Directed by Ron Howard | Based on the novel by Dan Brown
A billionaire geneticist named Bertrand Zobrist is convinced that humanity is on the brink of catastrophe due to overpopulation. His solution is radical: he engineers a virus designed to render a significant portion of the world's population infertile, thereby reducing the human population to what he considers sustainable levels. When Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon wakes up in a Florence hospital with amnesia, he is drawn into a frantic chase across Europe to find and stop Zobrist's plague before it is released. Along the way, the film raises uncomfortable questions about whether monstrous means could ever be justified by seemingly noble ends.
This page discusses major plot points from Inferno. The book is upfront about the fact that this is not a great movie. But bad movies can still be surprisingly useful for thinking about emerging technologies, and Inferno turns out to be a surprisingly rich starting point for exploring some genuinely important ideas about synthetic biology, biosecurity, and the ethics of genetic manipulation.
The chapter opens with the environmentalist Paul Ehrlich's dire 1969 predictions about the consequences of human overpopulation, predictions that turned out to be wrong, but that captured a way of thinking about population and resources that continues to influence people, including, apparently, the fictional Zobrist. The film's premise, that one person armed with the right knowledge could engineer a biological agent capable of reshaping the human species, is melodramatic. But the underlying capability is not entirely fictional, and that is what makes the chapter worth reading.
The chapter uses Inferno to explore gain-of-function research: the scientific practice of deliberately modifying pathogens to make them more transmissible, more virulent, or more resistant to treatment. This is real research that real scientists do, and it is the subject of intense debate within the scientific community. Proponents argue that understanding how pathogens could become more dangerous is essential for developing defenses against them. Critics argue that the research itself creates risks that outweigh the benefits, because the modified pathogens could escape the laboratory or be weaponized.
The chapter also dives into synthetic biology more broadly, exploring how advances in genetic engineering and gene synthesis are making it increasingly feasible to design and construct biological organisms from scratch. The tools for reading and writing DNA are becoming faster, cheaper, and more accessible every year. This creates extraordinary opportunities for developing new medicines, materials, and agricultural products. But it also lowers the barriers for misuse. The chapter asks what happens as the ability to engineer biology becomes available to a wider and wider range of people, and how we balance the benefits of open science against the risks of dual-use research.
Zobrist's character, however flawed his portrayal, raises a genuinely disturbing question: do the ends ever justify the means when attempting to create a better future using science and technology? His logic is internally consistent, even if his conclusions are monstrous. He sees a problem (overpopulation), has the technical means to address it (engineered biology), and acts on his convictions. The chapter uses this to explore the dangerous territory where scientific capability meets moral certainty, and asks how societies can prevent brilliant but misguided individuals from using powerful technologies to impose their vision of the greater good on everyone else.
The chapter also examines the role of scientists as advocates and activists. Unlike the isolated, single-minded scientists in some of the other films, Zobrist is driven by a genuine concern for humanity's future. His methods are abhorrent, but his motivation to use his expertise to address a global crisis is something many scientists share. The chapter asks how scientists can responsibly engage with the big challenges facing society without crossing the line into dangerous territory.
Inferno's exploration of genetic manipulation connects to Jurassic Park (the ethics of genetic engineering) and the synthetic biology themes in Transcendence. The question of scientists' responsibilities to society is also central to The Man in the White Suit and Contact. And for more on how belief and evidence interact, see Contact.