Tom Hanks heats up the screen in “INFERNO”

Release Date: October 28, 2016
Running Time: 2 hours and 1 minute
Rated PG-13
Grade: B
Directed By: Ron Howard
Starring:
Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon
Felicity Jones as Sienna Brooks
Ben Foster as Bertrand Zobrist
Irrfan Khan as Harry Sims
Sidse Babett Knudsen as Elizabeth Sinskey
Omar Sy as Christoph Bouchard
Ana Ularu as Vayentha
Ida Darvish as Marta Alvarez

Dante’s Inferno isn’t fiction. It’s a prophecy. Someone created a plague.

Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy. He has no recollection of how he ended up in the hospital or in Italy. When a uniformed intruder attempts to end his life, his physician (Sienna Brooks) assists him in an elaborate escape. Once inside Sienna’s apartment, she reveals that she remembers him from a Harvard lecture when she was young. Haunted by visions while struggling to put the pieces together, Langdon is mystified as to why several organizations are after him until he stumbles across a Faraday Pointer that was in his suit jacket pocket. The pointer has a thumb print recognition device that allows Langdon to access it’s contents and finds his first clue. On their way to the next clue, Langdon and Sienna are approached by a World Health Organization (WHO) agent Christoph Bouchard who explains that a wealthy geneticist named Bertrand Zobrist created a virus that is intended to cull the earth from the plague he called humanity.  Unfortunately, Zobrist committed suicide before Bouchard could interrogate him. Bouchard attempts to create doubt about who to trust, but Langdon realizes that something is amiss so he and Sienna contain him and continue on their own. As they chase clue after clue, they learn that they have 14 hours to find the virus before the majority of earth’s population is affected.

The greatest sins in human history were committed in the name of love.

Thanks to Sony Pictures Tom Hanks and Ron Howard return 10 years after The Da Vinci Code to deliver their third Dan Brown inspired film. When Brown’s third book, The Lost Symbol, was halted in production Sony decided to move forward with Brown’s fourth book titled Inferno. Angels & Demons screenplay writer, David Koepp, also pens this historically motivated tale but instead of revolving around religion, Inferno explores the topic of overpopulation and its effect on earth. Having not read any of the books, I enjoyed all three movies as stand alone films. Avid fans of Brown’s work may not feel the same way because there are several deviations from the book in Inferno. Tom Hanks must love the character of Robert Langdon since over the years he easily transitions from his roles as a doctor, a lawyer, a captain, and a theme park mogul back to a Harvard University professor. The fast paced energy accompanied by Hans Zimmer’s heavily electronic soundtrack provided the perfect backdrop for Howard, Hanks, and the rest of the crew’s talented unfolding of the story. Let this be your first clue to unraveling the twists and turns in Inferno so that you can join Robert Langdon on his quest to save humanity!

 – Movie Buffette