History Film / PI

[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pimoviepic.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:230: A mad genius at work.]]

-->-- '''Maximillian Cohen'''

''π'' is the directorial debut of Creator/DarrenAronofsky, who also wrote the film. It was made for a mere $60,000 and won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival award for Best Director. In his first film-score work, the movie's soundtrack was assembled by Music/ClintMansell of later [[Film/RequiemForADream "Lux Aeterna"]] fame, who contributed the frenetic drum-and-bass theme.

Max Cohen is a reclusive, paranoid, migraine-afflicted math genius driven by the unshakable belief that the universe can be explained entirely through math, which he investigates with his home-built supercomputer Euclid.

Chased by agents of a Wall Street firm interested in profiting from his work as well as a sect of Hasidic Jews who want him to help find patterns in the Torah, Max stumbles upon a 216-digit number that seems to hold some universal secret. As he continues his research, his headaches worsen and he begins experiencing vivid hallucinations. Though he pushes on, determined to puzzle out the number's meaning, his mind might not be ready to comprehend it.

Shot in minimalist black and white, the film is mostly atmosphere, with relatively little dialogue. At its core, it's a MindScrew with a GainaxEnding, but an intriguing one indeed. The whole experience is often compared to ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}.''

* AmenBreak: Used frequently in Clint Mansell's drum n' bass score.

* {{Bookends}}: Max says the same line at the beginning and end of the film, [[ArcWords as well as throughout]].
-->"When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did."

-> '''3.''' If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature.

A brilliant mathematician and his home-built supercomputer Euclid search for the underlying patterns of the universe.

Max Cohen is a reclusive, paranoid, migraine afflicted genius driven by the unshakable belief that the universe can be explained entirely through math. Chased by agents of a Wall Street firm interested in profiting from his work as well as a sect of Hasidic Jews who want him to help find patterns in the Torah, Max stumbles upon a 216-digit number that seems to hold some universal secret. As he continues his research, his headaches worsen and he begins experiencing vivid hallucinations. Though he pushes on, determined to puzzle out the number's meaning, his mind might not be ready to comprehend it.

''π'' is the directorial debut of Creator/DarrenAronofsky, who also wrote the film. It was made for a mere $60,000 and won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival award for Best Director. In his first film-score work, the movie's soundtrack was assembled by Music/ClintMansell of "Lux Aeterna" fame, who contributed the frenetic drum-and-bass theme.

* {{Bookends}}: "When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did" is said at the beginning and end of the film.

* DrivenToSuicide: Not "kill" suicide, but the results of the number on Max's life and body drive him to destroy the part of him that matters to him the most-a symbolic suicide. Before that, there is a lot of "computer melting down" and "self destruct" symbology (such as Euclid's literal self destruction because of the number [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything and Max putting his injector gun up to his head (to deliver an injection directly to the lump) while screaming obscenities (to his neighbours having sex next door, which he can hear and is driving him nuts, on top of his migraine's pain)]]).

* FaceCam: One of the more famous uses of the [=SnorriCam=]. The DVD contains some footage of a test run with Max in a convenience store.

* MouthfulOfPi: Not strictly pi, but Max can do rather complicated arithmetic in his head. The opening credits do show Pi itself counted out to thousands of numbers, but only the first 8 digits after the decimal point are correct.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: The "Ming Mecca" computer chip that Dawson uses to bait Max, and provides Euclid the processing power to fully realise the number. Max is disbelieving that the firm can even provide it (because they're classified technology), but Dawson simply says [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections that the firm has plenty of connections.]]

* [[DoggedNiceGuy Dogged Nice Girl]]: One of his neighbors is an attractive young woman who obviously has her eye on Max. He seems to realize this to some extent but isn't interested.

-->'''Sol''': (intense) What is it? A hundred and fifty, a thousand? [[{{Beat}} Uh,]] [[SayingTooMuch two hundred and sixteen?!]] How '''''many?'''''

* MessyHair: Max, the [[MadMathematician reclusive math genius]]. His neighbor tries to adjust it, but he brusques her off.

* {{Asexual}}: Max isn't interested when his pretty neighbor constantly hits on him and doesn't seem interested in men, either. Due to his anti-social behavior, he is likely asexual. There are hints during one of his last hallucinations that he does yearn for a romantic connection to his neighbor, though. So perhaps social anxiety instead.

* SniffSniffNom: Max tastes a suspicious melted computer part.

* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: [[spoiler:The 216-digit number repeatedly crashes Euclid and drives Max insane. It's also implied that [[SignificantName Sol]]'s second stroke came about because he started researching the number again. Just a ''partial'' number brings along an epic stock market crash. It's repeatedly linked with the sun, which fried Max's optic nerves when he gazed at it and killed Icarus when he flew too close to it.]]
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: There is ''one'' scene which is clearly a hallucination:[[spoiler: Max finding an human brain in the subway]]. The rest? Who knows?

** Several mathematical facts get mixed up (for example, the golden ratio is usually phi, not theta), but it doesn't detract too much from the plot.

* CreatorThumbprint: The first of various Aronofsky films with an underlying theme of "obsession leading to destruction."

* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler: Max is shown to trepan himself at the end of the movie, voiding himself of his mathematical genius. Whether this is literal or symbolic is left up to the viewer.]]

* {{Asexual}}: Max isn't interested when his pretty neighbor constantly hits on him and doesn't seem interested in men, either. Due to his anti-social behavior, he is likely asexual. There are hints during one of his last hallucinations that he does yearn for a romantic connection to his neighbor, though.

* CoolOldGuy: Sol, Max's former teacher, mentor, and friend. As well as giving Max sage advice on getting on with life, not becoming obsessed with his work, and coaching him in [[TabletopGame/Go]] . [[spoiler: It's all but stated outright that Sol discovered the number long before Max did.]]

* CoolOldGuy: Sol, Max's former teacher, mentor, and friend. As well as giving Max sage advice on getting on with life, not becoming obsessed with his work, and coaching him in [[TabletopGame/Go]]. [[spoiler: It's all but stated outright that Sol discovered the number long before Max did.]]

* CoolOldGuy: Sol, Max's former teacher, mentor, and friend. As well as giving Max sage advice on getting on with life, not becoming obsessed with his work, and coaching him in TabletopGame/Go. [[spoiler: It's all but stated outright that Sol discovered the number long before Max did.]]

* WritersCannotDoMath:

--> Max:
--> Just a long string of digits—
--> Sol:
--> How ''many?''
--> Max:
--> [shrugs] I don't know...
--> Sol (intense):
--> What is it? A hundred and fifty, a thousand? [[{{Beat}} Uh]]—— [[SayingTooMuch Two-hundred and sixteen!?]] How '''''many?'''''

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: The infamous "drill" scene.

-->--'''Maximillian Cohen'''

* ICallItVera: "Euclid", Max's home-made super-computer.

* WhiteVoidRoom: In one of his visions, Max finds himself in exactly that setting. It's implied that he's standing on the border of life and death as he calmly starts to recite the universal number, which has previously been noted to possibly be God's true name. [[spoiler:He wakes up from this state, only to realize that he was probably hallucinating.]]

* MouthfulOfPi: Not strictly pi, but Max can do rather complicated arithmetic in his head. The opening credits do show Pi itself counted out to thousands of numbers.

* CoolOldGuy: Saul, Max's former teacher, mentor, and friend. As well as giving Max sage advice on getting on with life, not becoming obsessed with his work, and coaching him in [[SmartPeoplePlayChess Go.]] [[spoiler: It's all but stated outright that Saul discovered the number long before Max did.]]

-->-- '''Maximillian Cohen'''

Max Cohen is a reclusive, paranoid, migraine-afflicted genius driven by the unshakable belief that the universe can be explained entirely through math. Chased by agents of a Wall Street firm interested in profiting from his work as well as a sect of Hasidic Jews who want him to help find patterns in the Torah, Max stumbles upon a 216-digit number that seems to hold some universal secret. As he continues his research, his headaches worsen and he begins experiencing vivid hallucinations. Though he pushes on, determined to puzzle out the number's meaning, his mind might not be ready to comprehend it.

Shot in minimalist black and white, the film is mostly atmosphere, with relatively little dialogue. At its core, it's a MindScrew with a GainaxEnding, but an intriguing one indeed. The whole experience is often compared to ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}''.

!!This film provides examples of:

** Marcy Dawson, who tries to swindle Max to help her stock prediction firm with regular sweet-talking, up to her last scene, where she's putting a gun to Max's head to ''force'' him to comply.

* AnimalMotifs: Max finds ants as well as goo infesting his apartment after he loads it into his computer Euclid. A possible interpretation is that the number, [[spoiler:which is the blueprint for all creation,]] causes Euclid to begin creating simple organic matter. The goo and ants also fit into the themes of madness and decay that increasingly plague Max.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: The "Ming Mecca" computer chip that Dawson uses to bait Max, and provides Euclid the processing power to fully realise the number. Max is disbelieving that the firm can even provide it (because they're classified technology), but Dawson simply says [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections that the firm has plenty of connections]].

* BodyHorror: Subtle. A small, hebrew-letter shaped lump appears in Max's head. This, and his headaches getting worse,[[spoiler: and Sol's two strokes,]] all imply that the number can literally mess with your head.
* BookEnds: "When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did" is said at the beginning and end of the film.

* CreatorThumbprint: The first of various Aronofsky films with an underlying theme of "obsession leading to destruction".

* CoolOldGuy: Saul, Max's former teacher, mentor and friend. As well as giving Max sage advice on getting on with life, not becoming obsessed with his work and coaching him in [[SmartPeoplePlayChess Go]] [[spoiler:it's all but stated outright that Saul discovered the number long before Max did]].
* CyberPunk: Max's apartment is taken up by a super-computer so every scene at home has a ton of wires and machinery everywhere. The evil stock firm further tips it into this genre.
* CyberpunkIsTechno: By Music/ClintMansell (such as the film's theme-slash-LeitMotif for Max) with contributions from other groups like Music/MassiveAttack. Their song "Angel" from ''Music/{{Mezzanine}}'' is used on the soundtrack.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: And filmed in ultra-high-contrast for added creepiness.
* [[DoggedNiceGuy Dogged Nice Girl:]] One of his neighbors is an attractive young woman who obviously has her eye on Max. He seems to realize this to some extent but isn't interested.
* DrivenToSuicide: Not "kill" suicide, but the results of the number on Max's life and body drive him to destroy the part of him that matters to him the most-a symbolic suicide. Before that, there is a lot of "computer melting down" and "self-destruct" symbology (such as Euclid's literal self-destruction because of the number [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything and Max putting his injector gun up to his head (to deliver an injection directly to the lump) while screaming obscenities (to his neighbours having sex next door, which he can hear and is driving him nuts, on top of his migraine's pain)]]).

* {{Foreshadowing}}: If asked why he stopped searching for patterns within the digits of pi, Sol (in most instances) reacts dismissively. After mentioning Euclid's "crash," Max begins to suspect this nonchalance has been [[DarkSecret deliberately misleading]]:
-->Max:
-->Just a long string of digits—
-->Sol:
-->How ''many''?
-->Max:
-->[shrugs] I don't know...
-->Sol (intense):
-->What is it? A hundred and fifty, a thousand? [[{{Beat}} Uh]]—— [[SayingTooMuch Two-hundred and sixteen]]!? How '''''many'''''?
%%COMMENTISONLYFORA"BREAK"
* FormulaicMagic: Max's dogmatic treatment of math as "the language of nature" seems to push past "math is capable of explaining everything in existence" into "math ''determines'' our existence." [[spoiler:The effects of the number point to the latter.]]

* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:Max is shown to trepan himself at the end of the movie, voiding himself of his mathematical genius. Whether this is literal or symbolic is left up to the viewer.]]

* HatesBeingTouched: Max winces everytime someone touches him or even looks like they are about to touch him.

-> 1. Mathematics is the language of nature.
-> 2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.
-> 3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature.
-->--'''Maximillian Cohen'''

[[caption-width-right:230:A mad genius at work]]

''π'' is the directorial debut of Creator/DarrenAronofsky, who also wrote the film. It was made for a mere $60,000 and won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival award for Best Director. In his first film-score work, the movie's soundtrack was assembled by ClintMansell of "Lux Aeterna" fame, who contributed the frenetic drum-and-bass theme.

* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: [[spoiler:The 216-digit number repeatedly crashes Euclid and drives Max insane. It's also implied that [[SignificantName Sol]]'s second stroke came about because he started researching the number again. It's repeatedly linked with the sun, which fried Max's optic nerves when he gazed at it and killed Icarus when he flew too close to it.]]