Pi (1998)

Bryan: You ever see the movie Pi? ... You can interpret that movie straight up. But there's a bunch of little things in there that suggest something else is going on.

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.

Jenna: Max, Max, can I do it?
Maximillian Cohen: Jenna.
Jenna: What's 322 times 491?
Maximillian Cohen: 158,102. Right?
Jenna: Right! OK, 73 divided by 22?
Maximillian Cohen: 3.318...18...18... 18...18...18...18...

Maximillian Cohen: 12:45. Restate my assumptions.
    One: Mathematics is the language of nature.
    Two: Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.
    Three: If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge.
    Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature.
    Evidence: The cycling of disease epidemics; the wax and wane of caribou populations; sun spot cycles; the rise and fall of the Nile.
    So, what about the stock market?

Maximillian Cohen: How could he stop, when he was so close to seeing Pi for what it really is? How could you stop believing that there is a pattern, an ordered shape behind those numbers, when you were so close? We see the simplicity of the circle, we see the maddening complexity of the endless numbers, 3.14 off into infinity.

Lenny Meyer: The Ancient Jews used Hebrew as their numerical system. Each letter's a number. The Hebrew A, Aleph, is 1. B, Bet, is 2. Understand? But look, the numbers are interrelated. Take the Hebrew for father, ab. Aleph, Bet. 1, 2 equals 3. The word for mother, haim. Aleph, Mem. 1, 40 equals 41 . The sum of 3 and 41, 44. Right? Now, the Hebrew word for child - mother, father, child. Yeled. That's 10, 30 and 4. 44. Torah is just a long string of numbers. Some say that it's a code, sent to us from God.

Maximillian Cohen: 10:28. Results. Bullshit.

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Sol Robeson: ..... And thus Archimedes solves the problem. He screams "Eureka!" and he is so overwhelmed, he runs naked through the streets to the king's palace to report his discovery. Now, what is the moral of the story?
Maximillian Cohen: That a breakthrough will come.
Sol Robeson: Wrong! The point of the story is the wife. Listen to your wife, she'll give you perspective. Meaning, you need a break. You must take a bath or you'll get nowhere. There will be no order, only chaos. Go home, Max, and you take a bath.

Lenny Meyer: We're searching for a pattern in the Torah.
Maximillian Cohen: What kind?
Lenny Meyer: We're not sure. All we know is it's 216 digits long.

Sol Robeson: 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 gameplay 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.

Sol Robeson: You want to find the number 216 in the world, you will be able to find it everywhere. 216 steps from a mere street corner to your front door. 216 seconds you spend riding on the elevator. When your mind becomes obsessed with anything, you will filter everything else out and find that thing everywhere. 320, 450, 22, whatever. You've chosen 216 and you'll find it everywhere in nature.

Maximillian Cohen: 4:42. New evidence. Remember Pythagoras. Mathematician, cult leader. Athens, circa 500 BC. Major belief: The universe is made of numbers. Major contribution: The golden ratio. Best represented geometrically as the golden rectangle. Visually, there exists a graceful equilibrium between its length and width. When it's squared, it leaves a smaller golden rectangle behind, with the same unique ratio. The squaring can continue, smaller and smaller, to infinity.

Rabbi Cohen: You're not pure!
Maximillian Cohen: How are you pure? I found it!
Rabbi Cohen: Who do you think you are? You are only a vessel from God. You're carrying a delivery which was meant for us!
Maximillian Cohen: It was given to me. It's inside of me. It's changing me.
Rabbi Cohen: It's killing you! Because you are not ready to receive it.

Maximillian Cohen: It's just a number. I'm sure you've written down every 216-digit number. You've translated all of them. You've intoned them all. Haven't you? What's it gotten you? The number is nothing. It's the meaning. The syntax. It's what's between the numbers. You haven't understood it. It's because it's not for you. I've got it. I've got it! I understand it. And I'm gonna see it. Rabbi, I was chosen.

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