Spoilers ahead for the plot and ending of Conclave, now in theaters.
You might not expect the year’s most surprising twist ending to be in a film about the selection of a new pope, but it’s important to remember that the Vatican is a messy bitch who lives for drama. Edward Berger’s Conclave, adapted from the novel by Robert Harris, showcases the gaudy ritual and ornate displays of Roman Catholicism, while also offering an intimate (albeit imagined) look at the backroom dealings and catty confrontations that go into the election of the supreme pontiff. While the film’s ending is certain to catch audiences off-guard, it’s far from the only secret revealed over the two-hour run time — and it plays into the theme of progress versus tradition that serves as Conclave’s central conflict.
Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Lawrence, the dean of the College of Cardinals tasked with overseeing the papal conclave after the sudden death of the pope. His preferred candidate for the next bishop of Rome is Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), a liberal with (relatively) forward-thinking views. On the other side of the ideological divide are Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), a fierce critic of the late pope who thinks the church has become too open-minded, and Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), who believes gay people should be condemned to prison, then hell. Then there’s the ambitious Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), a candidate who skews liberal but whose only real belief seems to be that he should be pope.
The wild card of the conclave arrives in the form of Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), the Mexican-born archbishop of Kabul. Because Benitez was elevated to his position in pectore — meaning the late pope did it without letting anyone else know — he’s a surprise addition to the College of Cardinals. There’s limited information about Benitez, but Lawrence’s assistant Monsignor O’Malley (BrÃan F. O’Byrne), uses his role as conclave outsider to gather and share intel with Lawrence, including that Benitez almost resigned as archbishop for mysterious health reasons.
As voting begins, Lawrence learns that Bellini does not have the votes to become pope. But over the course of the conclave, he also uncovers why the other candidates are unfit for the role. Adeyemi is leading in votes until the discovery that he had a secret relationship (and possible child) with a then-19-year-old nun decades prior. Tremblay seems like the next likely option until he’s exposed for having paid off several cardinals to vote for him, for having been dismissed by the pope in his final act. In the end, it looks like the liberals’ last hope comes down to Tedesco and Lawrence himself, but a terrorist attack spurs Tedesco to deliver an impassioned speech railing against tolerance for Islam and declaring a religious war, which costs him the support of all but his most die-hard defenders.
In response to Tedesco’s outburst, Benitez — who has seen real war firsthand — offers a counter-message about not giving into hate, insisting that the church is not about tradition or the past, but “what we do next.†That next step turns out to be choosing Benitez to be pope. But just as Benitez selects his papal name of Innocent, O’Malley returns to share what he’s learned about the clinic in Switzerland where Benitez almost traveled for treatment. Lawrence confronts the newly elected pope, who shares the truth: Although Benitez was raised as a man, he was born with a uterus and ovaries. He still identifies as male, while acknowledging that in the eyes of some, his chromosomes would define him as female.
Conclave’s reveal that Benitez is intersex follows the novel closely — the film as a whole is a very faithful adaptation — but there are some key differences that speak to the underlying themes. While in both the book and movie, the new pope declares, “I am what God made me,†in the film he emphasizes that his intersex identity could make him more useful in his role, precisely because he “exists between certainties.†It’s a callback to the impromptu homily Lawrence delivers before the cardinals are sequestered, in which he asserts that “certainty is the enemy of unity and tolerance.†Lawrence, who has been battling his own doubts, wants a pope who doubts and sins. This is read by most cardinals as a plea to elect a liberal and that’s ultimately where the conclave lands, with a pope whose gender identity is, however accidentally, a radical step forward for the church.
Some will dismiss Conclave’s late-stage reveal as a cheap twist, and given how much the film traffics in Bravo-level rumors and nastiness, that’s not an unreasonable conclusion. But there’s obviously something deeper going on here as well. Benitez’s election as pope amid the downfall of his brethren reflects the reality of human complexity — there could never have been a candidate for supreme pontiff without flaws. (Intersex identity is not a flaw, of course, but Benitez’s traditionally female anatomy would be considered a mark against him by the patriarchal Roman Catholic cardinals who elected him.) As one of Bellini’s allies says when arguing for the liberals to coalesce around the least objectionable candidate, “We serve an ideal; we cannot always be ideal.â€
Regardless of the messaging, however, Benitez’s intersex identity is a surprise and likely to earn pushback accordingly. It exists in the context of a long cinematic history of the “Unsettling Gender Reveal,†as The Advocate once called it — a trope best associated with The Crying Game but with even more troubling examples to point to, like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Sleepaway Camp. In both of the latter films, a trans villain’s genitalia is treated as a punch line, and their trans identity is associated with deception. Conclave is certainly aware of the trope and does its best to distance itself from it: Benitez’s final conversation with Lawrence presents his gender not as something nefarious or horrific but as a divine gift approved by the former pope himself.
It’s not my place to decide whether or not Conclave’s ending is offensive; I leave that up to trans critics to determine. But comparing it with the ending of the novel, it does at least seem to be a thoughtful and intentional update of the source material. In the book, Benitez reveals that he has a vagina; in the film, a uterus and ovaries. Though the distinction may seem minor, it’s an important one — the new pope has the reproductive organs that traditionalists like Tedesco seek to control. When Bellini shares his liberal views early in the film, he makes clear his support of contraception, an ongoing debate within Catholicism. Pope Francis has reaffirmed the church’s opposition to artificial birth control while also advocating for “responsible parenthood.â€
Conclave isn’t exactly taking a side on Catholic doctrine, however. If the film has a message, it’s less about the church specifically and more about the inevitability of progress. After Bellini reveals that he believes women should have a larger role in the Curia, his supporters advise that he keep that one to himself — this is the line that even many liberals won’t cross. But the women in the film, though undeniably outnumbered, prove to be pivotal: It’s Sister Shanumi (Balkissa Maiga) whose confrontation of Adeyemi leads to his downfall, and Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini) who turns the cardinals against Tremblay. The movie ends with the election of a pope who is not a woman, but whose anatomy and existence “between certainties†allows for a far broader perspective on gender than someone like Tedesco would have.
In the end, all of the cardinals’ bickering and betrayal can’t thwart an ascension of feminine power that feels preordained. Here, Conclave seems to suggest that “the world only spins forward,†as Tony Kushner once put it — it’s a hopeful and perhaps overly optimistic notion, to be sure, but in October 2024, it’s not an unwelcome one.