The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard, written by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Dan Brown's 2003 novel of the same name.

In the film, Robert Langdon, a professor of religious symbology from Harvard University, is the prime suspect in the grisly and unusual murder of Louvre curator Jacques Saunière.

It was met with especially harsh criticism by the Catholic Church for the accusation that it is behind a two-thousand-year-old cover-up concerning what the Holy Grail really is and the concept that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married, producing a daughter, as well as its treatment of the organizations Priory of Sion and Opus Dei.

Louvre curator Jacques Saunière is pursued by Silas, an albino Catholic monk who demands the location of the "keystone" to find and destroy the Holy Grail.

Police captain Bezu Fache summons Robert Langdon, an American symbologist who is in Paris for a lecture on the interpretation of symbols, to examine Saunière's body.

He travels to the church as directed by Saunière and finds a marker with "Job 38:11" inscribed in it, a bible verse that begins, "Here you shall come, and no farther..." Enraged, he kills the nun in residence.

As the police arrive, bank manager Andre Vernet helps Langdon and Sophie escape, then attempts to steal the cryptex and murder them.

Later, Silas appears, but Teabing disables him by striking the leg bound by a cilice, a metal device used to appropriate the lashing of a whip, in deference to Christ's torture.

Now understanding the true meaning behind the clue to unlocking the cryptex, the trio goes to Westminster Abbey to the tomb of Isaac Newton, a former grand master of the Priory.

Langdon, after searching through documents, realizes that Sophie's family died in a car crash, that Saunière was not her grandfather but her protector, and that she is the last descendant of Christ.

[4] Bill Paxton was the director Ron Howard's first choice for the role of Robert Langdon, but had to decline as he was beginning filming for the television series Big Love.

David White of Altered States FX, a prosthetics and special make-up effects company, was tasked with creating a naked photorealistic silicone body for the scene.

Sister Mary Michael spent 12 hours praying on her knees outside the cathedral in protest against what she saw as the blasphemous use of a holy place to film a book containing heresy.

A line spoken by Tom Hanks "drew prolonged laughter and some catcalls", and near the end of the screening, "there were a few whistles and hisses, and there was none of the scattered applause even bad films sometimes receive at Cannes".

The website's consensus reads: "What makes Dan Brown's novel a best seller is evidently not present in this dull and bloated film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code.

[28] Conversely, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (who had spoken very negatively of the novel) gave the film three out of four stars, writing, "The movie works; it's involving, intriguing and constantly seems on the edge of startling revelations."

"[29] Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer, who also liked the film, gave it three and a half out of four stars and noted, "unlike most Hollywood blockbusters, this one assumes audience members will be smart".

[32] The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Ron Howard as Worst Director but lost to M. Night Shyamalan for Lady in the Water.

[40] In Jordan, authorities banned the film claiming it "tarnishes the memory of Christian and Islamic figures and contradicts the truth as written in the Bible and the Quran about Jesus".

Then-cinema manager Denton Wright said that the ban reflected the beliefs of the cinema's owners, a small Catholic family with socially conservative religious views.

Possibly the largest reaction occurred in Kolkata, where a group of around 25 protesters "stormed" Crossword bookstore, pulled copies of the book from the racks and threw them to the ground.

On the same day, a group of 50–60 protesters successfully made the Oxford Bookstore on Park Street decide to stop selling the book "until the controversy sparked by the film's release was resolved.

[51] The Supreme Court of India also rejected petitions calling for a ban on the film, saying the plot which suggested Jesus was married was fictional and not offensive.

[52] The film was totally banned in some states with significant Muslim and Christian populations such as Punjab, Lakshadweep, Goa, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

[58] Eventually, MTRCB decided to give The Da Vinci Code an R-18 rating (restricted to those 18 years of age and above) despite PAAP's opposition to showing it.

[68] At a conference on April 28, 2006, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican curial department, Archbishop Angelo Amato specifically called for a boycott of the film.

[69] Cardinal Francis Arinze, in a documentary called The Da Vinci Code: A Masterful Deception, urged unspecified legal action against the makers of the film.

On Easter, April 16, 2006, Opus Dei published an open letter by its Japanese Information Office mildly proposing that Sony Pictures consider including a disclaimer on the film adaptation as a "sign of respect towards the figure of Jesus Christ, the history of the Church, and the religious beliefs of viewers".

"[72] According to a statement by Manuel Sánchez Hurtado, Opus Dei Press Office Rome,[73] in contrast to Sony Corporation's published "Code of Conduct", the company had announced that the film would not include such a disclaimer.

And I have faith in this film—not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story... And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing when they've seen it.