π (also known as Pi or Pi — Faith in Chaos) is a 1998 American psychological thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky, who won the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Gotham Open Palm Award. This film was the first feature film directed by Darren Aronofsky. The title refers to the mathematical constant π (pi).[nb 1]
Plot
Max Cohen, the story's main character and occasional narrator is a number theorist who believes that everything in nature can be understood through numbers, and that if you graph the numbers properly patterns will emerge. He is working on finding predictable patterns within the stock market, using its many variables as his data set with the assistance of his homemade supercomputer, Euclid. He is shown to be capable of doing simple arithmetic calculations (involving large numbers) in his head when a young girl asks him to solve a problem for her and verifies the answer on her calculator. Max also suffers from cluster headaches, as well as extreme paranoia (possibly paranoid schizophrenia), manifested in menacing hallucinations, and a crippling form of social anxiety disorder.
In the course of his work, Max begins making stock predictions based on Euclid's calculations. In the middle of printing out the picks, Euclid suddenly crashes, but first spits out a 216-digit number that appears to be nothing more than a random string, as well as a single pick at one-tenth its current value. Disgusted, Max tosses out the printout of the number. The next morning, Max checks the financial pages and sees that the few picks Euclid made before crashing were accurate following a huge tech stock plunge. He searches desperately for the printout but cannot find it. Other than a woman living on his block who sometimes speaks to him, the only social interaction Max seems to have is with Sol Robeson, his old mathematics mentor, who regards Max as his prize student. He sympathizes with Max about the loss of Euclid but becomes unnerved when Max mentions the string of numbers, asking if the string was 216 digits long. When Max questions him about the string, Sol indicates that he came across such a number many years ago. He urges Max to slow down and try taking a break.
At a coffee shop, Max meets Lenny Meyer, a Hasidic Jew who coincidentally does mathematical research on the Torah. Lenny demonstrates some simple Gematria, the correspondence of the Hebrew alphabet to numbers, to Max and explains how some people believe that the Torah is a string of numbers that form a code sent by God. Max takes an interest when he realizes that some of the number concepts Lenny discusses are similar to other mathematical concepts, such as the Fibonacci Sequence. Max eventually decides to abandon working on the stock market and assist Lenny.
Max is also being pursued by agents of a Wall Street firm that, while not specified directly, may have criminal connections, who are interested in his work for financial reasons. One of the agents, Marcy Dawson, offers Max a powerful new computer chip called "Ming Mecca" in exchange for the results of his work, which Max accepts.
Utilizing the sophisticated chip, Max has Euclid analyze mathematical patterns in the Torah. Euclid crashes again, but once again spits out the 216-digit number. When his computer refuses to print out the number, Max begins to write it down. Midway through the writing, Max realizes that he knows the pattern, undergoes a sudden, intense moment of self-realization, and passes out. Thereafter, Max appears to become clairvoyant and able to visualize the stock market patterns he had been searching for. His headaches also increase in intensity, and he discovers a strange vein-like bulge protruding from his right temple. After speaking with Sol again, he leaves disgusted after his mentor begs him to quit his work.
Marcy Dawson and her henchmen grab Max on the street, and try to force him to explain the 216-digit number. They had found the original printout and were trying to use it to manipulate the stock market to their own ends; however, their lack of comprehension regarding the number had led them to unwittingly crash the stock market. Although Max is held by Marcy's people at gunpoint, Lenny drives by and rescues him. However, soon, Lenny and his companions makes similar demands on Max to give them the number. They finally reveal their intentions: they believe the number was meant for them to bring about the Messianic Age, as the number represents the unspeakable name of God. Max refuses, insisting that whatever the source of the number, it has been revealed to him alone.
Max flees, and visits Sol again, only to find that he has since died of a second stroke. Max searches his house and finds mathematical scribblings similar to the kind Max himself had written. On a Go board, with its pieces arranged in a spiral, Max finds a piece of paper with the 216-digit number. He returns to his apartment.
Driven to the brink of madness, Max experiences another headache and resists the urge to take his pain medication. Believing that the number and the headaches are linked, Max tries to concentrate on the number through the pain. After passing out, Max has a vision of himself standing in a white void and repeating the digits of the number. The vision breaks with Max hugging his beautiful female neighbor, which turns out to be an illusion. Max is standing alone, clutching himself in his trashed apartment. Giving up, Max burns the paper with the number and trepans himself in the right temple with a power drill. Later, Max sits on a park bench and watches the trees blowing in the breeze, at peace. When the girl with the calculator comes to visit him and begins asking math problems, he smiles and tells her he doesn't know.
Cast
Sean Gullette as Maximillian Cohen
- Sean Gullette as Maximillian Cohen, a reclusive math genius
- Mark Margolis as Sol Robeson, Max's mentor, who abandoned his research into π after it nearly killed him.
- Ben Shenkman as Lenny Meyer, a Hasidic Jew who introduces Max to Kabbalah.
- Pamela Hart as Marcy Dawson, a representative of an investment firm that is interested in Max's research
- Stephen Pearlman as Rabbi Cohen, the leader of a Jewish sect that pursues Max.
- Samia Shoaib as Devi, Max's friendly woman neighbor.
- Ajay Naidu as Farroukh, Devi's boyfriend.
- Kristyn Mae-Anne Lao as Jenna, a girl who plays math games with Max.
Production
π was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, and filmed on high-contrast black-and-white reversal film.
π had a low budget ($60,000), but proved a financial success at the box office ($3.2 million gross in the U.S.) despite only a limited release to theaters. It has sold steadily on DVD.
Reception
The general critical reception has been good. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie is listed as "Certified Fresh", with an 84% positive rating based on 47 reviews. On Metacritic, the movie has a rating of 72 (generally favorable reviews) out of 100 based on 23 reviews.
Themes
Mathematics and π
π features several references to mathematics and mathematical theories. For instance, Max finds the golden spiral occurring everywhere, including the stock market. Max's belief that diverse systems embodying highly nonlinear dynamics share a unifying pattern bears much similarity to results in chaos theory, which provides machinery for describing certain phenomena of nonlinear systems, which might be thought of as patterns.
The film's duration is 1:23:45
The actual number Max discovers is not displayed in its entirety until 54:22. The number displayed on his monitor is:
94143243431512659321054872390486828512913474876027
67195923460238582958304725016523252592969257276553
64363462727184012012643147546329450127847264841075
62234789626728592858295347502772262646456217613984
829519475412398501
Arranged into 50 columns, this is in fact 218 digits, not the 216 digits as described in the film. All the partially displayed digits presented earlier on his monitor and the printout appear to be consistent with this number, with the exception that Sol's number transposes the digits at 62 and 63, exchanging the "23" for "32", and does not contain the regular count of digits per row found in Max's number. Also, in the short clips where Max is seen transcribing digits by hand, some of the sequences shown do not correlate to pieces of the number already shown on his computer screen. Fans have made numerous attempts to find meaning in these numbers depicted in the film, often with the obsessive, intense logic employed by Max within the film itself.
The game of Go
In the film, Max periodically plays Go with his mentor, Sol.[1] This game has historically stimulated the study of mathematics[2] and features a simple set of rules that results in a complex game strategy. The two characters each use the game as a model for their view of the universe; Sol says that the game is a microcosm of an extremely complex and chaotic world, while Max asserts that patterns can be found in the complexity of its variations.[1][nb 2]
Actors Sean Gullette and Mark Margolis both spent many hours learning the game at the Brooklyn Go Club, and had the help of a Go consultant for the film.[1]
Soundtrack
Main article:
π (film score)π launched the film scoring career of Clint Mansell.
See also
- ^ The film's title sequence shows the Greek letter π (pi), followed by hundreds of lines of numbers representing the numerical value of the constant. However, the numbers are not accurate past the first eight decimal places of pi.
- ^ SOL: Listen to me. The Ancient Japanese considered the Go board to be a microcosm of the universe. Although when it is empty it appears to be simple and ordered, in fact, the possibilities of game play are endless. They say that no two Go games have ever been alike. Just like snowflakes. So, the Go board actually represents an extremely complex and chaotic universe. That is the truth of our world, Max. It can't be easily summed up with math. There is no simple pattern. / MAX: But as a Go game progresses, the possibilities become smaller and smaller. The board does take on order. Soon, all moves are predictable. / SOL: So? / MAX: So, maybe, even though we're not sophisticated enough to be aware of it, there is an underlying order...a pattern, beneath every Go game. Maybe that pattern is like the pattern in the market, in the Torah. The two sixteen number.
References
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