'Angels and Demons' Mix Fact And Fiction

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (ISNS) - While Dan Brown’s bestselling-book "Angels & Demons" is a work of fiction, some of the science depicted in the story is based in fact. So when Ron Howard began directing the "Angels & Demons"movie, he went to the source -- the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland -- to learn about the science central to the story’s plot.

Howard and the movie's stars, Tom Hanks and Ayelet Zurer, toured the laboratory and got an up close look at the LHC. In the film, 1/8 of a gram of antimatter is stolen from the collider by terrorists who want to create a bomb to destroy the Vatican. 

"It would take CERN 125 million years to produce the amount of antimatter needed for an explosion the size referred to in the film. It's never going to happen," physicist and CERN spokesman James Gillies said. "Another problem with casting the LHC as the antimatter factory is that antimatter particles produced in the LHC will be too energetic to trap."

Gillies recalls the creative solution that he and Howard came up with. "I remember having a long phone conversation with Ron Howard where we got over that by inventing some new physics -- low-angle resonant production of antimatter at the LHC. It is pure fiction, but it was a fun conversation."

CERN officials were also given the opportunity to see the movie’s script as it evolved and provide input. "I found the script to be a very clever distillation of the parts of the book that you really need to keep to tell a very tight and gripping story," says Gillies. "The researchers for the script were very careful to get the sort of things that might be said in the LHC control room right."

The movie's cast and crew not only toured the LHC but also talked with the CERN scientists to gain insights into what it is really like for the scientists who work in the laboratory. CERN particle physicist Mike Lamont provided the dialog used in the script for the control room scene and as a result will see his name is listed in the film's credits.

"The science plays a much smaller role in the film than in the book, but the DVD should include some extras explaining the real science of antimatter," said Gillies. "I was personally very impressed with Ron Howard's genuine interest in the science and in getting it as accurate as possible in the film."

Howard has combined of the accuracy of science fact with the magic of fiction to create an explosive combination for moviegoers.

Additional Information

Angels & Demons Lecture Nights: The Science Revealed

The Angels & Demons Movie Website

CERN | CERN’s Angels & Demons Website