About

Conclave is a 2024 political thriller film directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan. It is based on Robert Harris's 2016 novel of the same name, following Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) organizing a conclave to elect the next pope while he finds himself digging up secrets and scandals about the major candidates. The movie received critical acclaim from both the audience and film critics. Online, scenes and quotes from the film inspired memes and jokes on Twitter / X, fancam edits on TikTok, as well as resurfacing in April 2025 after the death of Pope Francis.

Background

On May 11th, 2022, Deadline^[2] reported the production of Conclave, a conspiracy thriller with Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini set to star, and Edward Berger directing. Filming began in January 2023^[1] in Rome and concluded in March 2023. The first trailer^[3] for Conclave was released on July 18th, 2024, amassing more than 23 million views and 36,000 likes in a year.

Developments

Release

On October 25th, 2024, Conclave^[4] was released in American theaters. The film has a score of 79 on the Metacritic^[5] website, based on 53 critic reviews. In the website Rotten Tomatoes^[6], _Conclave holds an 86% popornmeter score based on 2,500 users' ratings.

Reception

The critical reception of the film was mostly positive, as YouTuber^[7] Dan Murrell posted his review of Conclave on October 25th, 2024, writing the video's description that "Ralph Fiennes leads the search for a new pope in this Vatican-set drama full of intrigue and surprise twists." The video (seen below) amassed more than 122,000 views and 3,100 likes in seven months.

Online Reactions

Conclave gained a notable following and inspired many discussions on Twitter / X, Reddit and TikTok since its premiere in theaters in October 2024. For example, on February 25th, 2025, TikTok^[8] user @sensacinelatam compared a scene from the conspiracy thriller with a scene from the 2004 Mean Girls comedy film. The video (seen below) received more than 6 million plays and 966,000 likes in three months.

On April 15th, 2025, X^[9] user @kenobitrinity posted a Conclave fan edit using Lady Gaga's "Judas" music (seen below), amassing over 116,000 views and 5,500 likes in a week.

The death of Pope Francis on April 21st, 2025, resurfaced memes and clips of Conclave on social media. For instance, X^[10] user @evenstqrs posted a GIF of the movie, captioning "me and oomfs rewatching Conclave tonight," which received roughly 111,000 views and 3,900 likes in a few hours. (seen below)

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References