Hanks says movie echoes U.S. election
Bad guy with ‘one-step answer to all problems’ reflects political discourse
LONDON— Embedded within the manic action of Inferno, the latest big-screen adaptation of a Dan Brown thriller, is a warning about the dangers of seeking simple solutions to complex problems. Star Tom Hanks says it’s a theme with echoes in the current U.S. presidential race.
Inferno sets Hanks’ polymathic professor Robert Langdon on the trail of a deadly plague concocted by billionaire scientist Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) out of a sort of warped humanitarianism: He plans to end war, poverty and famine by wiping out half the world’s population.
Hanks says the belief that there’s a “one-step answer to all problems” is alarmingly relevant.
“Down through history, there’s been an awful lot of people who say: Here’s what the problem is, here’s what it was caused by and all you have to do is my suggestion, there’s an easy way in order to make it go away,” Hanks said.
“It’s very simplistic, it’s very reactionary. It’s almost like a fundamental embracing of a brand of ignorance,” he added. “But I think it’s part of the political discourse.”
Hanks clearly has the contest between Trump and Clinton in mind.
The U.S., he says, needs “vision and leadership and scope, as opposed to one-stop shopping fixes all.”
“I’m not a political activist, nor am I apolitical animal, but I will say: Look, I’m going to vote for her, because I think this is a marathon in order to solve not just the most obvious problems, but the ones that are coming down the pipe.”
Political discussion over, Hanks reverts to talking about Brown’s mega- successful mix of medieval conspiracies and modern-day skulduggery.
In his third screen outing as Langdon, Hanks is sent on a high-stakes treasure hunt centred around the life and works of Dante, whose Divine Comedy created a teeming vision of hell that has influenced artists and writers for 700 years.
He’s joined by Felicity Jones’ brainy medic Dr. Sienna Brooks as ally and intellectual sparring partner.
Hanks, who played Langdon in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons — both directed by Ron Howard, as is Inferno — says he still finds pleasure in making the border-hopping thrillers. Inferno scurries from Florence to Venice to Istanbul, wreaking havoc in some of the world’s most beautiful historic buildings.
“Making movies is by and large a pretty fun enterprise, except when you have to be cold or up late or wear a fake beard or something,” Hanks said. “But these are rather special. The team has been together since the first one. We get to go to amazing places: London, Paris, Rome, Venice. Which is a lot better than, say, going to Sony Studios in Culver City, California.”
For the actor, there’s also the pleasure of absorbing large quantities of information so his character can dispense gobbets of exposition and ex- pertise about everything from Dante’s death mask to the nine circles of hell.
“It makes you a really great dinner companion,” Hanks said.
“For a guy who really only had a couple of years of junior college — and none of it was spent in art history class — I end up learning an awful lot about art history.”