As a modern-day scientist, Tommy is struggling with mortality, desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi.
Director:
Darren Aronofsky
Stars:
Hugh Jackman,
Rachel Weisz,
Sean Patrick Thomas
Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.
Director:
Shane Carruth
Stars:
Shane Carruth,
David Sullivan,
Casey Gooden
In NYC's Chinatown, recluse math genius Max (Sean Gullette) believes "everything can be understood in terms of numbers," and he looks for a pattern in the system as he suffers headaches, plays Go with former teacher Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), and fools around with an advanced computer system he's built in his apartment. Both a Wall Street company and a Hasidic sect take an interest in his work, but he's distracted by blackout attacks, hallucinations, and paranoid delusions..
Backstories for the characters Max and Sol were conceived by Sean Gullette and Darren Aronofsky, but they were never written for the film. They would have been about Max proving to be a math prodigy at very young age and soon attending Columbia University, where he met Sol, a Russian expatriate, who was captured by American Forces and was given the chance to assist in the building of nuclear weapons because of his great math prowess. He refused and was relocated to Siberia, where he was soon let out and acquired a job teaching math at Columbia University. If given a closer look at Sol's wrists, prison tattoos can be seen. See more »
Goofs
Max writes the golden ratio as (a/b) = (a/a+b). It should be a/b = (a+b)/a, if, by definition, a>b. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Maximillian Cohen:
9:13, Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six I did. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal. I was terrified, alone in that darkness. Slowly, daylight crept in through the bandages, and I could see. But something else had changed inside of me. That day I had my first headache.
See more »
Crazy Credits
End credits shown over bugs crawling on Max's papers. See more »
Alternate Versions
DVD version includes deleted scenes:
Max being threatened by Farrouhk, Devi's jealous boyfriend;
Max climbing up a pile of discarded computer parts and monitors;
A Low Frequency Inversion Field
Performed by Spacetime Continuum
Written & Produced by Spacetime Continuum
Courtesy of Astralwerks/Caroline Records, Inc./Space Monkey Music/BMI See more »
This screenplay must have been turned down one hundred times before someone would finance it. I don't blame them. However, what could have been a travesty was saved by great acting, directing, cinematography, and sound. This brilliant/bizarre film turns a genius's quest to find the code for Wall Street into an adventure that engulfs all of human existence, and God. A brilliant example of how proper film making can turn straw into gold. Some viewers may be put off by the bizarre fits the main character faces, or the intrusion of complex mathematics into film, forcing the viewer to think, but if you watch this film, you will be rewarded a unique movie-going experience few other films will give you. This film gives you a look into the mind of man plagued by the genius he was given.
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This screenplay must have been turned down one hundred times before someone would finance it. I don't blame them. However, what could have been a travesty was saved by great acting, directing, cinematography, and sound. This brilliant/bizarre film turns a genius's quest to find the code for Wall Street into an adventure that engulfs all of human existence, and God. A brilliant example of how proper film making can turn straw into gold. Some viewers may be put off by the bizarre fits the main character faces, or the intrusion of complex mathematics into film, forcing the viewer to think, but if you watch this film, you will be rewarded a unique movie-going experience few other films will give you. This film gives you a look into the mind of man plagued by the genius he was given.