Polish actor Mikolaj Grabowski is seen twice playing Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany, who would succeed John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI.

In 1946, Wojtyla is ordained a priest and is sent to Rome for his graduate studies while the Communists hunt down and eliminate anybody who had any ties to the Home Army and/or Polish government in exile during the war.

In 1958, the Holy See appoints him Kraków's auxiliary bishop—Poland's youngest bishop ever and in 1959, he ends the decade by holding Nowa Huta's first Mass outdoors on Christmas Eve in the Communists's newly completed "city without God".

After leading an unusual procession of the Black Madonna's empty picture frame through Krakow, Wojtyla attends all four Vatican II sessions, where he impresses many influential foreign cardinals with his charisma, multilingualism and viewpoints, both before and during his term as Kraków's archbishop.

Part 2: (December 7, 2005) Opening on October 16, 1978 with deadlocked balloting, Wojtyla wins the papal election as the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in 1522, naming himself John Paul II.

In December 1984, he appoints Joaquin Navarro-Valls director of the Holy See Press Office, announces World Youth Day in 1985 and witnesses the downfall of East bloc Communism in 1989.

His last public appearance is shown, then his death is announced, with a voice-over of his last requests and a montage of earlier events amid the closing credits and main film score.