EXT PANTHEON - TWO MINUTES LATERCLOSE ON a pair of hands, linked. Vittoria and Langdon, holding
hands like lovers, walk slowly toward the entrance to the
Pantheon. A COUPLE DOZEN TOURISTS, blissfully unaware, mill about
the square while up on the rooftops, SNIPERS have them in view.
Langdon looks around, this wasn't what he had in mind. Vittoria
glances at him, amused.
VITTORIA
You're crushing my hand.
LANGDON
I'm sorry.
VITTORIA
A nervous newlywed?
LANGDON
Ancient newlywed.
VITTORIA
Try harder.
He puts an arm around her waist, feels a lump in her back.
LANGDON
You really know how to use that gun
gave you?
VITTORIA
I can tag a breaching porpoise from
forty meters off the bow of a rocking
ship.
LANGDON
Thought you said you were a physicist,
VITTORIA
I am. Long story.
LANGDON
Make it short.
40.
VITTORIA
(THINKS)
Can't be done. What time is it?
Langdon raises his hand and checks his watch.
LANGDON
Seven minutes to eight.
VITTORIA
(of the watch)
Was that Mickey Mouse?
LANGDON
Long story.
VITTORIA
Make it short.
LANGDON
(THINKS)
Can't be done.
And with that they step through the entrance and into --
INT PANTHEON DAY
-- the Pantheon, a massive, circular room with a 141-foot
unsupported span even larger than the cupola of St. Peter's. There
are a DOZEN TOURISTS scattered around, and a TOUR GROUP on one
side hearing a lecture from a MUSEUM DOCENT.
Langdon looks up at the hole in the ceiling through which a bright
shaft of light is shining.
LANGDON
The oculus. That could be the
"demon's hole" in the poem.
Looking around, Vittoria sees several sarcophagi scattered around
the room, all pointing obliquely in a certain direction. As they
move stealthily through the crowd, they speak in low tones:
VITTORIA
Why are the tombs at an angle?
LANGDON
To face east. Sun worship.
VITTORIA
But this is a Christian church.
41.
LANGDON
(SHRUGS)
New religions often adopt existing
holidays to make conversion less
shocking. December 25th was the pagan
holiday of the Unconquered Sun. Made
it a handy choice for Christ's
birthday.
VITTORIA
You're saying Christianity is
repackaged sun worship?
LANGDON
Where do you think halos came from?
Not just sun worship though, the
Catholics borrowed Communion from the
Aztecs, canonization from Euphemerus,
the cruciform from the Egyptians ---
VITTORIA
No wonder they don't like you around
here.
LANGDON
Just trying to keep the conversation
lively.
(POINTS)
Check the recesses. I'll go left.
See you in a hundred eighty degrees.
He starts to the left, she goes to the right, walking in the
shadowy recesses behind the pillars at the edges of the room.
Langdon walks slowly, checking out faces. Tourists. Couples.
Teenagers. More tourists.
Around every column, there are shadows, and in those shadows --
--- nothing.
He looks at his watch. Five minutes to eight. And then --
--- a SHRIEK from the other side of the room. He whirls, sees
Vittoria backing away from something.
LANGDON (cont'd)
Vittoria!
He races across the room, reaches her at the far side. Her face is
ashen. She's pointing at something, aghast.
42.
VITTORIA
Raphael's tomb! But --
Langdon rushes forward to the crypt. There doesn't seem to be
anything out of the ordinary, except ---
VITTORIA (cont'd)
--- it's the wrong one!
LANGDON
What are you talking about?!
He leans down, looks at the plaque on it.
VITTORIA
He was moved here, in 1759. A century
after Diagramma was published!
LANGDON
That's not possible, the poem said-
VITTORIA
Where was he originally buried?
LANGDON
I don't know... Urbino, I think...
(thinking like crazy)
Santi's earthly tomb... what else
could it possibly... Santi 's tomb...
His eyes flit around the room, from one ornate sarcophagus to
another. And then it hits him:
LANGDON (cont'd)
Damn it! "Santi's tomb" must mean
one of the chapels he built! He's
not buried in it, he designed it! Rich
people commissioned burial chapels in
churches all over Rome in his day!
(looks up)
And the "demon's hole," it isn't the
oculus, it's an undercroft, a crypt,
common sixteenth century term!
At that very moment, the tour group is passing them, and the
elderly Docent asks his group the perfunctory wrap-up:
DOCENT
Does anyone have any questions?
Langdon busts in on the group.
43.
LANGDON
Yes! Did Raphael Santi ever design
a chapel with an ossuary annex and
angel figure commissioned by the
Catholic Church?!
The Docent blinks. Wasn't expecting quite so esoteric a
question.
LANGDON (cont'd)
Well?!
DOCENT
I'm sorry, I... I can only think of
one.
Langdon suppresses the urge to grab him by the lapels and shake it
out of him.
LANGDON
One'll do.
CUT TO:
EXT PANTHEON DAY
A clock in the square outside the Pantheon says 7:56. Langdon
and Vittoria face Rocher, Olivetti, and half a dozen Swiss Guard.
ROCHER
Wrong? What do you mean, wrong?!
LANGDON
(FAST)
The first altar of science is the
Chigi Chapel, in the church of Santa
Maria del Popolo, about a mile from
here! It used to be called Capella
della Terra, Chapel of the Earth.
Earth, the first element! This is
it, I'm certain.
ROCHER
You were certain of the Pantheon.
LANGDON
Please, we have four minutes!
Rocher looks at Langdon with contempt, then BARKS orders to his
men in Italian. They begin to head for their cars.
VITTORIA
Back to the Vatican?! You can't!
44.
LANGDON
Commandante, if you care at all about
your church-
ROCHER
My church? My church feeds the
hungry, comforts the sick and dying.
What does your church do, Professor?
(no answer)
Ah, that's right, you haven't one.
He turns and walks away, glaring at Olivetti.
ROCHER (cont'd)
Take him if you want, but I'm done
with him.
CUT TO:
Date: 2015-12-18; view: 571
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