"Stop now." "Tell me where it is." "You and your brethren possess what is not rightfully yours." "I don't know what you are talking about." "Is it a secret you will die for?" " Please." " As you wish." "Wait!" "My God, forgive me." "In the sacristy the church of Saint-Sulpice, is the Rose Line." "Beneath the Rose." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Symbols are a language that can help us understand our past." "As the saying goes, a picture says a thousand words but which words?" "Interpret for me, please, this symbol." "First thing that comes to mind." " Hatred, racism." " Ku Klux Klan." "Yes, yes, interesting." "But they would disagree with you in Spain." "There, they are robes worn by priests." "Now this symbol." "Anyone?" "Evil." "In English, please." "Devil's pitchfork." "Poor, poor Poseidon." "That is his trident." "A symbol of power to millions of the ancients." "Now this symbol." " Madonna and child." " Faith." "Christianity." "No." "No, it's the pagan god Horus and his mother, Isis centuries before the birth of Christ." "Understanding our past determines actively our ability to understand the present." "So how do we sift truth from belief?" "How do we write our own histories, personally or culturally and thereby define ourselves?" "How do we penetrate years, centuries, of historical distortion to find original truth?" "Tonight, this will be our quest." "I still think that his whole take on phi was a little far-fetched." "I don't think so." "I think that the golden ratio is everywhere in nature." "Sure, I can do that." "My son is a student of yours at Harvard." " Michael Culp?" "He adores you." " Oh, yeah." "He says you're the best teacher he's ever had." "Ms. Culp, I think I already gave Michael an A-minus." "He told me." "Thank you." "Mr. Langdon?" "Hi." "Bonjour, professor." "I'm Lieutenant Collet from DCPJ." "A kind of French FBI." "Will you take a look at this photo, please?" "My police chief, Capitaine Fache, had hoped considering your expertise and the markings on the body you might assist us." "Will you excuse me a moment?" "I was supposed to have drinks with him." "Yes, we know." "We found your name in his daily planner." "He never showed." "I waited for over an hour." "Why would someone do this to him?" "Oh, you misunderstand, professor." "He was shot, yes." "But what you see in the photograph Monsieur Saunière did to himself." "Teacher, all four are dead." "The sénéchaux and the Grand Master himself." "Then I assume you have the location." "Confirmed by all." "Independently." "I had feared the Priory's penchant for secrecy might prevail." "The prospect of death is strong motivation." "It is here." "In Paris, Teacher." "It hides beneath the Rose in Saint-Sulpice." "You will go forth, Silas." "I chastise my body." "Capitaine Fache is waiting for you." "Okay." " Mr. Langdon." " Yes." "I'm Captain Bezu Fache." "You like our pyramid?" "It's magnificent." "A scar on the face of Paris." "After me, please." "It's the pairing of those two pyramids." "It's unique." "The two are geometric echoes." "Fascinating." "I'm not sure how much help I'm gonna be here this evening." "How well did you know the curator?" "Not at all." "We met only once." "We were on a..." "On a panel together." "Something is funny?" "We didn't agree on much." "Frankly, I was surprised when he contacted me." "Could we take the stairs?" "So Saunière requested tonight's meeting." "Yes." "How?" "Did he call you?" "E-mail." "He heard I was in Paris." "Had something to discuss." "What?" "You seem uncomfortable." " Are any of those real?" " Of course not." "So you know something of security procedures." "Well, I know video surveillance in a museum this size is cost-prohibitive." "Most now rely on containment." "Yes, forget about keeping the criminals out." "Now we keep them in." "The Grand Gallery." "This is where you found the body." "How would you know that?" "I recognize the parquet floor from the Polaroid." "It's unmistakable." "Dear God." "Let's cover the talking points again, Your Eminence." "Many call Opus Dei a brainwashing cult." "Others, an ultraconservative Christian secret society." " We are a simple Catholic church." " Simple?" "With a brand-new $47-million headquarters in Manhattan." "Our followers are generous, should we apologize for that?" "Perhaps a less defensive tack, Your Eminence." "The press continue to be harsh with us." "We are not Cafeteria Catholics." "We don't pick and choose which rules to follow." "We follow doctrine." "Rigorously." "Does doctrine necessarily include vows of chastity, tithing and atonement for sins through self-flagellation and the cilice?" "Many of our followers are married." "Many of them have families." "Only a small proportion choose to live ascetically in the cloisters of our residential halls." "But we are all united in God's work around the world." "Surely that is an admirable way to lead one's life." "Why are some media referring to Opus Dei as "God's mafia"?" "Obviously, some people fear what they don't understand." "And because the war finally draws to a close." " Bishop, we need to stay on message." " That will be all, Michael, thank you." "Aringarosa." "Silas has succeeded." "The legend is true." "It hides beneath the Rose." "My part of our bargain is nearly fulfilled." "I meet the council in an hour." "I will have your money tonight, Teacher." "The Vitruvian Man." "It's one of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous sketches." "And the star on his skin?" "A pentacle." "And its meaning?" "The pentacle is ancient." "Symbols carry different meanings in different settings." "This symbol, professor." "This setting." "The pentacle is a pagan religious icon." "Devil worship." "No." "No, no, no." "The pentacle before that." "This is a symbol for Venus." "It represents the female half of all things." "It's a concept called "the divine goddess" by religious historians." "You are telling me that Saunière's last act on earth was to draw a goddess symbol on his chest?" "Why?" "Captain Fache, obviously I can't tell you why." "I can tell you he, as well as anyone, knows the meaning of this symbol and it has nothing to do with worshiping the devil." " Is that so?" " Yes." "Then what do you make of this?" ""O, Draconian devil." "Oh, lame saint."" "It's a phrase." "Doesn't mean anything, not to me." "What would you do if you had such limited time to send a message?" "Well, I suppose I'd try to identify my killer." "Precisely." "Precisely." "So, professor..." "Officer Neveu." "Please, pardon the interruption." "This is not the time." "I received the crime-scene jpegs at headquarters and I've deciphered the code." "It's a Fibonacci sequence." "That's the code Saunière left on the floor." "Headquarters sent me to explain, captain." "It is the Fibonacci sequence." "The numbers are out of order." "But before that, I have an urgent message for Professor Langdon." "Right?" "Pardon me?" "I'm Sophie Neveu, French police, Cryptology." "Your embassy called Division." "I'm sorry, monsieur, they said it was a matter of life and death." "This is the number of your embassy's messaging service." "Well, thank you." "Hello, you've reached the home of Sophie Neveu." "Miss Neveu?" "This..." "No." "That's the right number." "You have to dial an access code to pick up your messages." "But I'm getting..." "It's a three-digit code." "It's on the paper I gave you." "Professor Langdon, do not react to this message." "You must follow my directions very closely and, above all reveal nothing to Captain Fache." "You are in grave danger." "Church of Saint-Sulpice." "Good evening, Sister." "I need you to show someone our church tonight." "Of course, Father." "But so late?" "Wouldn't tomorrow?" "This is a request from an important bishop of Opus Dei." "It would be my pleasure." "There's been an accident." "A friend." "I have to fly home in the morning." "I see." "Is there a restroom I could use?" "I just wanna splash some water on my face." "Yes." "She said it is meaningless." "Mathematical joke." "Is it meaningless?" "I'll take another look when I come back." "I'm sorry." "Of course." "Do you have a message from Saunière?" "What are you talking about?" "Crazy old man." "You have me confused with someone else." "I was asked to come here and consult." "No, you are sous surveillance cachée." "Yes, and..." "What?" "Bring the suspect to the crime scene and hope he incriminates himself." "Suspect?" "Check your jacket pocket." "Just look." "GPS tracking dot." "Accurate within two feet anywhere on the globe." "The agent who picked you up slipped it into your jacket in case you tried to run." "We have you on a little leash, professor." "Why would I try to run?" "I didn't do anything." "So, what do you think about the fourth line of text Fache wiped clean before you arrived?" "He brought you here to force a confession, Professor Langdon." "He's still in there?" "What's he doing?" "Fache isn't even looking for other suspects, okay?" "He is sure you're guilty." "When did Saunière contact you?" " Today?" " Yes, yes." "What time?" "What time?" "At 3." "Around 3." "Three." "The gallery alarm was triggered at 8." "You were..." " I was giving a lecture." " At 9." "You had the privacy light on in your hotel room until 8:30, right?" "We call Fache "the Bull." Once he starts, he doesn't stop." "He can arrest you and detain you for months while he builds a case." "And by then whatever Saunière wanted you to tell me will be useless." "Stop it!" "Just stop!" "Who are you?" "What are you talking about?" "Tell you what?" "Maybe who really killed him." "The Fibonacci sequence." "I believe Saunière wrote it so his investigation would include cryptographers." "That's quite a leap, isn't it?" "No." "And the letters." ""P.S."" "P.S., postscript." ""Princess Sophie." Yeah." "Silly, I know." "But I was only a girl when I lived with him." "Jacques Saunière was my grandfather." "Apparently, it was his dying wish that we meet." "If you help me understand why I will get you to your embassy, where we cannot arrest you." "Fache was never gonna let me just stroll out of here, was he?" "No." "If we are to get away from here, we must find another way." "What exactly do you propose?" "Saunière was reading his book." ""Blood trail."" "Excuse me, captain." "Crypto called." "They identified the code." "Neveu told us already." "I should have fired her on the spot, barging in like that." "Yes." "Except they didn't send Neveu." "What?" "Captain, look at this." "He jumped!" "Shit." "He's moving again." "And fast." "He must be in a car." "He's going south on Pont du Carrousel." "Bastard." "That cop will check the whole lower floor." "I will only take a moment." "Of course." "He is much older than I remember." "I hadn't seen or spoken to him in a very long time." "He phoned my office today." "Several times." "He said it was a matter of life and death." "I thought it was another trick to get back in touch." "It seems when he couldn't speak to me he reached out to you." "Whatever he needed so badly to say he found neither of us in time." " Wait a minute." " Professor?" "Come on." "It can't be that easy." "This is wrong." "Yeah." "See?" "This is wrong." "The Fibonacci numbers only make sense when they're in order." "These are scrambled." "If he was trying to reach out, maybe he was doing it in code." "Would you hold this, please?" "This phrase is meaningless." "Unless you assume these letters are out of order too." "An anagram." "You have eidetic memory?" "Not quite." "But I can pretty much remember what I see." "Anagram is right." ""O, Draconian devil." "Oh, lame saint" becomes:" ""Leonardo da Vinci." "The Mona Lisa."" "Professor, the Mona Lisa is right over here." "Look at this." "He must have thrown it from the window." "Smart to hit the truck." "What, you admire him now?" "We're stupid." "Who did we leave at the museum?" "Ledoux?" "Get him on the radio!" "Her smile is in the lower spatial frequencies." "The horizon is significantly lower on the left than it is on the right." "Why?" "Well, see, she appears larger from the left than on the right." "Historically, the left was female, the right was male." "The sacred feminine." "Why do you say that?" "Something Saunière said the first time we came here." "There." "Blood." "Hey." ""So dark the con of man."" "No." "It doesn't say that." "Is it another anagram?" "Can you break it?" "Professor, hurry." "Hurry!" "Moon." "Sermon." "Charms." "Demons." "Omens." "Codes." "Monks." "Ranks." "Rocks." "Madonna of the Rocks." "Da Vinci." "Careful." "Careful." "This can't be this." "The fleur-de-lis." "Stay where you are!" "Let go of the painting and put it on the ground." "No." "You put your gun down." "Now!" "Or else I will destroy the painting." "Hurry up!" "Slide your gun to me." "Be careful." "I never really liked this painting." "Run." "It was Saunière's." "I remember finding it once when I was a girl." "He'd promised he'd give it to me one day." "Have you ever heard those words before, Sophie?" ""So dark the con of man"?" "No." "Have you?" "When you were a child, were you aware of any secret gatherings?" "Anything ritualistic in nature?" "Meetings your grandfather would've wanted kept secret?" "Was there ever any talk of something called the Priory of Sion?" "The what?" "Why are you asking these things?" "The Priory of Sion is a myth." "One of the world's oldest and most secret societies, with leaders like Sir Isaac Newton, da Vinci himself." "The fleur-de-lis is their crest." "They're guardians of a secret they supposedly refer to as "the dark con of man."" "But what secret?" "The Priory of Sion protects the source of God's power on earth." "I can't do this by myself." "I'm in enough trouble as it is." "That's my embassy." "Please." "Even if we could get out of this..." "Okay." "No, no, no." "You're not gonna make it." "You're not gonna make it!" "Well, that was..." "We won't last long in this car." "Fache doesn't like to be eluded, even on a good day." "We need to get out of sight." "Christ, give me strength." "You are a ghost." "Christ, give me strength." "Stealing in a house of God!" "You are an angel." "Christ, give me strength." "You have powerful friends." "Bishop Aringarosa has been kind to me." "I could not miss this chance to pray inside the Saint-Sulpice." "A pity you couldn't wait for morning." "The light is not ideal." "Tell me, Sister, please, of the Rose Line." "A rose line is any line that goes from the North to South Poles." "Set into the streets of Paris, 135 brass markers mark the world's first prime meridian which passed through this very church." "It hides beneath the Rose." "I'm sorry?" "Sister." "I do not want to keep you." "I will show myself out." "I insist." "May the peace of the Lord be with you." "And with you." "Gray Smart Car." "Black roof." "Corner of Denain Boulevard at the train station." "How could you let them get away?" "Why not just shoot the damn painting?" "Imbecile!" "You should put his cigar out in your hand!" "Get out of here!" "They found Neveu's car abandoned at the train station." "And two tickets to Brussels paid for with Langdon's credit card." "A decoy, I'm sure." "All the same, send an officer to the station." "Question all the taxi drivers." "I'll put this on the wire." "Interpol?" "We're not sure he's guilty." "I know he's guilty." "Beyond a doubt." "Robert Langdon is guilty." "This is the Bois de Boulogne?" "We should be safe in this park for a few minutes." "Your police don't patrol this park." "Stay here." "Police." "What do you want?" "Fifty euros for all your stuff." "Go and get something to eat." "Did it occur to you that could be dangerous?" "No." "And now we have a place to think." "Any ideas, professor?" "You could've just handed me a piece of a UFO from Area 51." ""What's the next step?"" "With him, it's always:" ""Sophie, what's the next step?"" "Puzzles." "Codes." "A treasure hunt." "To find his killer." "Maybe there is something about this Priory of Sion." "I hope not." "Any Priory story ends in bloodshed." "They were butchered by the Church." "It all started over a thousand years ago when a French king conquered the holy city of Jerusalem." "This crusade, one of the most massive and sweeping in history was actually orchestrated by a secret brotherhood the Priory of Sion and their military arm, the Knights Templar." "But the Templars were created to protect the Holy Land." "That was a cover to hide their true goal, according to this myth." "Supposedly the invasion was to find an artifact lost since the time of Christ." "An artifact, it was said, the Church would kill to possess." "Did they find it, this buried treasure?" "Put it this way:" "One day the Templars simply stopped searching." "They quit the Holy Land and traveled directly to Rome." "Whether they blackmailed the papacy or the Church bought their silence, no one knows." "But it is a fact the papacy declared these Priory knights these Knights Templar, of limitless power." "By the 1300s, the Templars had grown too powerful." "Too threatening." "So the Vatican issued secret orders to be opened simultaneously all across Europe." "The Pope had declared the Knights Templar Satan worshipers and said God had charged him with cleansing the earth of these heretics." "The plan went off like clockwork." "The Templars were all but exterminated." "The date was October 13th, 1307." "A Friday." "Friday the 13th." "The Pope sent troops to claim the Priory's treasure but they found nothing." "The few surviving Knights of the Priory had vanished and the search for their sacred artifact began again." "What artifact?" "I've never heard about any of this." "Yes, you have." "Almost everyone on earth has." "You just know it as the Holy Grail." "Please, Saunière thought he knew the location of the Holy Grail?" "Maybe more than that." "This cross and the flower, this could be very old." "But look." "This metal here underneath is much newer, and there's a modern ID stamp." ""Haxo 24."" "And these dots." "These dots are read by a laser." "This is more than a pendant." "This is a key your grandfather left you." "He left us, professor." "And vingt-quatre Haxo, it's not an ID stamp." "It's a street address." "This is Jacques Saunière." "Please leave a message after the tone." "Please, Monsieur Saunière, pick up the phone." "This is Sandrine Bieil." "I have called the list." "I fear the other guardians are dead." "The lie has been told." "The floor panel has been broken." "Please, monsieur, pick up the phone." "I beg you." "Job 38, verse 11." "Do you know it, Sister?" "Job 38:11." "Hitherto shalt thou come but no further." ""But no further."" "Do you mock me?" "Where is the keystone?" "I do not know." "No." "You are a sister of the Church and yet you serve them:" "the Priory." "Jesus had but one true message." "That..." "Come, you saints of God." "Hasten, angels of the Lord." "To receive her soul." "And bring her to the sight of the Almighty." "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." "Welcome, bishop." "May Christ be with you." "And also with you." "It's been too long, Manuel." "I saw your press conference." "Very priestly." "Vultures." "But you need a good cover to fly into Italy these days." "So how are things in Rome?" "We serve at his pleasure." "Today is today." "But there are many tomorrows." "Vatican cellars." "1976." "Seventy-six, a year of independence." "How fitting." "I thought you'd like it." "I'll fetch the others." "Welcome, bishop." "This council is convened." "Our words shall never pass these walls." "What business, say you?" "As you know, my request for funds..." "Yes, 20 million euro in untraceable bearer bonds." "A tad more than petty cash." "Wouldn't you say, bishop?" "The endeavor is complex." "Freedom has a high cost." "And, of course, you will deliver us." "How fortunate we are." "I only offer a route to the renewal of faith for all men." "How humble." "Our savior, Bishop Aringarosa." "Were we to grant your request when would this mission commence?" " Actually, tonight." " What?" " It has begun." " We have not agreed." "How dare you presume to..." "I do not presume, I act!" "The Vatican's unwillingness to support us is both impious and cowardly." "Blood is being spilled because true Christian values lie in ruins." "No more!" "This council has forgotten its very purpose." "Tonight the Grail will be destroyed." "The Priory's few remaining members will be silenced." "I was contacted by a man who calls himself only "the Teacher."" "He knows a great deal about this council." "And about the Priory." "Two prostitutes identified Langdon and Neveu getting into a taxi in the Bois de Boulogne." "Because of your expertise?" " I'm sorry?" " About the Priory." "Do you think that's why Saunière sought you out?" "I can think of dozens of scholars who know a lot more about it." "Actually, I didn't think he liked me very much." "Once made a joke at my expense." "Got a big laugh out of it." "What was it?" "How may I help you?" "The door to the right, please." "That was quite a performance." "The little shit should know better than to play politics with me." "I know I got in front of you, old friend." "I did what I thought was best." "So now what?" "Now we wait for the Teacher's call." "Good evening." "I am André Vernet, the night manager." "I take it this is your first visit to our establishment?" "Yes." "Understood." "Keys are often passed on and first-time users are sometimes uncertain of protocol." "Keys are essentially numbered Swiss accounts." "Often willed through generations." "Is it yours, mademoiselle?" "The shortest safety-deposit-box lease is 50 years." "And what's your longest account?" "Quite a bit longer." "Technologies change, keys are updated." "But our accounts date back to the beginning of banking itself." "Once the computer confirms your key enter your account number and your box is retrieved." "The room is yours, as long as you like." "What if I lost track of my account number?" "How might I recover it?" "I'm afraid each key is paired with a 10-digit number known only to the account bearer." "I hope you manage to remember it." "A single wrong entry disables the system." " Ten." " Ten." "Your grandfather's Fibonacci sequence." "Scrambled, unscrambled?" "Unscrambled." "It's your key." "Funny, I don't even like history." "I've never seen much good come from looking to the past." "Moment of truth." "My God." "I don't believe this." "A rose." "The rose was a symbol for the Holy Grail." "Forgive the intrusion." "I'm afraid the police arrived more quickly than I anticipated." "You must follow me, please." "For your own safety." "You knew they were coming?" "My guard alerted me to your status when you arrived." "Yours is one of our oldest and highest-level accounts." "It includes a safe-passage clause." "Safe passage?" "If you would step inside, please." "Time is of the essence." "In there?" "Hey, is there a problem?" "Good evening, sir." "Police." "I just drive from here to Zurich." "Not French, English?" " English?" " Yes." "We are looking for two criminals." "You came to the right place." "They're all criminals here." "Would you mind opening the hold?" "Please." "You think they trust us, the wages I get paid?" "You don't have keys to your own truck?" "It's armored." "Keys get sent to the destination." "You mind?" "I'm on a schedule here." "And do all the drivers wear a Rolex?" "What?" "This piece of shit." "Forty euros in Barbès." "Yours for 35." "No, no, no." " Thirty." " No." "It's okay, it's okay." "Come on, 30, eh?" "I said, no!" "Move along!" "Now we wait." "The Teacher will call and tell me where to deliver the money." "You have put tremendous faith in this Teacher of yours." "Yes, I have." "And I have given him an angel to do his will." "For surely there is no better soldier for God than my Silas." "I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess my sins to do penance and to amend my life." "Amen." "I chastise my body." "The Holy Grail." "A magic cup." "The source of God's power on earth." "It's nonsense." "You don't believe in God." "No." "I don't believe in some magic from the sky." "Just people." "Sometimes that they can be kind." "And that's enough?" "Well, I think it has to be." "I think it's all we have." "Are you a God-fearing man, professor?" "I was raised a Catholic." "Well, that's not really an answer." "Professor, are you okay?" "Go ahead, open it." "Go on." "A cryptex." "They are used to keep secrets." "It's da Vinci's design." "You write the information on a papyrus scroll which is then rolled around a thin glass vial of vinegar." "If you force it open, the vial breaks vinegar dissolves papyrus and your secret is lost forever." "The only way to access the information is to spell out the password with these five dials, each with 26 letters." "That's 12 million possibilities." "I've never met a girl who knew that much about a cryptex." "Saunière made one for me once." "My grandfather gave me a wagon." "This clearly is not the Holy Grail." "Come on." "Please, you're not all right." "May I try something?" "I don't know why it works." "My mother used to do it when I was scared, I think." "You think?" "Yes." "Feeling better, Sophie?" "My parents died in a car crash with my brother." "I was 4." "I'm sorry." "It was many years ago." "Better?" "Yeah." "Okay." "Twenty years waiting for someone to come for that box and now it's you two murderers." "Bring it to me." "I don't know what you're talking about." "All right!" "Okay!" "Right now!" "Step back!" "No one will lose sleep over a couple on a killing spree." "Turn around." "Turn around!" "You too, mademoiselle." "Sophie!" "Get in the truck!" "I'll drive!" "Hurry!" " Better?" " Always, if I got too nervous I had to put my head out of the window not to be sick." "Saunière used to say I was like a dog." "A cute dog." "You know, a little dog." "What happened between you and your grandfather, Sophie?" "I've jammed my shoulder, I've been shot at, I'm bleeding." "I need to know." "You say he raised you, but you two don't talk anymore." "You call him by his last name." "You say you hate history." "Nobody hates history." "They hate their own histories." "So now you're a psychologist too?" "What if Saunière had started to groom you for the Priory?" "What do you mean, groom me?" "Your grandfather gave you puzzles and cryptex as a child." "Say Saunière was hoping one day you would join him in the Priory." "Still, years later, when he imagines the Grail is in danger, he reaches out to you." "So you are saying all this is real?" "The Priory, the Holy Grail?" "We've been dragged into a world of people who think this stuff is real." " Real enough to kill for." " Who?" "I'm out of my field here." "I do know a Grail historian, absolutely obsessed with Priory myth." "An Englishman, lives here in France." "Do you trust this man?" "I hope you can." "Vernet, André." "It seems you're not a driver at all." "Apparently, you lost your tongue along with your truck." "Aiding and abetting two murder suspects." "That carries jail time." "Speak to my lawyer." "All this confusion, violence, vanishing property..." "It might get around that your bank is less than ideal, don't you think?" "You think you're in pain now, André Vernet?" "My cause is worth your life." "Understand?" "What do you want?" "Your truck carries a homing device." "Activate it." "Please wait." "I'll see if he's available." "It's on the wrong side." "Leigh likes all things to be English, including his cars." "Robert!" "Do I owe you money?" "Leigh, my friend care to open up for an old colleague?" " Of course." " Thank you." "But first, a test of honor." "Three questions." "Fire away." "Your first:" "Shall I serve coffee or tea?" "Tea, of course." "Excellent." "Second: milk or lemon?" "Milk?" "That would depend on the tea." "Correct." "And now the third and most grave of inquiries:" "In which year did a Harvard sculler outrow an Oxford man at Henley?" "Surely such a travesty has never occurred." "Your heart is true." "You may pass." "Welcome to Château Villette." "Leigh Teabing has spent his entire life studying the Grail." "That thing is one hot tamale." "Sorry?" "The cryptex, it's a hot coal." "A hot potato?" "So you want to keep our chest close to our cards, yes?" "Very close." "The truck's signal is coming online." "It's about time." "Locked on and tracking, sir." "Very good." "Tell Collet not to move in until I get there." "Attention!" "All of Collet's units to Château Villette." "The suspects Neveu and Langdon are likely at that location." "Aringarosa." "I still don't know why he put you into this and I'm sorry." "But I'm also very glad." "You are requested to make yourself at home." "Robert!" "And you travel with a maiden, it seems." "Sir Leigh Teabing, may I present Miss Sophie Neveu." "Sophie, Sir Leigh Teabing." "It's an honor to welcome you even though it's late." "Thank you for having us." "I realize it's quite late." "So late, mademoiselle, it's almost early." "What a lovely smile you have." "Earl Grey?" "Lemon." "Correct." "Château Villette." "Yes." " No." " Oh, you must." "Remy is from Lyons, but nevertheless he is fantastic with sauces." " Thank you." " No, I can't." "A dramatic late-night arrival." "Mention of life and death." "What can an old cripple do for you, Robert?" "We wanna talk about the Priory of Sion." "The keepers?" "The secret war?" "Sorry for all the mystery." "Leigh, I'm into something here that I cannot understand." "You?" " Really?" " Not without your help." "Playing to my vanity, Robert." "You should be ashamed." "Not if it works." "There are always four:" "The Grand Master and the three sénéchaux make up the primary guardians of the Grail." "Thank you, Remy." "That'll be all for now." "The Priory's members span our very globe itself." "Philippe de Chérisey exposed that as a hoax in 1967." "And that is what they want you to believe." "The Priory is charged with a single task:" "To protect the greatest secret in modern history." "The source of God's power on earth." "No, that's a common misunderstanding." "The Priory protects the source of the Church's power on earth:" "The Holy Grail." "I don't understand." "What power?" "Some magic dishes?" "Robert." "Has he been telling you that the Holy Grail is a cup?" "To understand the Holy Grail, my dear you must first understand the Holy Bible." "The Good Book did not arrive by facsimile from heaven." "The Bible as we know it was finally presided over by one man:" "The pagan emperor Constantine." "I thought Constantine was a Christian." "Oh, hardly, no." "He was a lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed." "Constantine was Rome's supreme holy man." "From time immemorial his people had worshiped a balance between nature's male deities and the goddess, or sacred feminine." "But a growing religious turmoil was gripping Rome." "Three centuries earlier a young Jew named Jesus had come along preaching love and a single God." "Centuries after his crucifixion Christ's followers had grown exponentially and had started a religious war against the pagans." "Or did the pagans commence war against the Christians?" "Leigh, we can't be sure who began the atrocities in that period." "We can at least agree that the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to tear Rome in two." "So Constantine may have been a lifelong pagan but he was also a pragmatist." "And in 325 anno Domini he decided to unify Rome under a single religion, Christianity." "Christianity was on the rise." "He didn't want his empire torn apart." "And to strengthen this new Christian tradition Constantine held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicaea." "And at this council the many sects of Christianity debated and voted on, well everything, from the acceptance and rejection of specific gospels to the date for Easter to the administering of the sacraments, and of course the immortality of Jesus." "I don't follow." "Well, ma chère, until that moment in history Jesus was viewed by many of his followers as a mighty prophet as a great and powerful man, but a man nevertheless." "A mortal man." "Some Christians held that Jesus was mortal." "Some Christians believed he was divine." "Not the Son of God?" "Not even his nephew twice removed." "Hold on, you're saying Jesus' divinity came from a vote." "Well, remember, in those days, gods were everywhere." "By infusing Jesus the man with the divine magic by making him capable of earthly miracles as well as his own resurrection, Constantine turned him into a god but within the human world." "And he basically knocked the more distant gods out of the game." "Constantine did not create Jesus' divinity." "He simply sanctioned an already widely held idea." " Semantics." " No, it's not semantics." "You're interpreting facts to support your own conclusions." "Fact:" "For many Christians, Jesus was mortal one day and divine the next." "For some Christians, his divinity was enhanced." "Absurd." "There was a formal announcement of his promotion." "They couldn't even agree on the Nicene Creed!" "Excuse me." ""Who is God, who is man?"" "How many have been murdered over this question?" "As long as there has been a one true God there has been killing in his name." "Now let me show you the Grail." "This used to be the ballroom." "I have little occasion to dance these days." "I trust you recognize The Last Supper the great fresco by Leonardo da Vinci." "Now, my dear, if you would close your eyes." "Oh, Leigh, save us the parlor tricks." "You asked for my help, I recall." "Allow an old man his indulgences." "Now, mademoiselle, where is Jesus sitting?" " In the middle." " Good." "He and his disciples are breaking bread." "And what drink?" "Wine." "They drank wine." "Splendid." "And one final question:" "How many wineglasses are there on the table?" "One?" "The Holy Grail?" "Open your eyes." "No single cup." "No chalice." "Well, that's a bit strange, isn't it?" "Considering both the Bible and standard Grail legend celebrate this moment as the definitive arrival of the Holy Grail." "Now, Robert, you could be of help to us." "If you'd be so kind as to show us the symbols for man and woman, please." "No balloon animals." "I can make a great duck." "This is the original icon for male." "It's a rudimentary phallus." " Quite to the point." " Yes, indeed." "This is known as the blade." "It represents aggression and manhood." "It's a symbol still used today in modern military uniforms." "Yes, the more penises you have, the higher your rank." "Boys will be boys." "Now, as you would imagine, the female symbol is its exact opposite." "This is called the chalice." "And the chalice resembles a cup or vessel or, more importantly the shape of a woman's womb." "No, the Grail has never been a cup." "It is quite literally this ancient symbol of womanhood." "And in this case, a woman who carried a secret so powerful that if revealed, it would devastate the very foundations of Christianity." "Wait, please." "You're saying the Holy Grail is a person?" "A woman?" "And it turns out, she makes an appearance right there." "But they are all men." "Are they?" "What about that figure on the right hand of our Lord seated in the place of honor?" "Flowing red hair." "Folded feminine hands." "Hint of a bosom." "No?" "It's called scotoma." "The mind sees what it chooses to see." "Who is she?" "My dear, that's Mary Magdalene." "The prostitute?" "She was no such thing." "Smeared by the Church in 591 anno Domini, poor dear." "Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife." "This is an old wives' tale." "The original one, in fact." "There's virtually no empirical proof." "He knows as well as I do there's much evidence to support it." "Theories." "There are theories." "Notice how Jesus and Mary are clothed." "Mirror images of each other." "The mind sees what it chooses to see." "And venturing into the even more bizarre, notice how Jesus and Mary appear to be joined at the hip and are leaning away from each other as if to create a shape in the negative space between them." "Leonardo gives us the chalice." "Yes." "Oh, and Robert, notice what happens when these two figures change position." "Just because da Vinci painted it doesn't make it true." "No." "But history she does make it true." "Now, listen to this." "It's from the Gospel according to Philip." "Philip?" "Yes, it was rejected at the Council of Nicaea along with any other gospels that made Jesus appear human and not divine." ""And the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene." "Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her on the..."" "But this says nothing of marriage." "Well, actually..." "Robert." "Actually, in those days, the word "companion" literally meant "spouse."" "And this is from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene herself." " She wrote a gospel?" " She may have." " Robert, will you fight fair?" " She may have." ""And Peter said, 'Did he prefer her to us?" "'" "And Levi answered:" "'Peter, I see you contending against a woman like an adversary." "If the Savior made her worthy, who are you, indeed, to reject her?"'" "Yes." "And then, my dear, Jesus goes on to tell Mary Magdalene that it's up to her to continue his Church." "Mary Magdalene, not Peter." "The Church was supposed to be carried on by a woman." "Few realize that Mary was descended from kings, just as her husband was." "Now, my dear, the word in French for Holy Grail." "From the Middle English "Sangreal" of the original Arthurian legend." "Now, as two words." "Can you translate for our friend?" "Sang real, it means "royal blood."" "When the legend speaks of the chalice that held the blood of Christ it speaks in fact of the female womb that carried Jesus' royal bloodline." "But how could Christ have a bloodline, unless...?" "Mary was pregnant at the time of the Crucifixion." "For her own safety and for that of Christ's unborn child she fled the Holy Land and came to France." "And here, it is said, she gave birth to a daughter, Sarah." "They know the child's name." " A little girl." " Yes." "If that were true, it's adding insult to injury." "Why?" "The pagans found transcendence through the joining of male to female." "People found God through sex?" "In paganism, women were worshiped as a route to heaven but the modern Church has a monopoly on that in salvation through Jesus Christ." "And he who keeps the keys to heaven rules the world." "Women, then, are a huge threat to the Church." "The Catholic Inquisition soon publishes what may be the most blood-soaked book in human history."