10 Years Later, Tom Hanks' Globe-Trotting Conspiracy Thriller Series Remains the Perfect Binge Watch

5 days ago 10

Published Jan 29, 2026, 8:02 PM EST

André Joseph is a movie features writer at Collider. Born and raised in New York City, he graduated from Emerson College with a Bachelor's Degree in Film. He freelances as an independent filmmaker, teacher, and blogger of all things pop culture. His interests include Marvel, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Robocop, wrestling, and many other movies and TV shows.

His accomplishments as a filmmaker include directing the indie movie Vendetta Games now playing on Tubi, the G.I. Joe fan film "The Rise of Cobra" on YouTube, and receiving numerous accolades for his dramatic short film Dismissal Time. More information can be found about André on his official website.

For decades, despite his prestigious career, the prospect of Tom Hanks headlining a cinematic franchise eluded him. Then he got the chance to play a unique kind of globe-trotting hero who was not James Bond or Indiana Jones. With a blend of conspiracy thriller and world-history elements, Hanks’ Robert Langdon trilogy, inspired by Dan Brown’s novels, delivers some of the best bingeworthy entertainment in recent memory.

Each of the Langdon adventures helmed by Oscar-winning director Ron Howard (Thirteen Lives, Eden) is now available to stream ten years after the trilogy concluded. 2006’s The Da Vinci Code and 2009’s Angels & Demons can be found on both Peacock and Paramount+. Additionally, 2016’s Inferno is available on Hulu/Disney+.

The Controversy Surrounding 'The Da Vinci Code'

Upon The Da Vinci Code’s arrival in theaters in 2006, expectations were incredibly high. Brown’s controversial 2003 novel touched upon the taboo subject of the Holy Grail not as an object but the humanization of Jesus Christ and his hidden marriage to Mary Magdalene. The Catholic Church, as well as various religious organizations, openly protested the book, which went on to sell 80 million copies. The outrage extended to include Howard’s film adaptation. Critics were mixed on The Da Vinci Code, scoring 25% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the buzz surrounding the film, along with its prestigious cast and crew, made it one of the year’s top earners at the worldwide box office.

Though the novel's events take place before Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code film adaptation was the perfect setup to establish Hanks’ methodical take on Langdon. He’s a truth-seeker full of historical wisdom. Yet, he is fully restrained from allowing his deeper emotions to rise above the surface. Langdon’s quest to uncover the Holy Grail cover-up alongside French police cryptographer Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) is a slow burn in contrast to the relentless thriller direction of the later installments of the trilogy. Yet, it is the kind of engaging, adult-oriented thriller that is rarely made in today’s cinema.

‘Angels & Demons’ Dials up the Thrills

Angels & Demons wastes no time with long-winded explanations of human history’s dark secrets. The second Langdon film sees the world-renowned academic in Vatican City, where he must work with a nuclear research scientist (Ayelet Zurer) to find a stolen antimatter canisterbefore a mad terrorist tied to the Illuminati blows up the Church along with the rest of the city. The thriller elements are dialed up this go-around as the story takes place over the course of one evening, with Langdon frantically finding clues and solving puzzles among the Vatican’s delicate treasures.

The relentlessly dark pace at which Angels & Demons runs is a reminder of Howard’s sharp directing skills in the thriller genre, as seen in Ransom and The Missing. The stakes are more present and timely than The Da Vinci Code, and Hanks is less restrained here as Langdon, taking a more proactive approach to his role as a heroic symbolist. Among the film’s stand-out set-pieces is Langdon trapped inside the Vatican Archives as the oxygen levels drop rapidly. It is a claustrophobic sequence, sharply edited and intensely photographed, much like the rest of the film.

‘Inferno’ Is the Somber Conclusion of the Trilogy

By the time Inferno arrived in 2016, the cinematic landscape had changed. Superhero dominance was in full swing, and mid-budget thrillers were becoming endangered. As a result, Inferno feels leaner, stranger, and more introspective than its predecessors. That’s precisely why it works as the trilogy’s closing chapter.

Shaking up the formula of the previous films, Langdon suffers from amnesia in Florence, Italy, and gets drawn into a global catastrophe plot alongside his doctor (Felicity Jones), where they must stop a biological weapon called “Inferno” from wiping out half the population. It’s less about unraveling a single grand mystery and more about moral ambiguity and existential dread. Florence and Venice provide haunting backdrops, and Hanks gives one of his most subdued performances as Langdon.

As a binge-watch finale, Inferno doesn’t try to outdo the earlier films in spectacle. Instead, it reframes the trilogy as a meditation on knowledge, responsibility, and the unintended consequences of genius.

Watch The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons today on Peacock and Paramount+ in the US. Inferno is now streaming on Hulu/Disney+.