A glossy, fast-moving conspiracy thriller with strong star power and irresistible puzzle-box momentum, but also a lot of clunky exposition and pulpy seriousness. It works best as a big, silly, museum-hopping mystery rather than a serious intellectual thriller.
19% ★☆☆☆☆ (943,309)
The Da Vinci Code
Where to watch: fuboTV
Movie · Thriller · Mystery · PG-13
2006 · 2h 29m · ★ 19% (943.3K)
Seek the truth.
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen
Overview
A murder in Paris’ Louvre Museum and cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery. For 2,000 years a secret society closely guards information that — should it come to light — could rock the very foundations of Christianity.
Director
Ron Howard
Production
Imagine Entertainment, Skylark Productions
Cast
Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Etienne Chicot, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Marie-Françoise Audollent, Rita Davies, Francesco Carnelutti, Seth Gabel, Shane Zaza, Andy Clark, Fausto Maria Sciarappa, Joe Grossi, Denis Podalydès, Harry Taylor
Where to watch
fuboTV, TNT, TBS, tru TV
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, fast-moving conspiracy thriller with strong star power and irresistible puzzle-box momentum, but also a lot of clunky exposition and pulpy seriousness. It works best as a big, silly, museum-hopping mystery rather than a serious intellectual thriller.
Best for
viewers who enjoy historical conspiracies and secret-society intrigue
fans of clue-chasing mysteries with famous landmarks and art history
people who like prestige actors playing it straight in pulpy material
audiences in the mood for a long, overstuffed, high-concept thriller
Skip if
you want tight plotting and elegant dialogue
you’re allergic to exposition-heavy mystery storytelling
you prefer subtle, character-driven thrillers over grand conspiracy setups
you need your religious or historical fiction to feel grounded and restrained
Overview
The Da Vinci Code is a very specific kind of blockbuster: half museum tour, half paranoid treasure hunt, all delivered with complete seriousness. That straight-faced approach is part of the appeal. The film invites you to lean into symbols, codes, paintings, cathedrals, and secret histories, even when the logic gets increasingly ridiculous.
Worth noting
Ron Howard keeps it moving, and the production has a polished, international sheen that makes every clue feel like it matters. Tom Hanks plays Robert Langdon as an academic action hero, which is funny on paper and oddly effective in practice. The movie’s biggest weakness is also its defining trait: it explains everything, constantly, and often in a way that drains tension rather than building it.
Bottom line
If you want a smart thriller, this may feel overcooked and obvious. If you want a lavish, conspiratorial page-turner with real momentum and a strong sense of occasion, it delivers exactly that. It’s not subtle, but it is committed, and that commitment gives it a strange, durable entertainment value.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Claire Richards · 4514 likes
me: hey rob what's up robert langdon: rob has three letters. three points make up a triangle. there is a triangle on the floor of the sistine chapel. michelangelo painted a symbol in the northwest corner. the retainer you lost in the 4th grade is behind your bookshelf. me: wtf
liam f (3★) · 3237 likes
was about to say "maybe the real Holy Grail was the friend he made along the way" as a joke but that's literally just a plot summary
bilbo™ (5★) · 3196 likes
i fucking love historical conspiracy theories ugh i'm such a hoe for this movie i even cried at the end
lauraclayson (2.5★) · 2096 likes
Davinky code
Josh Lewis (1★) · 1891 likes
National Treasure for people that think they're cultured, a 2h30m exposition dump masquerading as scholarly literature, hundreds of years of art and history broadly packaged into aggressively artless and subtext-free conspiratorial tedium. No bigger indication of exactly what this is than how Hanks' Langdon is a harvard professor of "symbology"—and opens the film by explaining to a bunch of normies that this is, of course, the study of signs and symbols and their meaning or interpretation throughout history—despite the fact
2007 · Crime, Mystery, Thriller · 2h 37m · R · ★ 84% (2.4M) · Where to watch: Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential
For viewers who enjoy methodical clue work, obsession, and the slow accumulation of meaning.
Themes
historical conspiracy, religious mystery, secret societies, symbol decoding, art history, cat-and-mouse thriller, institutional secrecy, faith versus evidence
Topics
conspiracy thriller, mystery adventure, religious intrigue, art history, secret society, puzzle box, museum setting, 2000s blockbuster, international chase