Spoilers for the ending of Conclave. Cardinal Benitez—not Cardinal Lawrence—is elected pope, taking the name Innocent. The final reveal is that Benitez is intersex. Director Edward Berger says Lawrence comes to recognize that the right person was chosen; the closing light and laughter point toward hope and the possibility of change.
Who becomes pope in Conclave?
The film first steers attention toward Cardinal Lawrence, who is overseeing the election and wrestling with doubt about his own role. But the cardinals elect Benitez, a cardinal from Kabul. He chooses the name Innocent.
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After the election, Lawrence asks Benitez about a past medical appointment. Benitez tells him that he is intersex. Lawrence takes in the disclosure and stands by the new pope rather than treating it as a reason to undo the election.
What does the final scene mean?
Berger told Vanity Fair that Lawrence ultimately understands “the right person has been selected to be pope.” The final scene makes that change visible: a room that has felt closed-in opens to light, and Lawrence hears the nuns laughing.
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- Genre: Mystery / Suspense
- Number of Discs: 1
- Number of Tracks: 0
- Playback Duration: 121
- Rating: PG
Berger also described the reveal as a chance for “a crack in the veneer” of a patriarchal institution to let future light in. In a separate Den of Geek interview, he connected the ending’s open shutters, air and sunlight with a hopeful future. The film is not simply presenting a twist as a gotcha: the disclosure matters because of how Lawrence responds to it and what that response suggests about the Church’s capacity to change.
Berger cautioned against reading the film as an attack on faith. “It’s not a takedown of the church,” he told Vanity Fair, describing its interest in people of faith and their effort to serve others. Benitez’s chosen name, Innocent, also reflects the director’s emphasis on openness and lack of prejudice.
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Was Benitez’s election foreshadowed?
Berger said a more literal hint—a razor-related detail in the screenplay—was removed because it did not work for him. Instead, he pointed to the gradual support Benitez gathers as voting proceeds, much of it off camera. That is the subtler setup for the result: the film lets the election shift without spelling out the final reveal in advance.
Conclave adapts Robert Harris’s novel, with a screenplay by Peter Straughan. The film’s election and final disclosure are choices within that adaptation; they should not be treated as a documentary account of Vatican procedure.
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Could the secret appointment in the film happen in a real conclave?
The film uses in pectore—a real form of private cardinal appointment—as part of Benitez’s backstory. But an explainer from America magazine says that an appointment not publicly announced does not give the person a right to participate in a conclave. On that point, the film’s setup departs from the canon-law account described by the magazine.
The separate question of how intersex status relates to canonical sex and eligibility for ordination is not settled in that reporting. Kurt Martens, a canon-law professor at the Catholic University of America, called it “an interesting question” and said, “I don’t have a final answer for you.” The film’s ending therefore should not be read as establishing a definitive real-world ruling about whether an intersex person could be ordained or elected pope.
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Film details
Focus Features identifies Conclave as a 2024 film directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan. Its premise follows Cardinal Lawrence as he manages the papal selection process after the pope’s death.
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