FAQ for
The Da Vinci Code (2006) More at IMDbPro »

he following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Da Vinci Code can be found here.

Yes. The Da Vinci Code is based on a 2003 novel of the same name by American author Dan Brown. The novel was adapted for the movie by American screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.

No. Certainly, there is a fair share of mystery surrounding the actual historical events and people, and countless myths exist on the matter, but this movie/book should absolutely be taken as a work of fiction. The author simply took certain myths and pieced them together into a story formed out of his imagination.

The Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519] and his works figure prominently in various places throughout the movie. For starters, the movie opens with a reference to a drawing by da Vinci known as the "Vitruvian Man." It figures in the plot of the movie because that's how the body of curator Jacques Saunière (Jean-Pierre Marielle) was posed, accompanied by Fibonacci numbers (out of order), an encrypted message, and a pentacle drawn on his stomach in his own blood, when it was found in the Great Gallery of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Several of da Vinci's paintings -- The Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks, and The Last Supper -- also have prominent roles in the movie. Later in the movie, it is learned that Leonardo da Vinci himself was a member of the Priory of Sion, a secret society sworn to protect the Holy Grail. Da Vinci's drawing of the "Vitruvian Man" can be found in Book III of the treatise De Architectura by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius (hence the title of the drawing) or here. See also The Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks, and The Last Supper.

Fibonacci numbers is a particular sequence of numbers that goes 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34, etc., in which each new number is the sum of the two numbers before it. The sequence has many applications to mathematicians but is probably most commonly known for its occurrence in nature, e.g., the arrangement of petals on a flower, the branching of trees, and the scales of a pine cone. For more information about Fibonacci numbers in nature, see here.

It read O Draconian devil Oh lame saint, which meant nothing to Saunière's cryptologist granddaughter Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) nor to Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a symbologist at Harvard University, who was called in to see if he could make sense out of the strange murder. Not until they put their heads together, did they figure out that the message was an anagram. When they rearranged the letters, they came up with Leonard da Vinci the Mona Lisa, which just happened to be on display in the gallery. Searching near The Mona Lisa, they were surprised to see another encrypted message that read so dark the con of man. Again re-arranging the letters, they came up with Madonna of the Rocks, another of da Vinci's paintings that just happened to be on display. Searching around the Madonna of the Rocks, they found a key with a fleur de lis head.

The Fibonacci sequence, 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21, was the password needed for the fleur-de-lis key to open a safety deposit box in a Zurich bank. In the box, they found a smaller, wooden box with a rose on it. Langdon pointed out that the rose is a symbol of the Holy Grail, which Sophie describes as "a magic cup; the source of God's power on earth." When she opens the box, however, she finds a small cylinder with more cryptics on it and, by Sophie's count, over 12 million possible combinations that could open it. Inside the cylinder, Sophie figures that there is a roll of papyrus bearing a secret and a vial of vinegar that, if an attempt is made to open the cylinder without knowing the combination, will break, destroy the papyrus, and the secret will be lost forever. Later in the movie, it is revealed that the cylinder contains the keystone, which contains a map that leads to the Holy Grail.

Saunière's killer is revealed in the opening scenes of the movie. It is the albino monk Silas (Paul Bettany). He kills Saunière, as well as three others, because they were the four members of the Priory of Sion, and only they knew where the keystone was hidden. Each of the four confessed to Silas that the keystone was buried under the Rose Line in the Church of Saint-Sulpice.

Sister Sandrine (Marie-Françoise Audollent), the nun at the Church of Saint-Sulpice, describes the rose line as a line that goes from the North to South Poles and marks the world's first prime meridian (before it was changed to Greenwich, England). That meridian supposedly passes through the Church. In actuality, there is a Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, but the Rose Line passes by the church over 100 meters to the east. It was under this rose line in the church that Silas believed the keystone to the Holy Grail was buried. When he tried to dig it up and discovered that he'd been tricked, he was so enraged that he killed Sister Sandrine.

Who wouldn't want the Holy Grail? People have been searching for it for the past 2,000 years. Actually, Silas didn't want it for himself but for a person that he calls "the Teacher." Or just to destroy it; given the fact that the church had tried to deny its existence for the past 2,000 years, it would even be better for its leaders if the Grail did not exist at all anymore.

The painting used in the film is an exact copy of da Vinci's painting. Robert Langdon's old friend and scholar of the Holy Grail, Leah Teabing (Ian McKellen), maintains that the figure to Jesus' right is Mary Magdalen. Furthermore, he believes that she was Jesus' wife as well as his disciple and that she was pregnant with his child. Finally, he believes that an organization called "the Priory of Sion" has been charged by the Catholic Church with the responsibility of keeping it a secret that Mary Magdalen bore Jesus' child and that the bloodline is still alive. This is all pure speculation.

No, although "the Priory of Sion" does have a real history and an interesting one at that. In 1956, Pierre Plantard and three of his friends filed documents in the town of Annemasse in eastern France to create an organization that they called "the Priory of Sion." Thereafter followed a number of documents, parchments, dossiers, and books purporting that the Priory of Sion was actually created in 1099 by a real Roman Catholic religious order and established Plantard as a descendent of the Merovingian king Dagobert II [d.7th century]. Some of these even made it into the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, located in Paris, until scholars were able to determine that these supposedly ancient documents were printed on 40-year old paper. In 1986, Plantard admitted that the whole thing was a hoax. Unfortunately, four years prior to Plantard's admission, authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln published Holy Blood Holy Grail based on Plantard's claims and adding that the Merovingian line actually descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene and that the purpose of the Priory was to protect this secret and the Jesus bloodline. It's from this work of fiction that Dan Brown drew his information for writing The Da Vinci Code.

Silas is an albino, which means he has white hair and pale skin due to a lack of melanin. Because of Silas's condition, his father used to call him a "ghost." Thanks to Bishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina)'s patronage, Silas came to think of himself as an angel, a messenger of God. Towards the end of the movie, however, as he lay dying, he realizes that he has failed in his mission to find the keystone and that he is nothing more than a "ghost" again.

After Sophie is reunited with her grandmother and the others who have vowed to protect her, Langdon returns to Paris. Armed with the verse from the scroll inside the keystone, "The Holy Grail neath ancient Roslin waits / The blade and chalice guarding o'er her gates / Adorned in masters' loving art she lies / She rests at last beneath the starry skies," he suddenly gets an idea. Following the Rose Line markers on the streets of Paris, it leads him directly to the glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Musée du Louvre. In the final scenes of the movie, Langdon recites the poem aloud while the camera shows how each line of the poem fits with the pyramid's structure, ending at a shot of Mary Magdalen's sarcophagus lying below.

The longer version of the film, labeled as "Extended Edition" adds more than 24 minutes of additional material to the PG-13-rated theatrical version. A detailed comparison between both versions can be found here.