Ralph Fiennes in ‘Conclave’ (2024). Photo:
Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Conclave takes the real-life process of how the Catholic Church chooses a new pope and embellishes it, with cardinals being exposed for their troubled pasts and a wildcard new pope potentially altering the church’s future.
Ralph Fiennes leads the movie as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who oversees the process of cardinals meeting at the Vatican in Rome to vote on a new pope — known as a conclave.
Lawrence is initially hesitant to lead the process, since he previously expressed his interest in resigning from his role before the previous pope died. However, as the film develops, Lawrence becomes an important figure, investigating the personal lives of potential candidates and unearthing their scandalous secrets.
Conclave takes a turn when an unknown cardinal starts to become the frontrunner after many of the leading cardinals are weeded out. The wildcard nominee later reveals a secret of his own that could shake the future of the church.
The Oscar-winning movie, which is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, became a topic of conversation again after Pope Francis died on April 21. Similarly to how the movie portrays, eligible cardinals will gather 15 to 20 days after his death in the Sistine Chapel and select a new pope.
So, how does Conclave end? Here’s everything to know about who becomes the next pope and what that final twist means.
Warning: Conclave spoilers ahead!
Sergio Castellitto in ‘Conclave’ (2024). Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection
Throughout Conclave, different cardinals — including Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), Joshua Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) and Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) — campaign to become the next pope.
Simultaneously, the cardinals are thrown for a loop when the archbishop of Kabul, Afghanistan, Cardinal Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz), arrives in Vatican City. Benitez shocks the other religious leaders when he informs them that the last pope made him a cardinal in secret, so he is eligible to both vote for and become the next pope.
The pool of leading candidates dwindles as Lawrence learns hidden secrets about them. Both Adeyemi and Tremblay lose their shot after intertwining scandals are revealed, while Bellini loses traction despite being an early favorite.
The conclave eventually becomes divided, with opposing sides disagreeing on the future of the Catholic Church and the type of leader they need. Tedesco seems to be the next frontrunner, but in the midst of one of their votes, the Sistine Chapel is partially bombed as part of a terrorist attack.
The cardinals all remain unharmed, but tensions rise when Tedesco suggests they fight the terrorists with more violence and begin a religious war. Benitez then interjects and makes a powerful speech about the importance of leading with love and peace over violence.
The speech immediately makes Benitez an unexpected favorite, and he is overwhelmingly voted to become the pope during the seventh and final vote. He chooses “Innocent” as his papal name.
The movie ends when Lawrence pulls Benitez aside before he is officially announced to the public as the new pope. During the meeting, Lawrence confronts Benitez over why he cancelled a planned trip to a clinic in Switzerland, leading the new pope to share a shocking revelation.
Carlos Diehz in ‘Conclave’ (2024). Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection
At the end of the movie, Benitez tells Lawrence that he was raised as a male but later learned that he is intersex, meaning his reproductive organs do not fit into the gender binary. Benitez explains that he was getting his appendix removed when doctors discovered that he had both external male genitalia and internal female organs.
Benitez confided in the previous pope before he died, and the pope didn’t express any hesitation about his medical history. Benitez originally scheduled an appointment in Switzerland to undergo a laparoscopic hysterectomy to remove his female sex organs, but he decided against it when he realized that he is “what God made me.”
Benitez’s anatomy doesn’t disqualify from the papacy, but it does make him an untraditional selection. Lawrence and the late pope’s acceptance allows viewers to interpret how the fictional Catholic Church — which was divided between staying in its traditionalist ways or adapting to the current times — will change in the future because of its new pope.
‘Conclave’ (2024). Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection
In the midst of the campaigning and arguing over who should become the next pope, the cardinals are reminded of the religious tensions from the outside world when the Vatican becomes the target of a terrorist attack.
After a suicide bomber destroys part of the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals — who are sequestered away from any outside communication — discover that there have been a series of suicide bombings across Europe.
The attacks play a major role in their decision to make Benitez pope, because he gives an impassioned speech on handling the situation with peace rather than with war. The cardinals choose Benitez in part because they agreed with his stance on progressing the church forward and not reverting to past tendencies.
Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Lawrence in ‘Conclave’ (2024). Courtesy of Focus Features©
When viewers were introduced to Lawrence, he was the dean of the College of Cardinals tasked with organizing the conclave. He later reveals that he pleaded with the pope to resign from his duties because he was having a crisis of faith.
“I think that that crisis is at the root of [Cardinal Lawrence’s] homily about doubt,” Fiennes said of his character during a Variety panel in February 2025. “My interpretation is rigidity, rigidity breaks, it snaps. Whereas doubt, questioning, is flexibility, is being open to other ways.”
Despite not wanting to lead the conclave and having doubts about the entire church, he honors the late pope’s wishes and oversees the process. At the end of the film, Lawrence decides to keep Benitez’s secret and seems to feel restored by both his and the late pope’s decision to accept the new pope for who he is.
It’s unclear whether or not Lawrence decides to stay in the church, but the final scene shows him heading to his quarters and looking pleased at a group of nuns walking the Vatican grounds.
