Inferno

Plot Summary

Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), a radical bio-engineer billionaire is chased by a few men across Florence. He jumps from a building and commits suicide. Harvard University professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) wakes up in a hospital in Florence, mysteriously with no memory of how he landed there. He is under the observation of Dr Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) who tells him that he is down with Retrograde Amnesia. His head trauma is a result of a bullet wound. Before Langdon could recollect what had actually happened, he gets nightmarish visions and is hounded by Vayentha, a female assassin who shows up at the hospital. Sienna helps Langdon to escape and takes him to her apartment. While looking for things and Langdon's personal belongings, the duo find "Faraday pointer", a miniature image projector, with a modified version of Sandro Botticelli's Map of Hell, which is based on Dante's Inferno. The two figure out that Zobrist has created a virus, which could kill more than a half of world population as he believed that the world is overpopulated and that rigorous measures are necessary to reduce the population. Meanwhile, the call Langdon makes to the embassy helps Vayentha, WHO and local law enforcement trace him and Sienna’s apartment. They manage to escape. Langdon's knowledge of Dante's work, history, and hidden passages in Florence allow the two to follow clues such as letters and phrases which lead to various locations in Florence and Venice, while evading the assassin and the authorities. Turns out Vayentha works for an ambiguous ‘security company’ headed by Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan), who are acting on behalf of their client Bertrand Zobrist, who has provided Sims with a video message about the virus, to be broadcast after the virus has been released. The armed authorities turn out to be the World Health Organization (WHO), headed by Elizabeth Sinskey, trying to prevent the release of the virus. Shocked by the video and the probable repercussion of Zobrist’s discovery, Sims allies with Sinskey. However, Langdon and Sienna are contacted by Bouchard, a man purporting to be working for the WHO, warning them that Sinskey has a double agenda and is after the virus for her own profit. The three cooperate for a while, until Langdon realises that Bouchard's story is a lie and that it is he who is after it for his own profit. Again, Sienna and Langdon flee. Langdon figures out that the virus is in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. After getting this valuable piece of information, Sienna shockingly abandons Langdon. She reveals that she is the lover of the late Zobrist and that she will ensure his dream is fulfilled. Langdon now joins Sims and Sinskey. It is hinted that Sinskey is Langdon's former romantic interest and that she asked Langdon for help in interpreting the imagery from the Faraday pointer. Langdon was then kidnapped by Sims' men and drugged with benzodiazepine to induce a memory loss; the events in the hospital were all staged. The saviours realise that Zobrist’s virus is in a plastic bag hidden under water in the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. The WHO team with Langdon, Sims, and Sinskey race to locate and secure the bag while Sienna with two Turkish allies attempts to detonate an explosive that will rupture the bag and aerosolize the virus. The bag is secured just in time, while Sims is killed by Sienna. Langdon Confronts Sienna who commits suicide in an attempt to release the virus. The Inferno Virus is then taken by the WHO and Langdon returns to Florence in order to return the Dante Death Mask which was stolen as a fundamental clue in the search for Inferno.