Bibel Code (2008)

Shortly after her release, former police officer Johanna Bachmann receives a call from her father Christian, whom she thought was dead. He asks her to meet him. But when they meet, the Bible scholar is shot. With his last strength, he warns her of an attack on the Pope and gives his daughter a laptop, a USB stick, a notebook, and a key. In her father’s ransacked apartment, Johanna meets his assistant, the Frenchman Simon Maler. As the two search the office for clues, shots ring out. The violent Cardinal Rhades threatens them because, before his death, Christian Bachmann had discovered four prophecies in the Bible with the help of a secret biblical code. After a chase across the rooftops of Munich, Johanna calls Ephraim Blum, a colleague of her father’s. He invites her to Graz, but when she arrives there with Simon, Blum has disappeared. Simon examines the texts stored on the laptop in Phoenician Hebrew and discovers that the first prophecy (“The day of revelation is the day of your death”) has already come true. In a monastery on the River Loup in Provence, Johanna and Simon meet Blum, who tells them about the Sibyls. These prophetesses could use the Bible to see into the future and served as advisers to the powerful figures of the Church. When their enemies appear, Blum is shot and Johanna destroys the laptop. She and Simon are captured by Rhades’s henchman Thadeus. But a young monk of the Black Order rescues them at the last moment. The trio travel together to the Vatican to warn Pope Innocent V of the assassination attempt foretold by the second prophecy (“The grace of God accompanies the death of the great prophet”), along with Bachmann’s last words. When they stand before the Holy Father, the Black Monk accompanying Johanna (whose name means “the grace of God”) proves to be a traitor and stabs the Pope. Andreas Imhof and a White Monk take Johanna and Simon to the monastery of the Prelature of the Holy Stars (sancti stellares) in Styria. There, Johanna is surprised to encounter the Pope, who survived the attack. Innocent tells her of the sinister plans of Cardinal Rhades of Avignon, who wants to become Pope himself. He also reveals that the seeresses were the only women in this monastery. The last seeress, Nora Weber, disappeared just over 100 years ago along with the star disc, which is indispensable for deciphering the biblical code. Andreas Imhof shows the visitors the library, which contains many old biblical manuscripts. In Nora’s papers, Simon discovers a Hebrew monogram that points to Johanna. While Johanna learns that her former colleague Markus has been fatally infected with black pox, a traitor sets fire to the library. Simon convinces her that Rhades is probably planning a smallpox epidemic in order to bring about the third prophecy (“The black armies bring darkness”). It also becomes clear that the fourth prophecy (“She follows the path of Isaiah”) probably refers to Johanna. Using a secret code, they discover a map of the Holy Land made by Nora in the monastery. As the two adventurers fly to Israel, the Pope convenes a consistory to accuse Rhades. In the Negev Desert, Johanna and Simon find the village where Nora’s tomb is located. They meet a young man whose family has guarded Nora’s secret for three generations. In the tomb, they discover a broken telescope with a map and the original manuscript of the Bible. Then Johanna and Simon must flee Rhades’s killers again. The new map leads them to Ramon, where a sandstorm holds their pursuers back. In the middle of the desert, Johanna suddenly knows where the star disc is. When she holds the disc over the original manuscript, she has a vision that reveals Rhades’s plan. With the Order’s help, Johanna and Simon just manage to reach Rome in time to prevent the poisoning of the drinking water and stop the Pope from surrendering to Rhades. Cardinal Rhades then commits suicide.