WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the new Tomb Raider film and the video game of the same name.
As much as Tomb Raider focuses on Lara Croft's evolution into the adventurer we know, the new movie reboot is also about her investigation of the shadowy organization known as Trinity. We're given vague allusions to its true intentions, but we're almost never provided any solid details. It's understandable that audiences might have walked away from the film with more questions than answers, especially after the twist ending, in which Lara discovers Trinity has its claws buried in countries and businesses worldwide, including Lara's own Croft Holdings.
Fans of the hit video games might have seen that revelation coming before they walked into the theater, because that franchise gives us a lot more information about Trinity, so that's where we're going for details: the source material.
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Trinity is briefly mentioned in a message found in 2013's A Survivor Is Born after the player acquires all the collectible GPS caches. It isn't until the 2015 sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, that we're provided with more information about Trinity and its long history.
The film describes Trinity quite simply as an ancient organization that seeks to acquire mystical artifacts so it can one day control the world. Although it may sound as if the film has remained faithful to the source material in this instance, the games actually go much further. Keep in mind that the movie needed to mix and mash elements of the games, which is why we're going to help sort cinematic invention from the Trinity of the source material.
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The Order of Trinity is a deeply religious military order that's existed for more than a thousand years, as evidenced in Rise of the Tomb Raider in letters describing its relentless search for the immortal Prophet. That's partly because, as the film states, the organization wants all the world's mystical treasures to ensure that God, and God alone, has power over humanity.
That desire is such that Trinity's members are willing to commit genocide. Any civilization that has ever made use of an object Trinity views as heretical, such as The Divine Source in Rise of the Tomb Raider, warrants its wrath.
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While the games go into great detail about what the Order of Trinity is, they have not yet revealed the figures controlling the entire organization, though players were given a great look at some of the organization's high-ranking agents, among them Ana Miller (played in the new film by Kristin Scott Thomas).
In Rise of the Tomb Raider, we're told that Ana was romantically involved with Richard Croft, not out of any real affection (not initially, anyway), but because she was assigned to watch him by Trinity. When Lord Croft begins to uncover too much about the organization, Ana is instructed to murder him. She fails to do so, having fallen in love with Richard. Trinity sends another assassin, and the murder is staged to look like a suicide. Instead of leaving the Order, Ana resumes her duties as a Trinity agent, watching as Lara grows and attempts to carry on her father's work.
Eventually, after both Trinity and Lara begin searching for the Diving Source, the ruse is revealed, and Lara discovers Ana's true allegiance. However, by that time, Ana's motives had changed. She sought the Divine Source not for Trinity, but because she hoped it would cure her illness.
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A perfect example of a Trinity agent is Ana's deeply religious brother, Konstantin. Like Ana, he was raised and trained by Trinity. He has mastered the use of a wide variety of weaponry, but his most dangerous trait is that he firmly believes he is God's chosen warrior, although this is partly due to Ana's cruel manipulations. Unyielding in his views, he, like most Trinity agents, feels that any and all acts, no matter how violent, are justified by Trinity's larger goal.
The film adapts different elements of the organization depicted in the video games, the Order's insignia not being one of them. For the most part, as with much of the film, Trinity seems to be a mix of the Order of Trinity and the Solarii Brotherhood, as evidenced by the involvement of Mathias Vogel (played by Walton Goggins).
The film presents the Order of Trinity with slightly different aims as well. In both depictions, the Order seeks mystical objects of great power, but their reasons are different. The film's Order seeks to use them, while the video games are quite clear in that the organization seeks to destroy all mystical artifacts. Either way, it's up to Lara Croft to stop them.
In theaters now, director Roar Uthaug’s Tomb Raider stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, Dominic West as Richard Croft, Daniel Wu as Lu Ren, Kristin Scott Thomas as Ana Miller, Hannah John-Kamen as Sophie and Walton Goggins as Mathias Vogel.