Inferno (2016)

Movie · 2016 · Mystery, Thriller, Action · 2h 2m · PG-13 · English

Curator score: 1.0/10 (374.1K ratings)

His greatest challenge. Humanity's last hope.

Overview

After waking up in a hospital with amnesia, professor Robert Langdon and a doctor must race against time to foil a deadly global plot.

Ratings

Director

Ron Howard

Production

Columbia Pictures, Imagine Entertainment

Cast

Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Ben Foster, Ana Ularu, Ida Darvish, Paolo Antonio Simioni, Alessandro Grimaldi, Fausto Maria Sciarappa, Robin Mugnaini, Paul Ritter, Vincenzo Tanassi, Alessandro Fabrizi, Simone Mariani, Gábor Urmai, Jon Donahue, Fortunato Cerlino, Attila Árpa

Curator Review

Verdict

A brisk, globe-trotting thriller with handsome locations and enough momentum to stay watchable, but it’s weighed down by over-explanation, strained twists, and a very straight-faced tone that undercuts the fun. It works best as a glossy travelogue mystery rather than a truly satisfying puzzle-box thriller.

Best for

  • Viewers who like fast-moving conspiracy plots and international settings
  • Fans of museum-and-history-adjacent adventure mysteries
  • People in the mood for a polished, low-stakes blockbuster watch
  • Audiences who enjoy absurd twists more than airtight logic

Skip if

  • You want a clever mystery with strong payoff
  • You’re sensitive to exposition-heavy dialogue
  • You prefer thrillers with a lighter or more playful tone
  • You need memorable characters over plot machinery

Overview

Inferno is the kind of studio thriller that keeps moving even when the logic starts to wobble. It has the ingredients for an easy crowd-pleaser: a famous lead, European landmarks, coded clues, and a race against time. The result is watchable in a glossy, impersonal way, with enough visual polish and location work to make it feel bigger than its ideas.

Worth noting

The problem is that the movie takes itself very seriously while asking the audience to swallow increasingly silly turns. The mystery is overstuffed, the exposition is relentless, and the emotional beats never quite land. That mismatch can make the film feel both frantic and oddly flat at the same time.

Bottom line

Still, there’s a certain appeal in its museum-tour energy and its commitment to forward motion. If you’re here for a sleek, international chase with historical flavor, it delivers just enough. If you’re hoping for a smart thriller with real suspense, it’s more likely to frustrate than satisfy.

Top Letterboxd reviews

Ty Landis · 985 likes

Felicity Jones: can i get you anything?Hanks (with amnesia): uh, yes... it's hot... you drink it in the morning... not tea...Felicity Jones: coffee?Hanks: yes, COFFEE!! best film of 2016

Nathan (2.5★) · 559 likes

Infinity War but if Thanos was into Dante.

single white femalien · 463 likes

In the future i am not going to see a movie just because Tom Hanks says Dante a lot in the trailer

Tom dePerto (1★) · 392 likes

This was the 500th film I watched in theaters. It was also so inherently fucking stupid that, at a point (when the plot twist is revealed), I facepalmed so hard that the old lady sitting next to me stared for like 15 seconds. I couldn't tell if she was thinking "What is this young man doing, does he not understand the brilliance of such film?" or "I wish I could do that right now too without going to the ER",… more This was the 500th film I watched in theaters. It was also so inherently fucking stupid that, at a point (when the plot twist is revealed), I facepalmed so hard that the old lady sitting next to me stared for like 15 seconds. I couldn't tell if she was thinking "What is this young man doing, does he not understand the brilliance of such film?" or "I wish I could do that right now too without going to the ER",… more

Jared Gilman · 317 likes

I’ve watched this film

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Topics

thriller, mystery, action, conspiracy, amnesia, European locations, historical clues, cat-and-mouse, blockbuster, exposition-heavy

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