The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard, written by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Dan Brown's 2003 best-selling novel of the same name. The first in the Robert Langdon film series, the film stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean Reno, and Paul Bettany. In the film, Robert Langdon, a professor of religious iconography and symbology from Harvard University, is the prime suspect in the grisly and unusual murder of Louvre curator Jacques Saunière. In the body, the police find a disconcerting cipher and start an investigation. A noted British Grail historian named Sir Leigh Teabing tells them that the actual Holy Grail is explicitly encoded in Leonardo da Vinci's wall painting, The Last Supper. Also searching for the Grail is a secret cabal within Opus Dei, an actual prelature of the Holy See, who wishes to keep the true Grail a secret; the revelation of this secret would certainly destroy Christianity.
The film, like the book, was considered controversial. It was met with especially harsh criticism by the Roman Catholic Church for the accusation that it is behind a two-thousand-year-old cover-up concerning what the Holy Grail really is and the concept that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married and that the union produced a daughter. Many members urged the laity to boycott the film. Two organizations, the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei figure prominently in the story. In the book, Dan Brown claims that the Priory of Sion and "...all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate". The film grossed $224 million in its worldwide opening weekend and a total of $758 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2006 behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was followed by two sequels, Angels & Demons (2009) and Inferno (2016).
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Plot
Jacques Saunière, the Louvre's curator, is pursued through the Great Gallery by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who demands the location of the Priory's "keystone" to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Saunière gives him a false lead and is murdered. When the police arrive, they find his body posed like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Police Captain Bezu Fache summons American symbologist Robert Langdon to examine Saunière's body and shows him a Polaroid of the body while he signs autographs at one of his public talks. Langdon then discovers a secret message only readable by blacklight that contains an out-of-order Fibonacci sequence.
Sophie Neveu, a police cryptographer and Saunière's granddaughter, reveals to Langdon that Fache planted a tracker on him after finding the words "P.S. Find Robert Langdon" at the end of Saunière's secret message, leading Fache to believe Langdon murdered Saunière. The two get rid of the tracker and sneak around the Louvre, finding more clues in Leonardo da Vinci's works, eventually leading to Langdon deducing that Saunière was the grand master of the Priory of Sion.
Silas is revealed to be working for an anonymous person named the Teacher, along with members of Opus Dei, led by Bishop Aringarosa. Evading the police, Langdon and Sophie travel to the Depository Bank of Zurich, discovering a safe deposit box of Saunière's that is accessed using the Fibonacci sequence. Inside is a cryptex, a cylindrical container that hides a papyrus message which can only be accessed by spelling out a code word using dials. The police arrive and Langdon and Sophie are aided by the bank manager, Andre Vernet, only for him to take them hostage in the back of a truck, and hold them at gunpoint demanding the cryptex. Langdon disarms Vernet and flees with Sophie and the cryptex.
The two visit Langdon's friend, Sir Leigh Teabing, a Holy Grail expert, who claims the Grail is not a cup but instead Mary Magdalene, Jesus Christ's wife. Teabing argues that she was pregnant during His Crucifixion, and the Priory was formed to protect their descendants. The Opus Dei have been trying to destroy the Grail to preserve the credibility of the Vatican. Silas breaks into Teabing's house, but Teabing knocks him out with one of his prescription crutches. The group escapes to London via Teabing's private plane, along with his butler, Remy Jean. They travel to the Temple Church, but the clue to unlocking the cryptex is a red herring. Silas is freed by Remy while claiming to be the Teacher and taking Teabing hostage, dumping him in his car's trunk while Silas hides out in an Opus Dei safe house. Teabing poisons Remy and sends the police after Silas, who is shot by police after accidentally wounding Aringarosa, who is promptly arrested by Fache for using him to hunt Langdon.
Langdon and Sophie are confronted by Teabing, who is revealed to be the Teacher, and who wants to bring down the Church for centuries of persecution and deceit. The trio goes to Westminster Abbey to the tomb of Isaac Newton, a former grand master of the Priory. Langdon tosses the cryptex into the air, and Teabing dives for it. He catches it, but the papyrus is already destroyed. The police arrive to arrest Teabing, but he realizes Langdon removed and solved the cryptex's code beforehand. The code is revealed to be "apple" after the apocryphal myth of Newton's gravity-based discovery of the law of universal gravitation. The clue inside the cryptex leads Langdon and Sophie to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.
Inside, they discover Magdalene's tomb has been removed. Langdon realizes that Sophie's family died in a car crash, but the media reported she too had died. Saunière was not her actual grandfather but her protector, and she is the last descendant of Jesus Christ. The two are greeted by several members of the Priory, including Sophie's grandmother, who promises to protect her. Langdon and Sophie part ways, the former returning to Paris. While shaving, he cuts himself and has an epiphany when his blood curves down the sink, reminding him of the Rose Line. Realizing the true meaning of the cryptex clue, he follows the line to the Louvre, concluding the Holy Grail, the sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene, is hidden under the Louvre itself, below the Pyramide Inversée. Langdon kneels before it, as the Knights Templar did before him.
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Cast
Production
Development
The film rights were purchased from Dan Brown for $6 million.
Filming
Filming had been scheduled to start in May 2005; however, some delays caused filming to begin on June 30, 2005.
Location
Permission to film on the premises was granted to the film by the Louvre (although, since the crew was not permitted to shine light on the Mona Lisa, a replica was used instead, while the film crew used the Mona Lisa's chamber as a storage room). Westminster Abbey denied the use of its premises, as did Saint-Sulpice. The Westminster Abbey scenes were instead filmed at Lincoln and Winchester cathedrals, which both belong to the Church of England. (Westminster Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, a church or chapel under direct jurisdiction of the monarch; whereas Saint-Sulpice is a Roman Catholic institution.)
Due to the denial of a location permit for Saint-Sulpice, the entire scene had to be recreated virtually by post-production company Rainmaker U.K. and though the set had been partially built, the co-ordinates were centimeters out from what the compositors had expected and so the entire process was extremely difficult to complete.
Lincoln Cathedral reportedly received £100,000 in exchange for the right to film there, with filming there occurring between August 15 and 19, 2005, mainly within the cloisters of the cathedral. The cathedral's bell, which strikes the hour, was silent for the first time since World War II during that time. Although it remained a closed set, protesters led by a 61-year-old woman named Sister Mary Michael demonstrated against the filming. Sister Mary Michael spent 12 hours praying on her knees outside the cathedral in protest against what she saw as the blasphemous use of a holy place to film a book containing heresy.
Winchester Cathedral answered criticism by using its location fee to fund an exhibition, lecture series and campaign to debunk the book. The scenes for the Pope's summer residence, Castel Gandolfo were filmed on location at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, England.
Shoreham Airport in West Sussex, England, was used as a filming location, with its art-deco terminal building utilized in a night shoot for the scenes at 'Le Bourget' Airport.
Filming also took place elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Locations included King's College London campus; Fairfield Halls (Croydon); the Temple Church (London); Burghley House (Lincolnshire) and Rosslyn Chapel and Rosslyn Castle (Midlothian, Scotland) make an appearance at the final of the film.
Studio shoots
The filmmakers shot many of the internal scenes at Pinewood Studios; the opening sequence in the cavernous 007 Stage at Pinewood Shepperton, where the interior of the Louvre was recreated. In this sequence, Hanks' character is taken by French police to the Louvre, where a dead body has been discovered. David White of Altered States FX, a prosthetics and special makeup effects company, was tasked with creating a naked photorealistic silicone body for the scene. Lighting effects were utilized to obscure the body's genitalia, a technique also used on television programs such as NCIS.
Pinewood's state-of-the-art Underwater Stage was used to film underwater sequences. The stage opened in 2005 after four years of planning and development. The water in the tank is filtered using an ultraviolet system which creates crystal clear water, and the water is maintained at 30 °C (86 °F) to create a comfortable environment to work in for both cast and crew.
Alternate versions of Bettany's nude flagellation scenes were shot, in which he wears a black loincloth. Clips of these versions appear in the History Channel's Opus Dei Unveiled documentary, aired in summer 2006.
Catholic and other reactions
The Vatican
At a conference on April 28, 2006, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican curial department, Archbishop Angelo Amato specifically called for a boycott of the film; he said the movie is "full of calumnies, offences, and historical and theological errors".
Cardinal Francis Arinze, in a documentary called The Da Vinci Code: A Masterful Deception, urged unspecified legal action against the makers of the film. He was formerly Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in the Vatican.
Opus Dei
Stating that it does not intend to organize any boycotts, Opus Dei (the Catholic organization that is featured prominently in the novel and the film) released a statement on February 14, 2006, asking Sony Pictures to consider editing the soon-to-be-released film so that it would not contain references that it felt might be hurtful to Catholics. The statement also said Brown's book offers a "deformed" image of the church and that Opus Dei will use the opportunity of the movie's release to educate about the church.
On Easter, April 16, 2006, Opus Dei published an open letter by the Japanese Information Office of Opus Dei mildly proposing that Sony Pictures consider including a disclaimer on the film adaptation as a "sign of respect towards the figure of Jesus Christ, the history of the Church, and the religious beliefs of viewers". The organization also encouraged the studio to clearly label the movie as fictitious "and that any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence".
According to a statement by Manuel Sánchez Hurtado, Opus Dei Press Office Rome, in contrast to Sony Corporation's published "Code of Conduct" the company has announced that the film will not include such a disclaimer.
American Catholic bishops
U.S. Catholic bishops launched a website, JesusDecoded.com, refuting the key claims in the novel that were about to be brought to the screen. The bishops are concerned about errors and serious misstatements in The Da Vinci Code. The film has also been rated morally offensive--by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting, which denounced its depiction of both the Jesus-Mary Magdalene relationship and that of Opus Dei as "deeply abhorrent".
Peru
The Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP) declared the movie--and the book--as part of a "systematic attack on the Catholic Church". Furthermore, the Archbishop of Lima, the Cardinal and member of Opus Dei Juan Luis Cipriani, urged his community not to see the film: "If someone goes (to see the movie), they are giving money to those who hurt the faith. It's not a problem of fiction; if truth is not respected, what arises we could call white glove terrorism."
NOAH
The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) expressed concern about Silas' character giving people with albinism a bad name. However, the filmmakers did not change his appearance.
Censorship
Africa
The film was banned by many Christian and Islamic African countries.
Syria
The film was banned in Syria.
China
Although The Da Vinci Code was passed by Chinese censors, it was abruptly removed by authorities from public view in mainland China, after "a remarkable run in China, grossing over $13 million", due to protests by Chinese Catholic groups.
Egypt
Both the book and the film were banned in Egypt due to pressure from Coptic Christians. Some Muslims compared the film to the Danish cartoons that had caused a controversy earlier that year. Hafez Abu Saeda, of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights stated that "This violates freedom of thought and belief ... This is fiction. It's art and it should be regarded as art."
Belarus
The film was banned in Belarus.
Faroe Islands
The biggest cinema in the Faroe Islands, Havnar Bio, decided to boycott the film, effectively blocking it from the other smaller cinemas, who rely on second-hand films from this source, because it seems to be blasphemous in their point of view. Its CEO, Jákup Eli Jacobsen, says that "he fears losing the operating license if it exhibits blasphemy in the cinema".
A private initiative by the individual Herluf Sørensen has arranged the movie to be played, despite the boycott by Havnar Bio. The movie played at the Nordic House in the Faroe Islands on June 8-9, 2006.
India
There was a huge outcry in many states by the Christian and the Muslim minorities to ban the film from screening in India for the perceived anti-Christian message. Possibly the largest reaction occurred in Kolkata where a group of around 25 protesters "stormed" Crossword bookstore, pulled copies of the book off the racks and threw them to the ground. At the same day, a group of 50-60 protesters successfully made the Oxford Bookstore on Park Street decide to stop selling the book "until the controversy sparked by the film's release was resolved".
The film was allowed to be released without any cuts but with an A (Adults Only) certification from the Central Board for Film Certification and a 15-second disclaimer added at the end stating that the movie was purely a work of fiction. The Supreme Court of India also rejected petitions calling for a ban on the film, saying the plot which suggested Jesus was married was fictional and not offensive.
The film has been totally banned in some states such as Punjab, Lakshadweep, Goa, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh High Court subsequently reversed the State Government's order banning the screening of the film in the state; the State Government had previously banned the film based on the objections lodged by Christians and Muslims.
Jordan
The film was banned in Jordan where authorities said the film "tarnishes the memory of Christian and Islamic figures and contradicts the truth as written in the Bible and the Koran about Jesus".
Lebanon
The film was banned in Lebanon.
Iran
The film was banned in Iran due to protests by Muslim and Christian minorities.
Pakistan
Pakistan banned The Da Vinci Code for showing what officials called blasphemous material about Jesus. Christian groups, along with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal held protests against the film calling for a global ban.
Philippines
The Philippine Alliance Against Pornography (PAAP) appealed to then Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to stop the showing of The Da Vinci Code in the Philippines. They branded the film as "the most pornographic and blasphemous film in history" and also requested the help of Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and other religious groups to stop the showing of the film.
However, Cecille Guidote Alvarez, Philippine Presidential Adviser on Culture and the Arts, said the Philippine government would not interfere in the controversy about the film and leaves the decision to the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board's (MTRCB) rating. Eventually, MTRCB decided to give The Da Vinci Code an R-18 rating (restricted to those 18 years of age and above) despite PAAP's opposition for showing it.
Samoa
The film was banned outright in the Independent State of Samoa after church leaders watching a pre-release showing filed a complaint with film censors.
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said he would seek to have the film banned in his country, as it might threaten the Solomons' predominantly Christian faith:
We profess Christian religion in the country, and that film that depicts some thoughts about this person called Jesus Christ that Christians adore as not only as a good man, but was himself God, and such a film basically undermines the very roots of Christianity in Solomon Islands.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is also one of the countries that banned the film from being released. It was banned by presidential order of Mahinda Rajapakse. Public Performances Board to ban the screening of the movie 'The Da Vinci Code' in local cinemas and on local television channels. Apparently the Catholic Bishops Conference made the appeal through an epistle. "The decision to ban the film was taken on an appeal by the Catholic Bishops Conference in Sri Lanka."
Thailand
Christian groups in this mostly Buddhist country protested the film and called for it to be banned. On May 16, 2006, the Thai Censorship Committee issued a ruling that the film would be shown, but that the last 10 minutes would be cut. Also, some Thai subtitles were to be edited to change their meaning and passages from the Bible would also be quoted at the beginning and end of the film.
However, the following day, Sony Pictures appealed the ruling, saying it would pull the film if the decision to cut it was not reversed. The censorship panel then voted 6-5 that the film could be shown uncut, but that a disclaimer would precede and follow the film, saying it was a work of fiction.
Cast and crew response
Hanks told the Evening Standard that those involved with the film "always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown. But the story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense." He said it is a mistake "to take any sort of movie at face value, particularly a huge-budget motion picture like this." He also stated at the Cannes Film Festival that he and his wife saw no contradiction between their faith and the film, as "My heritage, and that of my wife, suggests that our sins have been taken away, not our brains."
Also at Cannes, McKellen was quoted as saying "While I was reading the book I believed it entirely. Clever Dan Brown twisted my mind convincingly. But when I put it down I thought, 'What a load of [pause] potential codswallop." During a May 17, 2006 interview on The Today Show with the Da Vinci Code cast and director, Matt Lauer posed a question to the group about how they would have felt if the film had borne a prominent disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, as some religious groups wanted. (Some high-ranking Vatican cabinet members had called for a boycott of the film.) McKellen responded, "I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying 'This is fiction.' I mean, walking on water? It takes... an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie--not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story." He continued, "And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing when they've seen it."
Marketing campaign
The film's teaser trailer was released in the summer of 2005, a full year before the film's worldwide release and prior to shooting even a single frame of the movie. It features crevices with some hidden symbols and was later revealed as an image of Da Vinci's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. (In reality, the painting plays a very small part in the film and is shown only for a few seconds.)
The court case brought against Dan Brown by Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent, the authors of the non-fiction book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, has added to the film's publicity.
A cross-promotion appeared on The Amazing Race 9, where one team earned a trip to the movie's premiere in Hollywood, California. The prize was awarded to the first team to arrive at the Pit Stop bearing two parchments and demonstrating that, when combined, they revealed a picture of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and a coded message.
Promotional puzzles
As part of the promotional lead up to the film, various encrypted clues were placed in trailers and interviews. In mid-April, two such clues appeared in the Da Vinci Code interviews on Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, as highlighted letters in the names of interviewees.
In February, Sony, in cooperation with Grace Hill Media, launched The Da Vinci Dialogue (aka The Da Vinci Challenge), a fairly comprehensive web site which is intended to defuse Christian opposition to the film. The site mixes some mild criticisms with movie promotional material.
Reactions to the film
Cannes Film Festival
According to the Associated Press, during a preview for movie critics in Cannes, a line spoken by Tom Hanks "drew prolonged laughter and some catcalls". Nearing the end of the screening, "there were a few whistles and hisses, and there was none of the scattered applause even bad movies sometimes receive at Cannes."
Protests
There have been protesters at several movie theaters across the United States on opening weekend protesting the themes of the film, citing it as blasphemy and claiming that it shames both the Catholic Church, and Jesus Christ himself. More than 200 protesters also turned out in Athens, Greece to protest the film's release shortly before opening day. In Manila, the film was banned from all theaters and the set by the local MTRCB as an R18 movie for the Philippines. In Pittsburgh, protesters also showed up at a special screening of the film the day before its widespread release. Protests also occurred at the filming sites, but only a monk and a nun stood in a quiet protest at the Cannes premiere. In Chennai, India, the film was banned for a two-month period to appease local Christian and Muslim groups.
Critical reception
The Da Vinci Code received a 25% "rotten" rating on the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on a sample of 220 reviews and an average rating of 4.8/10. The critics consensus states: "What makes Dan Brown's novel a best seller is evidently not present in this dull and bloated movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code." The film was poorly received at the Cannes Film Festival, where it debuted.
Michael Medved gave the film a negative review, citing it as "an attack on religion". Anthony Lane of The New Yorker addressed the concerns of Catholics in his film review, stating that the film "is self-evident, spirit-lowering tripe that could not conceivably cause a single member of the flock to turn aside from the faith." In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin called the film "a letdown in every respect." Director Howard noted that the overwhelmingly negative reviews were "frustrating" to him.
Conversely, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (who had spoken very negatively of the novel) gave the film three out of four stars, stating "The movie works; it's involving, intriguing and constantly seems on the edge of startling revelations." Of the storyline, he also commented "Yes, the plot is absurd, but then most movie plots are absurd. That's what we pay to see." Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer, who also liked the film, gave it three and a half out of four stars and noted "unlike most Hollywood blockbusters, this one assumes audience members will be smart."
Although many critics gave mixed to negative reviews of the film, critics praised the performances of McKellen as well as Bettany.
On the "Worst Movies of 2006" episode of the television show Ebert & Roeper (January 13, 2007), guest critic Michael Phillips (sitting in for the recovering Roger Ebert) listed the film at No. 2. The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Ron Howard as Worst Director, but lost to M. Night Shyamalan for Lady in the Water.
Box office response
Opening weekend
The film opened with an estimated $31 million in box office sales on its opening day, averaging $7,764 per screen. During its opening weekend, moviegoers spent an estimated $77 million in America, and $224 million worldwide. The Da Vinci Code is the best domestic opening for both Tom Hanks and Ron Howard.
It also enjoyed the third biggest opening weekend for that year (after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and X-Men: The Last Stand, and the second biggest worldwide opening weekend ever, just behind 2005's Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.) This has led some critics, particularly in the UK, to moot the idea of the 'critic-proof film'.
Ranking and gross
- Number 1 film at the USA box office during its first week grossing more than $111 million. Fifth-highest gross of 2006 in the USA, and grossed $758 million worldwide in 2006--the second-highest of 2006. Its worldwide total made it the 51st-highest-grossing film, and the highest-grossing film in the franchise.
- On June 20, 2006, it became only the second film of the year to pass the $200 million mark in the USA.
Accolades
Home media
The film was released on DVD and VHS on November 14, 2006 in three editions:
- A Target-exclusive three-disc release in both widescreen and fullscreen, along with a History Channel documentary.
- A two-disc release in both widescreen and fullscreen.
- A "special edition gift set" that includes a two-disc DVD set, working cryptex, and replica Robert Langdon journal.
All DVD sets include an introduction from director Howard, ten featurettes, and other bonus features.
In Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Latin America (DVD region code 4), the two-disc set also included an extended edition of the film, including over twenty-five minutes of extra footage, bringing the running time to 174 minutes.
In Hong Kong and Korea (Region 3), the extended cut was also released on DVD in a two-disc set. Two gift sets were also released, with working cryptex replica, replica journal, and more. The French and Spanish Region 2 disc also received a special gift set.
On April 28, 2009, a two-disc Blu-ray edition of the extended version of the film was released in North America. While there is no regular DVD release of the extended version in the United States or a Region 2 release in the United Kingdom, a version of the extended cut was released in Germany.
The Da Vinci Code was also released on UMD for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) on the November 14, 2006.
Sequels
Angels & Demons
Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, with the help of Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, adapted Angels & Demons (a Dan Brown novel published before The Da Vinci Code) into a film script, which was also directed by Howard. Chronologically, the book takes place before The Da Vinci Code. However, the filmmakers re-tooled it as a sequel. Hanks reprises his role as Langdon in the film, which was released in May 2009 to moderate (but generally better) reviews.
Inferno
Sony Pictures produced a film adaptation of Inferno, the fourth book in the Robert Langdon series, which was released in October 2016 with Ron Howard as director, David Koepp adapting the screenplay and Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon. Filming began on April 27, 2015, in Venice, Italy, and wrapped up on July 21, 2015. On December 2, 2014, Felicity Jones was in early talks to star in the film. Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan was cast as The Provost. Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen was added to the cast as Elizabeth Sinskey.
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