Angels & Demons is a 2009 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp, based on Dan Brown's 2000 novel of the same title.

Producer Brian Grazer, composer Hans Zimmer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also return, with David Koepp coming on board to help the latter.

It grossed $485.9 million worldwide, becoming the ninth highest-grossing film of 2009, and received mixed reviews from critics, who considered it an improvement over its predecessor.

The Catholic Church mourns the sudden death of Pope Pius XVI, and prepares for the papal conclave to elect his successor in Vatican City.

He sends the Vatican a warning, claiming he will murder each of the cardinals, one every hour, from 8 p.m. to midnight, when the stolen antimatter, hidden in a secret location, will explode and destroy the city.

Due to his involvement with the Priory of Sion in Paris and London (as depicted in The Da Vinci Code), American symbologist Professor Robert Langdon is brought to the Vatican by Claudio Vicenzi to help.

McKenna gives Langdon access to the Vatican Secret Archives to research the altars, against the wishes of Commander Richter, head of the Swiss Guard.

Though they rush to the chapel, accompanied by Ernesto Olivetti and Claudio Vincenzi of the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City, they are too late to save Cardinal Ebner, who they discover suffocated on a mouthful of dirt and branded with the ambigrammatic word Earth.

Following the clue left at a Bernini statue at the Chigi Chapel, Langdon discovers the second altar is a Bernini-created sculpture in St. Peter's Square.

A threatening note left on Lamassé's body leads Vetra to suspect that Pius XVI did not die of a stroke, but was murdered with an overdose of tinzaparin, which he took for his thrombophlebitis.

Langdon and Vetra retrieve Silvano's journals from Richter's office, finding he kept tabs on the Pope with hidden security cameras for medical reasons.

The Pope had invited Silvano to publicly present the antimatter as proof of a divine power, bridging the gap between religion and science and potentially ending the conflict between them.

Considering such a claim blasphemy, McKenna orchestrated Pius XVI's death and hired the assassin, plotting to have himself elected as pope while making the Illuminati the scapegoat.

The Vatican also announces McKenna has died from injuries from his parachute landing, which leads to calls for sainthood, since the people are not aware that he was guilty of the plot.

In 2003, Sony Pictures acquired the film rights to Angels & Demons along with The Da Vinci Code in a deal with author Dan Brown.

[7] Director Ron Howard chose to treat Angels & Demons as a sequel to the previous film, rather than a prequel, since many had read the novel after The Da Vinci Code.

However, the quick shoot allowed him to refine the naturalism he had employed on his previous film Frost/Nixon, often using handheld cameras to lend an additional energy to the scenes.

"[8] When recreating the interior of St. Peter's Basilica, production designer Allan Cameron and visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton recognized the 80 ft (24 m) tall soundstages were only half the size of the real church.

Overseas, Angels & Demons maintained the #1 position for the second weekend as well even with the release of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which opened at #2.

The site's consensus is that "Angels & Demons is a fast-paced thrill ride, and an improvement on the last Dan Brown adaptation, but the storyline too often wavers between implausible and ridiculous, and does not translate effectively to the big screen.

"[30] Richard Corliss of Time gave the film a positive review, stating that "Angels & Demons has elemental satisfactions in its blend of movie genre that could appeal to wide segments of the audience.

"[33] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, writing that "the movie can be enjoyed for the hell-raising hooey it is.

A tour guide also stated that most priests do not object to tourists who visit out of interest after reading the book, a trend which will continue after people see the film.

"[38] Producer Brian Grazer deemed it odd that although The Da Vinci Code was a more controversial novel, they had more freedom shooting its film adaptation in the authentic locations of London and France.

[39] Howard criticized Donohue for prejudging the film, responding that it could not be called anti-Catholic since Langdon protects the Church, and because of its depiction of priests who support science.

However, it also quoted Archbishop Velasio De Paolis as saying a boycott would probably just have the "Streisand effect" of drawing more attention to Angels & Demons and making it more popular.

[43] Eventually no boycott was declared and the Vatican stayed officially silent about the film, unlike its condemnation of The Da Vinci Code.

[48] Sony Pictures produced a film adaptation of Inferno, the fourth book in the Robert Langdon series, which was released on October 14, 2016,[50] with Ron Howard as director, David Koepp adapting the screenplay, Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon,[51] and co-starring Felicity Jones, Ben Foster, Irrfan Khan and Sidse Babett Knudsen.