A Vehement Odyssey of Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code

I like to use the word passion interchangeably with words like determination, conviction, and love. Passion is a strong desire that can get you to do amazing things. Passion is an emotion to be acted upon. Without action, passion yields no worthwhile results. Passion is the fuel in the fire of action. When you have passion for something, you love it even when you hate it. Passion has always been a way to achieve the highest of goals. Combined with consistency and hard work, it can work miracles. The same passion can be seen in the female lead of the movie The Da Vinci Code, Sophie Neveu.

The Da Vinci Code is a 2006 American mystery thriller film directed by Ron Howard, written by Akiva Goldsman, and based on Dan Brown‘s 2003 best-selling 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. On the body, the police find a disconcerting cypher and start an investigation. Langdon escapes with the assistance of police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, and they begin a quest for the legendary Holy Grail. A noted British Grail historian, Sir Leigh Teabing, tells them that the actual Holy Grail is explicitly encoded in Leonardo da Vinci‘s wall painting, The Last Supper. Also searching for the Grail is a secret cabal within Opus Dei, an actual prelature of the Holy See, who wish to keep the true Grail a secret to prevent the destruction of Christianity.

Sophie Neveu is taught all about puzzles and games as she grows up, and when she’s shown in the movie as an adult, it is clear that she’s taken a lot from that. Sophie might be taught a lot during the movie by Robert, but she adds just as much herself due to her passion and intelligence. She’s a smart character who can work out plenty of the puzzles and situations herself, without needing any help. She showcases her intelligence countless times during the movie, such as knowing that Bezu was treating Robert like a criminal, saving him right at the start.

Sophie, like the Mona Lisa, exhibits male and female traits: for example, Sophie is quick-witted, agile, devious when she needs to be, and physically assertive, as when she helps to disable Silas in the chateau. But at the same time, she is caring and compassionate. She feels the loss of her family deeply and mourns the death of her grandfather. Both brilliant and sexually attractive, Sophie combines a masculine toughness with typically feminine qualities which asserts her passion for the goal of finding the secret and proving herself worthy of it.

Neveu’s presence in the movie embodies the Chinese idea of yin and yang or two complementary forces that work together in harmony. From Langdon and Teabing, Sophie learns that pagan religions and the Priory value balance between males and females. Sophie and Langdon form the male and female halves of a single protagonist, and their goals never diverge. In this way, they echo Teabing’s and Langdon’s ideas about the partnership of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. In their view, the male and the female worked together toward a goal, without the female being subordinate to the male in any way. This belief in the balance shows the passionate side of Sophie who is confident enough to go on with the major goal that her grandfather left her with.

Sophie has been passionate about cracking all the riddles and finding all the clues that her grandfather left. The only motive behind it was to prove herself worthy of the secret. She understood what her grandfather wanted by leaving all these clues and riddles in the form of “cryptex”. Cryptex was a way to prove if someone was worthy or not because the only way to open it was to crack the riddle and trying to break will only result in the secret going to waste and being a secret forever, showing the person unworthy of it to have. So she was passionate to prove herself along with finding the truth and what was the motive of her grandfather behind all this mess, not knowing that it was the initiation of her being the next leader.

Watching any action or anything with active visual quality could have a strong psychological effect. Making the character of Sophie a passionate one made the movie more interesting and influential for everyone, especially females. The movie was able to catch a lot of attention, both positive and negative. It positively affected her whole personality and improved it to be more intimidating and dominating, surrounded by a whole new level of powerful aura. This kind of passion in a lead role could seriously attract the audience and could have a long-lasting impact.

One of the big reasons that The Da Vinci Code is such a brilliant movie is the intelligence and passion that the characters have. The writing is clever and the characters in the story are constantly looking to make smart decisions to try and achieve their goals within the plot.