MovieChat Forums > Inferno (2016) Discussion > One thing that didn't make a whole lot o...

One thing that didn't make a whole lot of sense...

posted 8 years ago by Jep_Gambardella
7 replies | jump to latest

..in the movie compared to the book.

The whole thing about the clues leading to the virus makes more sense in the book than in the movie. In the book, Zobrist sets up the treasure hunt (so to speak) because he wants the world to know the location where the virus was released – he has a plaque made to commemorate what he figures will be a turning point in human history, and he wants to be remembered, as well.

In the movie, the purpose of the treasure hunt is for Sienna to find the virus and release it – but it makes little sense that he would leave something that was so important to him (“saving” humanity by killing half of it) up to chance. What if she couldn’t find it, or if others found it before her (which is exactly what ended up happening?). Then all his work would have been in vain, and for what? Just to satisfy his girlfriend’s taste for games?

Don't give me songs
Give me something to sing about

[–] jpoliveira-79 8 years ago

That's just awful writing

[–] anblq10 8 years ago

Well, what's also interesting is the movie doesn't really explain what the virus is or what's it going to do. They give the impression it's going to be another black plague but in the book we find out it's more of a sterilization type of thing that will infect roughly 50% of the population.

[–] Jep_Gambardella 8 years ago

Well, what's also interesting is the movie doesn't really explain what the virus is or what's it going to do. They give the impression it's going to be another black plague but in the book we find out it's more of a sterilization type of thing that will infect roughly 50% of the population.

The way I understood it, the screenwriters changed that part from the book. In the book, everyone assumes that the virus is a plague but in the end it turns out that it wasn't going to kill anyone, it would just render a large part of the population sterile. In the movie, the virus really WAS meant to kill billions.

Don't give me songs
Give me something to sing about

[–] anblq10 8 years ago

Right, I read the book a few years ago and remembered that the virus got released and that it turned out to only impact around half the population or just render people sterile. In the movie, they never fully explained what this virus was suppose to do. I think we're led to believe that it will be similar to the black plague but I know at one point, Elizabeth mentions how Zobrist had approached her about sneaking things into the food/water supply so people would become infertile. So, I wasn't sure if that was the movie's way of hinting at what the virus was suppose to be all about.

[–] sarahkrafft 8 years ago

My big question was, why didn't the genious set up two different bags? Those people were so focused on the one bag, I kept thinking the camera was going to pan over to another section to reveal that there was another bag all along that broke during the commotion....but that didn't happen. The rich and philosophical bio-engineer literally put all his eggs on one basket.

[–] yusef-ghanima 8 years ago

i don't clearly remember the book, but the way you say it, the movie make much more sense, since he was afraid that if something happened to him, they might be able to stop the virus. he wanted her as an insurance, it wasn't satisfying her taste for games, she asked him, what if something happened to you.

[–] captkirk42 (51) 7 years ago

If I recall in the book (it has been a few years so I might be slightly off on this) there was some sort of timer/explosive on the bag, or that the material the bag was made of was going to dissolve after so many days and the virus would be released. The race was to reach the bag before it burst. In the movie that part wasn't as clearly defined. It seemed in the movie it was when Sienna showed her true colors and love for Zobrist that she was going to expedite the release of the virus.