Storyline
Biopic of the famed mathematician John Nash and his lifelong struggles with his mental health. Nash enrolled as a graduate student at Princeton in 1948 and almost immediately stood out as an odd duck. He devoted himself to finding something unique, a mathematical theorem that would be completely original. He kept to himself for the most part and while he went out for drinks with other students, he spends a lot of time with his roommate, Charles, who eventually becomes his best friend. John is soon a professor at MIT where he meets and eventually married a graduate student, Alicia. Over time however John begins to lose his grip on reality, eventually being institutionalized diagnosed with schizophrenia. As the depths of his imaginary world are revealed, Nash withdraws from society and it's not until the 1970s that he makes his first foray back into the world of academics, gradually returning to research and teaching. In 1994, John Nash was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics.
Cast:
Russell Crowe ...
John Nash
Ed Harris ...
Parcher
Jennifer Connelly ...
Alicia Nash
Christopher Plummer ...
Dr. Rosen
Charles: Her husband was too drunk to know he was too drunk to drive.
Nash: [to Charles] The prodigal roommate revealed. "Saw my name on the lecture slate." YOU LYING SON OF A BITCH!
Dr. Rosen: Who are you talking to? Tell me who you see.
Nash: How do you say "Charles Herman" in Russian?
[from deleted scene]
Nash: Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart.
Nash: Find a truly original idea. It is the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It is the only way I will ever matter.
Nash: Alicia, does our relationship warrant long-term commitment? I need some kind of proof, some kind of verifiable, empirical data.
Alicia: I'm sorry, just give me a moment to redefine my girlish notions of romance.
Alicia: I was wondering Professor Nash, if I could take you to dinner?
[he hesitates]
Alicia: You do eat don't you?
Alicia: You want to know what's real? This...
[putting her hand on his heart and his hand on her face]
Alicia: ... this is real.
Alicia: I need to believe, that something extraordinary is possible.
Nash: In competitive behavior someone always loses.
Charles: Well, my niece knows that, John, and she's about this high.
Nash: See if I derive an equilibrium where prevalence is a non-singular event where nobody loses, can you imagine the effect that would have on conflict scenarios, arm negotiations...
Charles: When did you last eat?
Nash: ...currency exchange?
Charles: When did you last eat? You know, food.
Nash: You have no respect for cognitive reverie, you know that?
Charles: Yes. But pizza - now, pizza I have enormous respect for. And of course beer.
[leaves]
Nash: [throws stuff down and follows] I have respect for beer. I have respect for beer!
Alicia: How big is the universe?
Nash: Infinite.
Alicia: How do you know?
Nash: I know because all the data indicates it's infinite.
Alicia: But it hasn't been proven yet.
Nash: No.
Alicia: You haven't seen it.
Nash: No.
Alicia: How do you know for sure?
Nash: I don't, I just believe it.
Alicia: It's the same with love I guess.
Hansen: Cowards, all of you. Come on. Whoever wins, Sol does his laundry for the semester.
Sol: Does that seem unfair to anybody?
Bender: No, not at all.
Nash: Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.
Charles: That Isaac Newton fellow was right.
Nash: He was on to something.
Charles: Clever boy.
Charles: So what's your story? You the poor kid that never got to go to Exeter or Andover?
Nash: Despite my privileged upbringing, I'm actually quite well-balanced. I have a chip on both shoulders.
Nash: There has to be a mathematical explanation for how bad that tie is.
Hansen: So how about it, Nash? You scared?
Nash: Terrified... mortified... petrified... stupefied... by you.
Charles: Nothing's ever for sure, John. That's the only sure thing I do know.
Nash: I've made the most important discovery of my life. It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logical reasons can be found. I'm only here tonight because of you. You are the only reason I am... you are all my reasons.
Nash: What truly is logic? Who decides reason? My quest has taken me to the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back. I have made the most important discovery of my career - the most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reason can be found. I am only here tonight because of you
[looking at and speaking to Alicia]
Nash: You are the only reason I am. You are all my reasons. Thank you.
[applause from audience]
Dr. Rosen: You can't reason your way out of this!
Nash: Why not? Why can't I?
Dr. Rosen: Because your mind is where the problem is in the first place!
Bender: Go With God!
Sol: Come back a man!
Bender: Fortune favors the brave!
Alicia: [about the stars] I once tried to count them all. I, actually, made it to 4,348.
Nash: You are exceptionally odd.
Alicia: I bet you're very popular with the girls.
[Hansen is concerned about John still having hallucinations]
Nash: They are my past. Everyone is haunted by their past.
Alicia: God must be a painter. Why else would we have so many colors?
Hansen: Nash. Who's winning - you, or you?
Charles: [offering Nash a flask of whiskey] Listen. If we can't break the ice, how 'bout we drown it?
Nash: Classes will dull your mind.
Nash: It looks like you won after all.
Hansen: No. They were wrong, John. No one wins.
Nash: I've gotten used to ignoring them and I think, as a result, they've kind of given up on me. I think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin, we've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive.
Nash: [to Thomas King] I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I just choose not to indulge certain appetites; like my appetite for patterns; perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream.
Charles: The prodigal roommate arrives.
Charles: Is my roommate a dick?
Charles: I arrived last night. Right in time for English Department cocktails. The cock was mine. The tail belonged to a lovely young thing with a passion for D.H. Lawrence.
Nash: Well, Martin Hansen. It is Martin, isn't it?
Hansen: Why yes, John, it is.
Nash: I assume you've gotten quite used to miscalculation. I read your pre-prints. Both of 'em. One on Nazi scientists and the other one on, uh... non-linear equations, and I'm extremely confident that there's not one seminal or innovative idea in either one of them... Enjoy your punch.
Nash: You once said that God must be a painter because he gave us so many colors.
Alicia: I didn't think you were listening...
Nash: I was listening.
Alicia: It's called "life," John. Activities available; just add meaning.
Parcher: Conviction, it turns out, is a luxury of those on the sidelines, Mr. Nash.
Nash: There's no point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun.
[John meets Charles' niece]
Nash: She's so small.
Charles: Well, she's young, John. That's how they come.
Dr. Rosen: Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?
John Nash: Hello, Martin.
Martin Hansen: Jesus Christ.
John Nash: No. I don't have that one. My savior complex takes a different form.
John Nash: And then, on the way home, Charles was there again. Sometimes I miss talking to him. Maybe Rosen is right. Maybe I have to think about going back to the hospital.
Alicia Nash: Maybe try again tomorrow.
