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The 2024 film Conclave gets the visible machinery of a papal election broadly right: the Sistine Chapel setting, the oath of secrecy, secret handwritten ballots, the two-thirds threshold and the smoke signal. Its main departures are two plot devices. One is a secretly appointed cardinal who walks into the conclave and votes. The other is a cardinal inside the conclave who keeps in touch with the outside world. Both conflict with the governing rules. The factional horse-trading and vote-buying storyline is dramatic fiction.
The rules the film is measured against
The governing text is John Paul II’s 1996 apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, as modified by Benedict XVI’s 2013 amendment, Normas Nonnullas. The 2013 text expressly restored the traditional requirement that two-thirds of the cardinal electors present be needed for a valid election. The constitution states that “The election is to take place exclusively in the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican,” and the Chapel is enclosed until the election concludes. It also imposes secrecy on matters related directly or indirectly to the election.
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Conclave - Blu-ray + Digital | $10.04 | Buy on Amazon |
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Conclave [Blu-ray] | $17.61 | Buy on Amazon |
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CONCLAVE - BLU-RAY | $33.04 | Buy on Amazon |
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Conclave Blu-ray | Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow | Region B (Australia) | $20.87 | Buy on Amazon |
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How a ballot works
Each step below comes from the constitution and from a 2025 Vatican News procedural explainer by Tiziana Campisi.
- Each elector receives a rectangular ballot that bears the words Eligo in Summum Pontificem (“I elect as Supreme Pontiff”) in the upper half, and writes one name in secret.
- Each folded ballot is placed in a chalice. Three scrutineers count the votes, and three revisers check their work.
- The counted ballots are pierced and threaded together, so the set can be kept and handled as one.
- Where two ballots are taken in succession, the constitution provides for them to be burned together after the second.
- Smoke signals the result to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square: black if no pope has been elected, white if one has.
Threshold and schedule
A valid election requires at least two-thirds of the votes cast by electors present and voting. The schedule is set by the 1996 constitution: one ballot on the opening afternoon, then two in the morning and two in the afternoon on each following day.
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- Genre: Mystery / Suspense
- Number of Discs: 1
- Number of Tracks: 0
- Playback Duration: 121
- Rating: PG
| Voting day | Ballots provided for |
|---|---|
| Opening day (begins in the afternoon) | One ballot |
| Each later day | Two in the morning, two in the afternoon (up to four) |
What the film gets right
- Setting and ceremony. The film stages the election in the Sistine Chapel, with an oath, a procession, secret voting and counting rituals that broadly track official procedure.
- Secrecy and enclosure. Electors swear secrecy, and the Chapel is closed while voting is under way.
- The threshold and the rhythm of voting. The film’s repeated ballots and its sense that a majority is not enough both match the two-thirds rule and the daily schedule.
- Several days of voting. The film’s multi-day deadlock is plausible. Per a 2025 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops graphic, the last seven conclaves lasted between one and three days and took between three and eleven ballots. Those are historical figures, not evidence that the film reproduces any specific conclave, and they are not a forecast for a future one.
Can a pope secretly name a cardinal who then votes?
No, not in the way the film shows. A cardinal appointed in pectore, meaning named in secret and never publicly revealed before the appointing pope dies, does not hold cardinal rights, including the right to enter and vote in a conclave. PolitiFact’s May 2025 examination of the film treats the secret elector as a major procedural invention. The plot depends on it, so it is the film’s most significant departure from the rules.
Can a cardinal inside the conclave receive news or contact anyone outside?
No. The film shows Cardinal Lawrence seeking information from a monsignor outside the Chapel and receiving news of an event in Rome. The constitution’s secrecy provisions cover information related to the election, and the rules prohibit recording or transmitting it. PolitiFact’s cited expert said that seeking outside information would violate conclave rules. The film’s dramatic suspense rests on a contact the rules forbid.
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Are the factions and vote deals realistic?
The film’s clean ideological camps are a thriller device, not a reliable map of real voting blocs. In an Associated Press report on the film’s political framing, canon-law professor Kurt Martens of the Catholic University of America cautioned that liberal and conservative labels do not describe cardinals well. “Those labels don’t help us,” he said. A cardinal considered liberal by secular standards may still be conservative on Church questions.
Vote-buying is the film’s clearest rule violation. Universi Dominici Gregis forbids simony and makes it punishable by automatic excommunication. It also forbids binding vote agreements. AP characterized the film’s politicking as exaggerated and reported an expert’s view that paying for votes is unheard of in modern times.
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Official rules can be checked; private conduct cannot. The constitution tells us what is prohibited, but because deliberations are secret, no source can show what each elector privately considered or said. Claims about real back-room bargaining should be treated as speculation, whether they come from the film or from commentary about it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Summary of the fact-check
| Element | Film | Real procedure | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location and ceremony | Sistine Chapel, oath, procession, counting | Sistine Chapel, enclosed during voting | Broadly accurate |
| Secrecy and outside contact | Cardinal receives news from outside | Secrecy required; transmitting election information prohibited | Inaccurate |
| Eligibility | Secretly appointed cardinal votes | In-pectore cardinal not revealed before the pope’s death lacks cardinal rights | Inaccurate |
| Threshold, schedule, smoke | Repeated ballots, black and white smoke | Two-thirds; one opening ballot, then up to four daily; black and white smoke | Accurate |
| Politics and deals | Clear factions, bribery, pacts | Simony and binding vote pacts forbidden; private conduct unverifiable | Dramatized |
Readers who want the fiction’s source can consult Robert Harris’s 2016 thriller, which the film adapts, according to TIME’s 2024 coverage.
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