History Literature / Inferno2013

* DepravedHomosexual: Zobrist firmly is the villain and BigBad in this story, and the first and only romantic and sexual relationship he has with another character is with [[spoiler:another man, namely Ferris/FS-2080]], making Zobrist gay. Since there aren't any good gay characters, this implies "homosexuality equals villainy". BUT, this is firmly subverted/averted at the end [[spoiler:when we find out it was only GenderNeutralWriting that represented Zobrist's lover as the male Ferris to the reader; [[WhamLine FS-2080 actually was Sienna]]! So Zobrist wasn't gay after all]].

*** Arguably averted for Sinskey since in the book she's ok with what is essentially eco-fascism and agrees with Zobrist's plans in the end while in the movie she does her utmost to stop his plan.

!!Tropes found in the novel:

* ActionizedSequel: The movie features much more action than ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'' and ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons''.
* AdaptationalBadass: In the books, the Provost is a NonActionGuy that [[spoiler: ''attempts'' but fails to perform a VillainExitStageLeft and gets arrested.]] In the movie, he is a deadly assassin that [[spoiler: dies in the heat of combat.]]
* AdaptationalVillainy:
** Except for Langdon and Sinskey, every character from the book is made significantly more villainous in the film, especially [[spoiler: Sienna, who willingly sacrifices herself to execute Zobrist's scheme rather than finding it monstrous like in the books]].
** Zobrist's plague, rather than being [[spoiler: a SterilityPlague, is strongly implied to actually be a deadly pathogen. Unlike in the book, however, Langdon and the WHO successfully prevent it spreading.]]
** [[GreaterScopeVillain The Consortium]], while still ''specializing'' in [[spoiler: grand-scale deception, is actually not afraid to really eliminate perceived liabilities.]]

* AmnesiacHero: Langdon wakes up in a hospital with a LaserGuidedAmnesia about the last couple of days. [[spoiler:Much later, it is revealed that the trope was specifically {{Invoked|trope}} on him by the provost's men, who drugged him with a substance that wipes a person's short-term memory clean in order to try to gain his trust with an elaborate ruse.]]
* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:Sienna may be the BigBad of the story, but she is clearly against Zobrist's scheme and wants to find his research so that she could destroy it]]. [[AdaptationalVillainy This is averted in the film adaptation]].
** Subverted by the fact that [[spoiler: she only wanted to destroy it because she worries about what else could be done with it. She's still more than happy to perform forced sterilization on the third of the population without their consent and murder innocent people in order to achieve her deluded schemes.]]
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The movie is set in a world in which the WHO is a combination of the FBI, Interpol, CIA and some private research lab. In reality the WHO is a bureaucratic mess with a laughable budget and little to no influence. [[note]]The Real-Life WHO Director wrote a review of the book that boiled down to "I wish I had half the resources that Dan Brown thinks I do."[[/note]]

* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Sienna is actually one of the people behind the whole Inferno scheme.]]
* BigGood: Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey, chief of the WHO and the woman who appears to Langdon in visions, pleading for his help.

* ChildProdigy: Both Sienna and Zobrist were this back in the day.
* CompositeCharacter: In the film, Agent Christoph Bouchard is a composite of Jonathan Ferris and Christoph Bruder. [[spoiler:Unlike his book counterparts, Bouchard does not live.]]
* DeathByAdaptation: The film has a much higher body count than the book, with [[spoiler:Bruder, the Provost, and Sienna herself]] all dead by the film's end.
* DepopulationBomb: The Inferno virus.

* DragonTheirFeet: In the movie, [[spoiler: Langdon still has to fight off Sienna's remaining henchman after Sienna detonates the weapon, taking her own life in the process.]]
* DropDeadGorgeous: Averted. [[spoiler:Vayentha's face is shown to have been smashed after her fall, and Sienna is brought out in a body bag -- as she activated a bomb at close range, presumably her body was pulped by the explosion.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Consortium is introduced as a sinistrous and unscrupulous organization providing support to Zobrist, [[spoiler:but they decide to collaborate with Langdon and the WHO once they discovered they unwittingly helped the creation of a plague.]]
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Zobrist, who believed humankind cannot evolve without most of its population dead.
* [[invoked]] FakeAmerican: In the film, [[spoiler:the US consulate man turns out to be a Brit working for the Consortium faking an American accent]].
* GenderConcealingWriting:
** [[spoiler:When Agent Brüder reports to "his superior", you assume it's the provost, who is also on the phone around the same time--but it's actually Elizabeth Sinskey, which you are not supposed to learn until much later in the story.]]
** [[spoiler:When "FS-2080", whom you probably identified as Jonathan Ferris, describes "his" first encounter with Zobrist (which results in a supposedly homosexual relationship), it's actually Sienna's memories you are reading.]]
* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Agent Brüder and his team]].

* GreenAesop: Done [[{{Anvilicious}} very blatantly]]. "Overpopulation leads to human extinction" is repeated many times.
* IncrediblyObviousBomb: The viral containment box in the film takes on the appearance of this trope, with a red bar countdown showing when it's likely to have a containment breach.
* InformedAttractiveness: We are repeatedly told in the book that Dr. Sinskey, [[SilverVixen who's over 60]], is very beautiful.

* LinkedListClueMethodology: For once in a Dan Brown novel, this is fully justified: [[spoiler:Zobrist never intended to give Sinskey, his perceived ArchNemesis, any chance of stopping his plan by solving his riddles in time--he only wanted to have a last laugh at her attempt, even if he doesn't get to see it. Therefore, he arranged his riddle to be delivered to her by the time the Inferno has long been released into the wild.]]
* MadeOfIron: A gunshot wound to the head never bothers Langdon (well, except the amnesia part), even after the anesthetics wear off. [[spoiler:Turns into FridgeBrilliance when it's revealed that he was never shot in the first place and that his wound was actually just a shallow cut inflicted for verisimilitude.]]
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: The Provost suggests they wrap matters up by making it look like Langdon was killed in a mugging. [[spoiler:Later Langdon has a front-row seat on the Provost arranging a similar scenario with Agent Bouchard's body.]]

* ThePlague: The eponymous Inferno, with parallels constantly being drawn between it and TheBlackDeath. [[spoiler:Or so it appears.]]
* PlagueDoctor: The origins of the plague doctor are discussed, and Zobrist wears the iconic mask in his video message and in the alteration he makes to the ''Map of Hell''.
* PosthumousCharacter: Bertrand Zobrist.

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: When Langdon introduces Sienna as his "niece", Marta just smirks and says they're in Italy, [[NotWhatItLooksLike so they don't have to bother with such fictions]]. The two confusedly mumble this trope.
* SilverVixen: Dr. Sinskey is in her sixties and is described repeatedly as very beautiful with her long, overflowing white hair.
* StartsWithASuicide: The prologue concerns the last moments of the Shade's life (actually, [[spoiler:Bertrand Zobrist's]]).
* SterilityPlague: [[spoiler:What the eponymous Inferno actually is: a virus that randomly renders a third of the world's human population infertile.]]
* SuicideAttack: In the film [[spoiler:Sienna tries to activate the bomb that will burst the bag of viral agent with her cellphone, but can't get reception. So she dives into the water and sets it off manually.]]
* TheSyndicate: The provost's Consortium. [[spoiler:It's not so bad, however, since it basically concerns ''deception'' on a grand scale, rather than outright assassinations and other obviously criminal activities.]]
* TitleDrop: The references to Dante's ''Inferno'' are dropped constantly throughout the novel, both literally and metaphorically, but it actually refers to ThePlague about to be unleashed on humanity.
* VanInBlack: In the film the SRS team has this, which initially gives them a villainous appearance, causing Langdon to flee.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Shade, a.k.a. [[spoiler:Bertrand Zobrist]]. Even his lover and closest confidante agrees that his methods are monstrous.
* WeNeedADistraction: Langdon fakes a collapse and Sienna asks Bouchard to get some water, so they can slip away.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Before his injury, Langdon had a partner in deciphering the puzzle - one Ignazio Busoni - who sends Langdon a cryptic email, but never appears on-screen, and is effectively forgotten. In the book, it's discovered that he died of a "[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident heart attack]]" just after sending the email.

* NoNameGiven: The provost is just... the provost for the entire novel.

%%* DepravedHomosexual: Subverted. [[spoiler:They make Zobrist look like one briefly.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Even though [[spoiler: she helps perform forced genetic alternations on a third of the human population Brooks gets off with no punishment and in fact gets a new job with the WHO to help the crisis she herself created.]]

* MadeOfIron: A gunshot wound to the head stops bothering Langdon (well, except the amnesia part) by the time the anesthetics wear off. [[spoiler:Turns into FridgeBrilliance when it's revealed that he was never shot in the first place and that his wound was actually just a shallow cut inflicted for verisimilitude.]]

* DepravedHomosexual: Subverted. [[spoiler:They make Zobrist look like one briefly. See GenderMisdirection below.]]

* GenderMisdirection: At least twice:

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The movie is set in a world in which the WHO is a combination of the FBI, Interpol, CIA and some private research lab. In reality the WHO is a bureaucratic mess with a laughable budget and little to no influence.

Langdon wakes up in a UsefulNotes/{{Floren|ce}}tine hospital with a gunshot wound in the back of his head and a [[AmnesiacHero complete blackout about the last couple of days]], including such important details as who shot him and how he ended up in Italy without any documents in the first place. Before long, [[TheSyndicate the sinister Consortium]]'s hitwoman catches up with the wounded professor, who barely escapes with some help from [[HotScientist Sienna Brooks]], a visiting ER doctor from Britain. Together, they have to uncover the truth about why Langdon is being hunted and what the whole thing has to do with Creator/DanteAlighieri and a prominent biologist who committed suicide a few days earlier in Florence.

* HotScientist: Dr. Sienna Brooks and Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey.

A film of the book, directed by Creator/RonHoward and with Creator/TomHanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon, was released on October 28, 2016. The cast includes Creator/FelicityJones as Sienna Brooks, Creator/IrrfanKhan as Harry "The Provost" Sims, Sidse Babett Knudsen as Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey, Creator/OmarSy as Christophe Bouchard and Creator/BenFoster as Bertrand Zobrist.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Zobrist succeeds in his plan to make one-third of the world's population infertile. Strangely enough, the main characters seem to take the stance that this is not such a bad thing. Granted, they were mentally preparing for a second Black Plague killing billions all around the world, so at least their relief at that moment is understandable. And considering that the alternative to the villain's success was humanity's extinction in about a hundred years, it was not that much of a downer ending, after all. This is averted in in the movie where they do succeed in stopping the plague from unleashing.]]

* BaldWomen: Sienna is actually wearing a wig because a medical condition cost her most of her natural hair. Helps her and Langdon escape their pursuers later, when she gives him her wig so they look like a young punk girl and an aging [[MetalHead rocker]].