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Under the watchful eyes of Father
Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra, the European Organization for
Nuclear Research (CERN) initiates the Large Hadron Collider and captures
three vials of antimatter. Immediately afterward, someone kills Father
Silvano and steals a vial.
The Roman Catholic Church mourns the death of Pope Pius XIII 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".
After escaping, Langdon convinces two Carabinieri officers to race with
him to the last church of the "Water" altar, but the assassin murders them
and drops the fourth cardinal, Cardinal Baggia, weighted down, into the
Fountain of the Four Rivers. However, Langdon saves the cardinal, who
tells him the location of the Illuminati's lair: Castel Sant'Angelo.
Carabinieri, Vatican Gendarmerie, and Swiss Guard officers converge on the
location to search for the antimatter vial. They discover the van used by
the assassin along with the bodies of the two Carabinieri officers at what
appears to be a dead end. They leave to search the castle but Langdon and
Vetra stay to search and discover a hidden passageway to the Vatican. As
they search further, they discover a brand with two crossed keys, the
Papal symbol. Realizing the brand is meant for Camerlengo McKenna, they
try to call him to warn him but are confronted by the assassin who spares
their lives since they are not armed and he has not been paid to kill
them. He reveals that his contractors were from the Catholic Church. The
assassin escapes and finds a vehicle containing his payment, but is killed
by a car bomb upon starting the engine.
Langdon and Vetra discover that the final victim of the plot will be
Camerlengo McKenna. After arriving at the Vatican via a secret passage,
they and some Swiss Guards enter the Camerlengo's office and find him in
the floor branded with the Vatican's symbol on his chest and Commander
Richter near him with a gun. The Guards promptly kill Richter to save the
camerlengo. During the confusion, the dying commander gives Langdon a key
to his office. Then the camerlengo, Langdon, Vetra, and the Swiss Guards
discover the location of the stolen antimatter vial. By the time they find
it, the battery is about to expire, the deadly explosion just minutes
away. The camerlengo seizes the vial and uses a helicopter meant for
escape from the Vatican to fly above the church. He then activates the
autopilot and escapes with a parachute. After several seconds, the bomb
explodes and the camerlengo lands, now considered a hero by the crowd and
even as the best candidate to be the new Pope by the College of Cardinals.
Meanwhile, Langdon and Vetra use Richter's key to watch a security video
showing that the mastermind behind the murders of the original Pope and
the preferiti and the antimatter robbery, in fact, is the camerlengo and
not the Illuminati. In the security video, while Richter tries to arrest
McKenna, the priest brands himself with a seal that resembles Saint
Peter's upside-down crucifixion and accuses the commander being a member
of the Illuminati. Langdon shows the video to the College. After the
camerlengo realizes his plot has been uncovered, he burns himself with oil
from one of the 99 holy lamps inside St. Peter's Basilica.
The Vatican announces that the camerlengo died due to internal wounds
suffered during his landing, while the public demands he be canonized. The
College designate the Cardinal Baggia as the new Pope (who chooses to take
the name Luke), and Cardinal Strauss as the new camerlengo. The new
camerlengo thanks Robert Langdon for saving the Vatican and the new Pope,
and as a mark of his gratitude loans Galileo's "Diagramma Veritas" to
Langdon for his reference, and requesting that in Langdon's will, he will
ensure the document is returned to the Vatican after his death. Cardinal
Baggia (now known as Pope Luke I) walks out on the balcony to the cheering
crowd in St. Peter's Square. |
