It is just as well I had not
heard Dr Mark Kermode’s reaction to The Inferno before deciding that I could
combine a 2D version of the film with the Miss Saigon anniversary after the afternoon
showings were cancelled at Wandsworth and where I originally booked and was not
being relayed at all to the Cineworld within the 02 arena at the Millennium
Dome. I was able to book an aisle seat
which was not possible at Wandsworth which used a smaller theatre.
I have noted that despite the
advertising of some films in 3D there has been an overall reduction in those
available and where in this the film was also available in Imax. The main enjoyment from this films comes from
its locations in Florence, Italy and Istanbul, particularly the last scene on the
Basilica Cistern. However, the story is pants from start to finish although Tom
Hanks does his best. The film is based on the 2013 Dan Brown novel who wrote
the successful book which led to the De Vinci Code film which I found
interesting, entertaining and plausible.
I make no apology for the plot
spoilers as national showings of the film are at their end.
I will also avoid the
irritating mixture of present action and flashbacks. The film is about a billionaire
geneticist with his own international security service who is concerned that
the world will not be able to feed itself because of the exponential growth in
population and with a reduction in major world wars and major losses of
population because of pandemics, starvation, unclear water and other natural disasters
which has been a feature of the past couple of hundred years the population
will quickly become unmanageable. His
solution is to create a plague which will decimate at last half the population
through an airborne virus and which will leave hundreds of thousand badly disfigured
and disabled and in fact a Dante Inferno hell on earth.
The first point to be made is that
if such a virus can be created and this is possible despite the world ban, and it
comes into the hands of someone with the worldwide financial power and doing
anything for a price security team, Spectre and Smersh immediately come to mind
as originators of the possibility, they are unlikely to be found out in time
and caught. However, it is likely that various intelligence services are on the
lookout but also have knowledge of the whereabouts of the communication HQs
from which the various independent security and intelligence organisations
operate and which enable democracies with laws prevent assassination, torture
and other lawless activities to place contracts to undertake off the books
projects.
In the instance of this film
the body which gets wind of the plot and set out to prevent activation of the
virus is the World Health organisation with its team led by a former love
relationship of Tom Hanks, a Harvard professor with the ability to decipher
codes and an in depth knowledge of the works of Dante. He wakes up in a hospital in Florence with a
vague memory of having a syringe in his neck area which has left a rash and
removed his immediate memory of who he is and, why he is in Florence. He is
told and believes by the English speaking attractive doctor, aptly named Sienna
who knows who he is from having attended one of his lectures as a girl that he
is suffering from a bullet wound which narrowly affects his scalp and therefore
raises the issue of how come such a limited injury has the effect it is claimed
to have. Moreover when it is agreed to contact the US embassy for help a hired
female assassin arrives dressed as a
local police motors cyclist who starts shooting people and
attempts to get through the various doors which are shut as Sienna opts
to try and get Hanks out of the hospital to the safety of her apartment and
where in the hospital and in the
apartment Hanks starts to have hallucinations of the end of world according to the terror
the virus is destined to unleash and it
is only towards the end of the film that
it is disclosed that Sienna is in fact the partner of the billionaire
who has committed suicide rather than reveal how the virus is to be activated and
when after he has sent the world an ultimatum for change in a video. To add to
the plot someone purports to also be a member of the WHO organisation has
knowledge and wants to get hold of the virus to sell on the international market.
Because of the possibility of
being stopped the billionaire has provided
a second option in the form of an elaborate series of clues provided in the
death mask and paintings of Dante and his view of Hell which has been depicted
in Sandro’s Botticelli’s Map of Hell and
which is contained in what appears to be a secured vial, first thought
to be the virus container but is in fact
a kind of pen projector (Faraday) which reveals a changed version of the map
and only Hanks appears able to interpret with the practical assistance of Sienna.
The search leads them from
Florence to Venice where Hanks in wanted by the police locally because he and the
Museum Director are seen stealing the death mask Tom and Sienna work out has
been taken back to Florence, is retrieved and on the base of it is a further
clue which leads them to Istanbul. We also learn that after the death of the
billionaire the head of his intelligence operation attempts to follow previous instructions
and ensure that Hanks get the information and with the help the staged female assassin
using blanks is part of the plot get Hanks to help Sienna doctor ensure release
of the virus. However, as the action develops the orders are to kill Sienna and
capture Hanks. The doctor kills the assassin through making her fall through
the priceless decorated ceiling of the Museum as the two attempt to escape
crossing the rafters. They also manage to kill the arms dealers when in Venice
and at this point the double dealing of Sienna is revealed. Hanks is reunited with his former love at the
WHO and they are also assisted by the former head of the Billionaires private
security service.
This takes them to Istanbul and
the Cistern where a gala evening party is being held with orchestral music among the columns and red floodlit waters which
is very specular and beautiful. The
virus is in already in a container in the waters which is housed by the
authorities in a secured way before Sienna can set off explosion to cause the
its release and dies along with some of her local pre-arranged helpers. Hanks and the head of the WHO rue their
passed missed opportunity and that the present requirements of their work means
they are kept apart, but are they? The world is saved to continue on its path
of self-destruction as before but the audience leave the theatre entertained by
the spectacle.
However, those with knowledge of
the book, appreciate a very different outcome. The virus has already been
released into the water with Sienna
attempting to stop and destroy fearing that the authorities would retain and that
it would fall into the hands of those seeking to convert into weapons. The
impact is that about a third of population will become sterile thus having a positive
effect on future population. Sienna does not die and is given amnesty because
she is a doctor and knows of the work is given a job with the WHO. She and the
female head of WHO work together but decide not attempt to reverse the sterilization
accept that the billionaire had a point.
A message which understandably Hollywood and the USA government would
not want to have shown and where I suggest some of the more recent plague
outbreaks may not be as natural as might be supposed. I also suspect on terms of rational thinking
that other ways to control human behaviour have been decided, including the use
of addictive substances as well as digital communications
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