizing until she touches her chin]] that there's blood on the chin rest below it. She's then horrified to discover an eyeball lying on the floor, and then a colleague with his eye cut out.
* BottomlessBladder:: The story takes place in a relatively short period of time, and the main character go without ever needing to eat, sleep, or use the restroom over more than a 24 hour period.

* CallingCard: Invoked by The Hassassin who engages in [[ThemeSerialKiller theme killing]]. He also brands each of his victims with the name of the element he killed them with. [[spoiler:He does the killings this way frame an AncientConspiracy, that is already extinct.]]

* CentralTheme: In the film, prejudice and traditionalism. [[spoiler:Which the movie exploits by making the handsome young maverick priest [[note]]whose most famous role is a heroic character[[/note]] the BigBad, while the less tolerant, less open-minded, and less conventionally attractive church members are innocent.]]

* ChristianityIsCatholic: It ''is'' set in and around the Vatican after all.
* {{Claustrophobia}}: Langdon has claustrophobia, after a traumatic incident he endured during his childhood [[note]]The backstory is given in ''The Da Vinci Code''[[/note]]. He's able to fight it when he gets trapped, first in an air-tight section of a library, later in a sarcophagus.

* DisposableSexWorker: Whatever the Hassassin does with the prostitute he books a session with, she was badly bruised and unconscious--or faking it so he'd stop--at the end of it.

* EngineeredPublicConfession: [[spoiler:Kohler uses his SpyCam to secretly record his conversation with the Camerlengo, where he exposes himself as the mastermind behind the plot. While Camerlengo manages to manipulate the situation into getting Kohler killed, Kohler still manages to get the tape to Langdon, who uses it to expose Camerlengo.]]* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Although the Camerlengo's name is mentioned briefly, the narrative and all the characters just refer to him as Camerlengo.

** The main plot revolves around [[spoiler:A young priest faking an elaborate plot by TheIlluminati involving {{antimatter}} to kill various cardinals who are being considered for election to pope, to try to get himself elected pope and suppress the encroachment of science on religion.]]
** Let's make this clear. As far everyone knows,[[spoiler: the Church doesn't contract assassins. At least not today. This element isn't present in the book, surprisingly so.]]

* WritersCannotDoMath: Langdon is awoken at 5 AM U.S. East Coast Time, and goes to Switzerland/Italy, which is a +6 hours time difference, so 1 PM there. Later, when it's almost 9 PM European time, he mentions he's been awake for 6 hours. That should have been 8 hours.

* BaitAndSwitch: In the film, shortly after the [[spoiler: Cardinals decide to elect the Camerlengo as Pope,]] he is shown being summoned to the Sistine Chapel by the College, seemingly to give him the good news. [[spoiler: It later turns out this scene takes place ''after'' he has already been uncovered as the true mastermind behind the whole Illuminati plot, and the Cardinals were actually summoning him to the chapel to be arrested for his crimes.]]

* DanBrowned: Along with the rest of Brown's bibliography, there are so many examples of fabricated facts to warrant [[DanBrowned/DanBrown a page full of examples]].
-->'''Creator/BishopBarron''': Toward the end of the movie, I was very tempted to shout out at the screen, "No, you've got it precisely backwards."