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Crosswicking

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* PuzzleBox: Cryptologist Robert Langdon comes into possession of a brass cryptex with five dials. Each dial has the complete English alphabet, making almost 11.9 million combinations. The one clue to the correct combination reads "In London lies a knight a Pope interred. His labor's fruit a Holy wrath incurred. You seek the orb that ought be on his tomb. It speaks of rosy flesh and seeded womb." Despite being at gunpoint, Langdon deduces the correct sequence: [[spoiler:(a-p-p-l-e)]], which unlocks the crytpex.
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Previously edited to change 'Lambic' to iambic - it's iambic pentameter, not lambic parameter.


** When Langdon notes that a certain poem is in iambic parameter, he remembers he saw the same kind of poems last year in the Vatican.

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** When Langdon notes that a certain poem is in iambic parameter, pentameter, he remembers he saw the same kind of poems last year in the Vatican.

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* AlbinosAreFreaks: Silas's father was an alcoholic thug who abused his son because of his appearance, forcing Silas to run away from home as a teenager and turn to crime to survive. He's not a hitman ''because'' of his albinism, but it's understandable that his treatment might lead to some unsavory career choices.



* AlbinosAreFreaks: Silas's father was an alcoholic thug who abused his son because of his appearance, forcing Silas to run away from home as a teenager and turn to crime to survive. He's not a hitman ''because'' of his albinism, but it's understandable that his treatment might lead to some unsavory career choices.



* AsTheGoodBookSays: Silas follows Saunière's clue to the church of Eglise de Saint-Sulpice in search of the keystone, but only finds a tablet engraved Job 38:11 ("hitherto shalt thou come, but no further").



* TheHeavy: Silas is not the BigBad, though he kicks off the plot and continues to be an antagonist throughout.



* TheHeavy: Silas is not the BigBad, though he kicks off the plot and continues to be an antagonist throughout.



* WhatCliffHanger: The book had a OneParagraphChapter in which Robert Langdon and his date see a thing inside a box. Whatever the grail was, it wasn't ''that thing'' [[spoiler: (the thing turned out to be a cryptex, i.e., a tube that had a puzzle to be solved for it to open)]]. In fact, done frequently in anything written by Dan Brown. It's pretty much the end of every chapter.



* WhatCliffHanger: The book had a OneParagraphChapter in which Robert Langdon and his date see a thing inside a box. Whatever the grail was, it wasn't ''that thing'' [[spoiler: (the thing turned out to be a cryptex, i.e., a tube that had a puzzle to be solved for it to open)]]. In fact, done frequently in anything written by Dan Brown. It's pretty much the end of every chapter.
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* ClueOfFewWords: When museum curator Jacques Sauniere is found murdered in the Louvre, detectives find him lying naked and supine in TheVitruvianPose. He'd also scribed "O draconian devil" and "Oh lame saint" in his blood on the parquet floor. Cryptologist Robert Langdon deduces the phrases are anagrams for "Leonardo da Vinci" and "the Mona Lisa," where a further clue can be found.
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** When Langdon notes that a certain poem is in Lambic parameter, he remembers he saw the same kind of poems last year in the Vatican.

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** When Langdon notes that a certain poem is in Lambic iambic parameter, he remembers he saw the same kind of poems last year in the Vatican.
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* WeaponizedAllergy: [[spoiler:Rémy is disposed of with some peanut dust in his wine, triggering his allergy.]]
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** While the Witch trials of the Early New Age existed and were pretty horrible, the book claims that five million women were executed in them - which is wrong by a magnitude. Modern, scholastic estimations range from 40,000 to 60,000 victims in Europe in total.

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** The book claims that "during three hundred years of witch hunts, the Church burned at the stake an astounding five million women". While the Witch trials of the Early New Age existed and were pretty horrible, the book claims that five million women were executed in them - which is wrong by a magnitude. Modern, modern, scholastic estimations range from 40,000 to 60,000 victims in Europe in total.total. Most of them were women but a significant number (around 20%) were men, and many were executed in Protestant countries.
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** In the book, [[InspectorJavert Bezu Fache]] is just a ''really'' persistent detective who also happens to be a devout Catholic, and he tries to arrest Langdon because he genuinely believes that he murdered Jacques Saunière. In the movie, Fache is a member of Opus Dei, and it's ultimately revealed that [[spoiler:Bishop Aringarosa is using him as a pawn to stop Langdon from exposing the truth about Jesus' bloodline]] (Fache suspects Langdon because [[spoiler:Aringarosa falsely claimed that Langdon came to him in confession and admitted to being a killer]]). But as the movie clearly shows: Fache already suspected Langdon of murdering Saunière on the night of the murder, when he discovered that Saunière wrote his name on the floor of the Louvre. If Aringarosa was really the one who [[spoiler:convinced Fache to pin the murder on Langdon]], he'd have to have called him (at most) within a few hours of Saunière's death. But Langdon doesn't find Saunière's trail of clues until ''after'' Fache summons him to the Louvre--so Aringarosa shouldn't have any reason to be concerned about him finding out about the conspiracy.

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** In the book, [[InspectorJavert Bezu Fache]] is just a ''really'' persistent detective who also happens to be a devout Catholic, and he tries to arrest pursues Langdon because he genuinely believes that he murdered for Jacques Saunière. Saunière's murder due to a simple misunderstanding. In the movie, Fache is a member of Opus Dei, and it's ultimately eventually revealed that [[spoiler:Bishop Aringarosa is using him as a pawn [[HeKnowsTooMuch to stop Langdon from exposing the truth about Jesus' bloodline]] bloodline]]]] (Fache suspects Langdon because [[spoiler:Aringarosa falsely claimed that Langdon came to him in confession and admitted to being a killer]]). But as the movie clearly shows: Fache already suspected Langdon of murdering Saunière on the night of the murder, when he discovered that Saunière wrote his name on the floor of the Louvre. If Aringarosa was really the one who [[spoiler:convinced Fache to pin the murder on Langdon]], he'd have to have called him (at most) within a few hours has no way of Saunière's death. But Langdon doesn't find knowing about Saunière's trail of clues until ''after'' Fache summons him to clues, which is the Louvre--so only reason Langdon knows the truth--so Aringarosa shouldn't have any reason to be concerned about him finding out about revealing ''anything''. Langdon also doesn’t find Saunière's clues until ''after'' he's summoned to the conspiracy.Louvre...but he's only summoned to the Louvre because Fache thinks he killed Saunière, and wants to set a trap for him. If Aringarosa was really the one who convinced Fache to [[spoiler:pin the murder on Langdon]], he'd had to have convinced him of that before Langdon even discovered the clues--in which case, he shouldn't have had any reason to [[spoiler:frame him for murder]].
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* AlternateHistory: A minor case. A major plot point in the book involves Opus Dei losing the support of the Catholic Church and becoming an independent religious organization. This never happened in reality: Opus Dei is ''still'' an officially sanctioned institution of the Catholic Church today. It's also mentioned a few times that Opus Dei bailed out the Vatican Bank when they declared bankruptcy in 1982, which similarly never happened.[[note]] This appears to be based on the 1982 Banco Ambrosiano scandal, in which the Italian private banking firm Banco Ambrosiano (a longtime financial partner of the Vatican) collapsed shortly after being accused of numerous misdeeds by the Italian government, ultimately leading to the apparent suicide of its chairman Roberto Calvi. The scandal cost the Vatican Bank a great deal of money, but there's no evidence that the Vatican Bank itself was ever in serious danger of bankruptcy, and certainly no evidence that Opus Dei financially bailed it out.[[/note]]
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** In the film adaptation, Langdon's lecture on symbology includes a montage contrasting a peace symbol with an illustration of Roman authorities crucifying someone upside-down, implying that one originated from the other. In fact, this is a common urban legend about the origins of the peace symbol: it actually comes from the semaphore symbols for "N" and "D", which stand for "nuclear disarmament"--because it originated as a symbol of the anti-nuclear weapons movement.
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* The idea that the title "Mona Lisa" was meant as an anagram of "Amon L'Isa" makes little sense, as in Italy the painting is known as La Gioconda. There is no evidence that Leonardo himself ever called it that, much less intended a hidden message.

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* ** The idea that the title "Mona Lisa" was meant as an anagram of "Amon L'Isa" makes little sense, as in Italy the painting is known as La Gioconda. There is no evidence that Leonardo himself ever called it that, much less intended a hidden message.
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* SelfDestructingSecurity: The cryptex protects its contents with a five-letter combination lock. Attempting to force the cryptex open will break the vial of vinegar inside, which would dissolve the papyrus along with its message before it could be read. As a result, only the right password will grant access to the message, since it'd be pretty difficult to brute force when where are ~12 million possibilities.

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* SelfDestructingSecurity: The cryptex protects its contents with a five-letter combination lock. Attempting to force the cryptex open will break the vial of vinegar inside, which would dissolve the papyrus along with its message before it could be read. As a result, only the right password will grant access to the message, since it'd be pretty difficult to brute force when where there are ~12 million possibilities.
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None

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* The idea that the title "Mona Lisa" was meant as an anagram of "Amon L'Isa" makes little sense, as in Italy the painting is known as La Gioconda. There is no evidence that Leonardo himself ever called it that, much less intended a hidden message.
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* ChristianityIsCatholic: Very much at play in the movie, in which no mention is made of the fact that the Temple Church, Westminster Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel are all Anglican places of worship (specifically, Church of England for the first two and Scottish Episcopal Church in the case of Rosslyn).

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* ChristianityIsCatholic: Very much at play in the movie, in which no mention is made of the fact that the Temple Church, Westminster Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel are all Anglican places of worship (specifically, Church of England for the first two and Scottish Episcopal Church in the case of Rosslyn). Also, anything to do with the Council of Nicaea would implicate the Ethiopian and Orthodox Churches as was strong in the Eastern Roman Empire and a coverup would require cooperation or common goals of each denomination.

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