Film

Inferno

Name: Inferno
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Released: 2016
Cast: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan, Sidse Babett Knudsen

Other titles called Inferno: the 1980 film, the 1999 film.

Langdon wakes in Florence with no memory, racing through Renaissance art and architecture to stop a plague. It's a globe-trotting puzzle-box thriller that trades on Dan Brown's intellectual brand—rapid-fire reveals, historical exposition, and the thrill of decoding. For viewers who loved the earlier films or enjoy smart-paced mysteries with real-world stakes.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a brisk European travelogue built on riddles, art history and ticking clocks, and you can forgive a plot that runs on coincidence as long as it keeps moving.

Skip it if the puzzles and the ticking-clock urgency often feel mechanical rather than gripping, so restless viewers may find its stop-start rhythm tiring.

What it asks of you: Around two hours at a constant clip, with a good deal of explanation between chases, so it rewards close attention to who is where and why.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Da Vinci Code2006

The original Langdon adaptation that sets the template: Brown's code-cracking hero, Tom Hanks's scholarly charm, globe-spanning locations, and the pleasure of watching puzzles click into place in real time.

But The dialogue is functional rather than natural, and the pacing prioritizes exposition over character development.

National Treasure2004

Nicolas Cage as a treasure hunter solving historical riddles across America. Same DNA as Inferno: puzzles, famous locations, conspiracies unraveling, and the genuine joy of following breadcrumbs to a secret.

But It's knowingly cartoonish, with broad humour and action-adventure stakes rather than genuine threat.

Angels & Demons2009

Langdon returns in another Brown adaptation with the same winning formula—art, history, ticking clock, conspiracy. If you liked Inferno's architecture and puzzle-solving, this Vatican-set thriller hits many of the same notes.

But It recycles beats from The Da Vinci Code so closely that it can feel like a retread.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Inferno

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Only God Forgives2013

Both are mysteries unfolding across iconic geography, but where Inferno clarifies everything, this one deepens the shadow. Same engine; opposite fuel.

Ryan Gosling in Bangkok pursuing a mystery through neon-soaked streets, temples, and criminal underworld. Same structure as Inferno—a man trying to solve the unsolvable across a vivid foreign city—but told as a fever dream rather than a puzzle-box thriller.

But Nicolas Winding Refn's style is hypnotic and deliberately slow; if you want revelation and momentum, this will feel opaque and punishing.

The Bourne Identity2002

Jason Bourne waking with amnesia, hunted across Europe, piecing together his identity. Same propulsive mystery structure as Inferno, but with visceral action and genuine menace replacing intellectual puzzles.

But It's grittier and more violent, with a spy-thriller tone rather than an intellectual mystery register.

Midnight in Paris2011

Like Inferno, this is a love letter to European cities and history, using art and literature as a living landscape. Owen Wilson's writer stumbles through Paris discovering magical secrets—same rapture in location and aesthetic.

But It's a romantic fantasy rather than a thriller, so the stakes and energy shift entirely toward whimsy.

The Monuments Men2014

An ensemble heist across wartime Europe hunting Nazi-stolen art. It shares Inferno's reverence for historical artifacts and European landscapes as characters in themselves.

But The tone wavers between heist-film levity and WWII gravity, never quite settling, which undermines both registers.

The Italian Job2003

A heist thriller bouncing across European locations with style and wit. The pleasure here is geography as puzzle—how do you move through a city and solve it? Same kinetic geography as Inferno.

But It's comic-heist fun rather than intellectual mystery, so the satisfaction is lighter and more surface-level.

A Good Year2006

Russell Crowe in Provence uncovering family secrets amid wine and landscape. Slow-burn European mystery with the same love of location and architecture that drives Inferno's atmosphere.

But It's meditative and romantic where Inferno is urgent, so the pacing will feel leisurely by comparison.

Sherlock2010

Both treat the solving of a mystery as visual spectacle—locations and architecture become part of how the answer unfolds.

Benedict Cumberbatch solving an impossible murder across Victorian London with visual flair and intellectual showmanship. A puzzle-mystery about a locked-room crime told with the same pleasure in deduction and misdirection that drives Inferno.

But It's a 90-minute television special that assumes you know the characters and the show's tone; it's not beginner-friendly.