Literature / Inferno (2013)

aka: Inferno 2016

"There's a switch. If you throw it, half the people on Earth will die. But if you don't, in a hundred years, the human race will be extinct. I gave you a path. The hardest one yet. Only you can finish it. You are humanity's final hope."

— Bertrand Zobrist

Inferno (2013) is Dan Brown's sixth published novel and the fourth to star Robert Langdon, the protagonist of Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Symbol. As the title suggests, the plot is very heavy on references to Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy.

Langdon wakes up in a Florentine hospital with a gunshot wound in the back of his head and a complete blackout about the last couple of days, including such important details as who shot him and how he ended up in Italy without any documents in the first place. Before long, the sinister Consortium's hitwoman catches up with the wounded professor, who barely escapes with some help from Sienna Brooks, a visiting ER doctor from Britain. Together, they have to uncover the truth about why Langdon is being hunted and what the whole thing has to do with Dante Alighieri and a prominent biologist who committed suicide a few days earlier in Florence.

Then, in the course of the novel, the entire premise gets turned on its head.

The Film of the Book, directed by Ron Howard and with Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon, was released on October 28, 2016. The cast includes Felicity Jones as Sienna Brooks, Irrfan Khan as Harry "The Provost" Sims, Sidse Babett Knudsen as Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey, Omar Sy as Christophe Bouchard and Ben Foster as Bertrand Zobrist.

Spoilers ahead.

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Tropes specific for the novel:

• Alas, Poor Villain: Vayentha's death becomes this in retrospect, after it's revealed that she never actually tried to kill Langdon, that Sienna has been the Big Bad all along, and that she killed Vayentha mainly to keep Langdon working for the wrong person. It's made even worse by the fact that this murder is never brought up again after The Reveal. In the movie, however, she does eventually receive the order to kill Langdon.
• Anti-Villain: Sienna may be the Big Bad of the story, but she is clearly against Zobrist's scheme and wants to find his research so that she could destroy it. This is averted in the film adaptation. Downplayed Trope though by the fact that she only wanted to destroy it because she worries about what else could be done with it. She's still more than happy to perform forced sterilization on the third of the population without their consent and murder innocent people in order to achieve her deluded schemes.
• Attempted Rape: Part of Sienna's Back Story and the reason why she gave up charity work and plunged into her second major bout of depression.
• Author Filibuster: Besides the central Green Aesop, there are Robert Langdon rants about e-publishing, although he later admits there are gems in them.^note Then he makes it really clear Fifty Shades of Grey is not one of them
• Baldness Means Sickness: Sienna is actually wearing a wig because a medical condition cost her most of her natural hair. Helps her and Langdon escape their pursuers later, when she gives him her wig so they look like a young punk girl and an aging rocker.
• Bookcase Passage: When the Palazzo Vecchio is surrounded by police, Sienna is impressed when Langdon quickly finds a hidden doorway to an escape passage, only for Langdon to point out that it was in the official tour.
• Depraved Homosexual: Zobrist firmly is the villain and Big Bad in this story, and the first and only romantic and sexual relationship he has with another character is with another man, namely Ferris/FS-2080, making Zobrist gay. Since there aren't any good gay characters, this implies "homosexuality equals villainy". BUT, this is firmly subverted/averted at the end when we find out it was only Gender-Concealing Writing that represented Zobrist's lover as the male Ferris to the reader; FS-2080 actually was Sienna! So Zobrist wasn't gay after all.
• Downer Ending: Zobrist succeeds in his plan to make one-third of the world's population infertile. Strangely enough, the main characters seem to take the stance that this is not such a bad thing. Granted, they were mentally preparing for a second Black Plague killing billions all around the world, so at least their relief at that moment is understandable. And considering that the alternative to the villain's success was humanity's extinction in about a hundred years, it was not that much of a downer ending, after all ^note If one ignores the heroes endorsing forced sterilization based on a theory already proven false. This is averted in in the movie where they do succeed in stopping the plague from unleashing.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Consortium are the ones behind the Inferno virus and the employers of Sienna Brooks.
• Karma Houdini: In the book, even though she helps perform forced genetic alternations on a third of the human population Brooks gets off with no punishment and in fact gets a new job with the WHO to help the crisis she herself created. Subverted in the film, where she dies.
• Lecture as Exposition: In the true Langdon fashion, he uses his Photographic Memory to recall his own lectures on Dante in search for clues about the Shade's riddle.
• No Name Given: The provost is just... the provost for the entire novel. It's even lampshaded: when he finally meets and introduces the main characters, he introduces himself as "the provost", and when the other characters look at him questioningly, adds "names aren't necessary here". Invoked because the nature of his job demands that the less people know his identity, the better.
• Pride: The Shade freely admits to be guilty of it.
• Red Herring: Hoo boy. Dan Brown has really outdone himself on this one.
  • The scary biohazard-marked cylinder that Langdon finds on his person? Actually, its contents aren't dangerous at all; Sinskey just needed to place the object in a secure container before giving it to Langdon.
  • The Consortium's killer squad that storms Sienna's apartment? Actually, an emergency response group of the WHO, ostensibly the good guys for whom Langdon was working before his amnesia and who desperately tried to establish contact with him, not to kill him. Why did they keep Sinskey locked up and drugged, then? She has a rare medical condition that required it, and they were just taking care of their boss.
  • The menacing hitwoman Vayentha who nearly offs Langdon twice? Actually, the Consortium's specialist on Death Faked for You called in to make Langdon believe he is targeted and solve the riddles for the Consortium.
  • The poor, unfortunate Dr. Brooks whom Langdon drags into this mess? Actually, a Double Reverse Quadruple Agent who dupes Langdon, the Consortium, and eventually the WHO to keep her lover and mentor Zobrist's research out of their hands—and to destroy it herself. Basically, she is the Big Bad of the story.
  • The plague-infected spy who stalks Langdon and Sienna in Florence? Actually, he is just with the World Health Organization and merely has a bad case of contact allergy that looks like plague symptoms to the uninitiated—oh, wait, that's not true, either...
  • The mysterious FS-2080 who gains their trust en route to Venice? Actually, FS-2080 is Sienna herself, see above, while Jonathan Ferris works for the Consortium, and is basically the same guy whom Vayentha "killed" in the hospital earlier.
  • The sinister Plague that the Consortium's client plans to unleash on the world? Actually, a "mere" Sterility Plague to control the world's population growth. Also, he is not "planning" it. He already unleashed it six days ago.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The whole plot of the book involves Langdon trying to follow the clues that the Big Bad The Shade intentionally left behind in order to try to prevent The Plague from being released to the atmosphere, and find the Ground Zero where the pandemic would begin. On the other hand, The WHO is trying to do this very same thing, the Consortium is trying to stop these from finding it, because they work for the "now deceased" Big Bad without even knowing a plague was involved, and Sienna is using everyone to find The Plague for her own personal plans. On a Heel–Face Turn, The consortium decides to team-up with the WHO when they discover that they were actually helping to produce a global epidemic and a possible genocide, thus making all of their previous efforts of hiding the truth from governmental agencies, useless. When they finally find the location a day before the day the plague was supposed to be released, the Big Bad had already released the plague a week before, thus manipulating everyone into a useless journey of chasing their own tails, while the real plague was on its way to infect everyone on Earth. Most readers actually believed The Shade would leave a chance for the heroes of stopping his plans.
• Silver Vixen: Dr. Sinskey is in her sixties and is described repeatedly as very beautiful with her long, overflowing hair which is literally described as "silver".
• Sterility Plague: What the eponymous Inferno actually is: a virus that randomly renders a third of the world's human population infertile.
• White-and-Grey Morality: Apart from the Consortium, a Punch-Clock Villain group by itself, the story really does not have a real bad guy as such. Even the Shade/Zobrist is portrayed as merely a Well-Intentioned Extremist—although most of his posthumous characterization comes from his lover and apprentice, whose views are naturally skewed in his favor.
• You Are Too Late: Zobrist's Sterility Plague was quietly unleashed in Istanbul a week before the book's events take place (except for the prologue). The much touted date one day after Langdon's awakening is not the day the virus is released—it's the day it finishes spreading and infects every human being on Earth.

Tropes for both the novel and the film:

• Amnesiac Hero: Langdon wakes up in a hospital with a Laser-Guided Amnesia about the last couple of days. Much later, it is revealed that the trope was specifically Invoked on him by the provost's men, who drugged him with a substance that wipes a person's short-term memory clean in order to try to gain his trust with an elaborate ruse.
• Artistic License – Law: The novel/movie is set in a world in which the WHO is a combination of the FBI, Interpol, CIA and some private research lab. In reality the WHO is a bureaucratic mess with a laughable budget and little to no influence. ^note The Real-Life WHO Director wrote a review of the book that boiled down to "I wish I had half the resources that Dan Brown thinks I do."
• Big Bad Friend: Sienna is actually one of the people behind the whole Inferno scheme.
• Big Good: Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey, chief of the WHO and the woman who appears to Langdon in visions, pleading for his help.
• Child Prodigy: Sienna was an extremely high IQ and went to university at an age that most children are in Junior High. Apart from that, she also was a gifted actor, giving Shakespeare performances in London theatres at 7 years old, and fluent in many languages.
• Depopulation Bomb: The Inferno virus is intended to render a third of the population infertile (in the book) or kill half of the current human population (in the movie). Either one would drastically reduce the number of people on earth, which is precisely the goal of the villain. Subverted in the movie at the end, since the WHO contains the virus before it can infect anybody.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Consortium is introduced as a sinistrous and unscrupulous organization providing support to Zobrist, but they decide to collaborate with Langdon and the WHO once they discovered they unwittingly helped the creation of a plague.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Zobrist, who believed humankind cannot evolve without most of its population dead.
• Gender-Concealing Writing:
  • When Agent Brüder reports to "his superior", you assume it's the provost, who is also on the phone around the same time—but it's actually Elizabeth Sinskey, which you are not supposed to learn until much later in the story.
  • When "FS-2080", whom you probably identified as Jonathan Ferris, describes "his" first encounter with Zobrist (which results in a supposedly homosexual relationship), it's actually Sienna's memories you are reading.
• Good All Along: Agent Brüder and his team.* Van in Black: In the film and novel the SRS team has a black van, which initially gives them a villainous appearance, causing Langdon to flee.
• Green Aesop: Done very blatantly. "Overpopulation leads to human extinction" is repeated many times.
• Linked List Clue Methodology: For once in a Dan Brown story, this is fully justified: Zobrist never intended to give Sinskey, his perceived Arch-Nemesis, any chance of stopping his plan by solving his riddles in time—he only wanted to have a last laugh at her attempt, even if he doesn't get to see it. Therefore, he arranged his riddle to be delivered to her by the time the Inferno has long been released into the wild.
• Made of Iron: A gunshot wound to the head never bothers Langdon (well, except the amnesia part), even after the anesthetics wear off. Turns into Fridge Brilliance when it's revealed that he was never shot in the first place and that his wound was actually just a shallow cut inflicted for verisimilitude.* Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Shade, a.k.a. Bertrand Zobrist. Even his lover and closest confidante agrees that his methods are monstrous.
• The Plague: The eponymous Inferno, with parallels constantly being drawn between it and The Black Death. Played more straight in the movie, where Inferno is a virus that would kill half of the human population; in the book it's thought to be that but it actually turns out to be a Sterility Plague.
• Plague Doctor: The origins of the plague doctor are discussed, and Zobrist wears the iconic mask in his video message and in the alteration he makes to the Map of Hell.
• Posthumous Character: Bertrand Zobrist.
• Starts with a Suicide: The prologue/first shots of the movie concern the last moments of the Shade's life (actually, Bertrand Zobrist's).
• The Syndicate: The provost's Consortium. It's not so bad, however, since it basically concerns deception on a grand scale, rather than outright assassinations and other obviously criminal activities.
• Title Drop: The references to Dante's Inferno are dropped constantly throughout the novel, both literally and metaphorically, but it actually refers to The Plague about to be unleashed on humanity.

Tropes specific for the movie:

• Actionized Sequel: The movie features much more action than The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.
• Adaptational Badass: In the books, the Provost is a Non-Action Guy that attempts but fails to perform a Villain: Exit, Stage Left and gets arrested. In the movie, he is a deadly assassin that dies in the heat of combat.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Except for Langdon and Sinskey, every character from the book is made significantly more villainous in the film, especially Sienna, who willingly sacrifices herself to execute Zobrist's scheme rather than finding it monstrous like in the books.
    • Arguably averted for Sinskey since in the book she's ok with what is essentially eco-fascism and agrees with Zobrist's plans in the end while in the movie she does her utmost to stop his plan.
  • Zobrist's plague, rather than being a Sterility Plague, is strongly implied to actually be a deadly pathogen. Unlike in the book, however, Langdon and the WHO successfully prevent it spreading.
  • The Consortium, while still specializing in grand-scale deception, is actually not afraid to really eliminate perceived liabilities.
• Composite Character: In the film, Agent Christoph Bouchard is a composite of Jonathan Ferris and Christoph Bruder. Unlike his book counterparts, Bouchard does a Face–Heel Turn, and does not live in the end.
• Death by Adaptation: The film has a much higher body count than the book, with Bruder, the Provost, and Sienna herself all dead by the film's end.
• Dragon Their Feet: In the movie, Langdon still has to fight off Sienna's remaining henchman after Sienna detonates the weapon, taking her own life in the process.
• invoked Fake American: In the film, the US consulate man turns out to be a Brit working for the Consortium faking an American accent.
• Incredibly Obvious Bomb: The viral containment box in the film takes on the appearance of this trope, with a red bar countdown showing when it's likely to have a containment breach.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: The Provost suggests they wrap matters up by making it look like Langdon was killed in a mugging. Later Langdon has a front-row seat on the Provost arranging a similar scenario with Agent Bouchard's body.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: When Langdon introduces Sienna as his "niece", Marta just smirks and says they're in Italy, so they don't have to bother with such fictions. The two confusedly mumble this trope.
• Suicide Attack: In the film Sienna tries to activate the bomb that will burst the bag of viral agent with her cellphone, but can't get reception. So she dives into the water and sets it off manually.
• We Need a Distraction: Langdon fakes a collapse and Sienna asks Bouchard to get some water, so they can slip away.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Before his injury, Langdon had a partner in deciphering the puzzle—one Ignazio Busoni— who sends Langdon a cryptic email, but never appears on-screen, and is effectively forgotten. In the book, it's discovered that he died of a "heart attack" just after sending his message (a voicemail in the book), but in the movie this is left hanging.

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