A BEAUTIFUL MIND [2001]

 The Only Thing Greater Than The Power Of The Mind 

Is The Courage Of The Heart

Mathematicians won the war.
Mathematicians broke the Japanese codes, and built the A-bomb.
Mathematicians, like you.
The stated goal of the Soviets is global communism.
In medicine or economics, in technology or space, battle lines are being drawn.
To triumph, we need results, publishable, applicable results.
Now, who among you will be the next Morse? The next Einstein?
Who among you will be the vanguard of democracy, freedom and discovery?
Today, we bequeath America's future into your able hands.
Welcome to Princeton, gentleman.
~Prof. Helinger

My first grade teacher said I was born with 2 helpings of brain
but only half a helping of heart
~John Nash

 Classes will dull your mind.
Destroy the potential for authentic creativity.
~John Nash

Adam Smith needs revision.
If we all go for the blonde, we block each other.
Not a single one of us is going to get her.
So then we go for her friends, but they will all give us the cold shoulder
because nobody likes to be second choice.
What if no one goes for the blonde?
We don't get in each other's way, and we don't insult the other girls.
That's the only way we win.
That's the only way we all get laid.
Adam Smith said, 
"The best result comes from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself".
Incomplete.
Because the best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself,
and the group.
~John Nash

Parcher: Oppenheimer used to say, "A genius sees the answer before the question".
John: You knew Oppenheimer?
Parcher: His project was under my supervision.
John: Which project? [Parcher did not answer] That project.
Parcher: It's not that simple.
John: You ended the war.
Parcher: We incinerated 150,000 people in a heartbeat.
John: Great deeds come at great cost, Mr. Parcher.
Parcher: Conviction, it turns out, is a luxury of those on the sidelines, Mr. Nash.
John: I'll try keep that in mind.

Man is capable of as much atrocity as he has imagination.
~William Parcher

God must be a painter.
Why else would we have so many colors?
~Alicia Larde

Alicia: I believe in deciding things will be good luck.
Do you?
John: No, I don't believe in luck.
But I do believe in assigning value to things.

I find you attractive.
Your aggressive moves towards me indicate that you feel the same way.
But still, ritual requires that we continue with a number of platonic activities, 
before we have sex.
I am proceeding with those activities, but in point of actual fact, 
all I really want to do is have intercourse with you as soon as possible.
Are you gonna slap me now?
~John to Alicia

John, on his knee: Alicia, does our relationship warrant long-term commitment?
Because 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.
A proof? Verifiable data... Okay.
How big is the universe?
John: Infinite.
Alicia: How do you know?
John: Because all the data indicates it.
Alicia: But it hasn't been proven yet?
You haven't seen it.
How do you know for sure?
John: I don't, I just believe it.
Alicia: It's the same with love, I guess.
Now... the part that you don't know, is if I want to marry you.

Alicia: What's wrong with him?
Dr. Rosen: John has schizophrenia.
People with this disorder are often paranoid.
Alicia: But his work... he deals with conspiracy.
Dr. Rosen: Yes, I know.
In John's world, these behaviors are accepted encouraged.
As such, his illness may have gone untreated far longer than is typical.
Alicia: What do you mean? How long?
Dr. Rosen: Possibly since graduate school.
At least that's when his hallucinations seem to have begun.
Alicia: What are you talking about? What hallucinations?
Dr. Rosen: One, so far, that I am aware of, an imaginary roommate named Charles Herman.
Alicia: Charles isn't imaginary, they have been best friends since Princeton.
Dr. Rosen: Have you ever met Charles?
Has he ever come to dinner?
Alicia: He's always in town for so little time, lecturing.
Dr. Rosen: Was he at your wedding?
Alicia: He had to teach.
Dr. Rosen: Have you seen a picture, or talked to him on the phone?
Alicia: This is ridiculous.
Dr. Rosen: I phoned Princeton.
According to their housing records, John lived alone.
Which is more likely, 
that your husband a mathematician with no military training is a government spy fleeing the Russians...
Alicia: You're making him sound crazy.
Dr. Rosen: Or... that he has lost his grip on reality?
The only way I can help him is to show him the difference between what is real and what is in his mind.
What's he been working on?
Alicia: His work is classified.
Dr. Rosen: He mentioned a supervisor by the name of William Parcher.
Maybe Mr. Parcher can clarify things for us.
But I can't get to him without clearances.
Alicia: You want me to help you get the details of my husband's work?
Dr. Rosen: John thinks I'm a Russian spy.
Is that what you think?

Sol: How are you?
Alicia: I think often what I feel is obligation, or guilt over wanting to leave.
Rage against John, against God, and...
But, then I look at him and I force myself to see the man that I married, 
and he becomes that man.
He's transformed into someone that I love.
And I'm transformed into someone who loves him.
It's not all the time but it's enough.
Sol: I think John is a very lucky man, Alicia.
Alicia: So unlucky.

There's no point being nuts if you can't have a little fun.
~John Nash

Alicia: What are you thinking about?
John: What do people do.
Alicia: It's life, John.
Activities available, just add meaning.

Dr. Rosen: Why did you stop your meds?
John: Because I couldn't do my work, I couldn't help with the baby, 
I couldn't respond to my wife.
You think that's better than being crazy?
Dr. Rosen: We'll need to start you on a higher run of insulin shocks and a new medication.
John: No! There has to be another way.
Dr. Rosen: Schizophrenia is degenerative.
Some days may be symptom-free, but over time, you are getting worse.
John: It's a problem. That's all it is.
It's a problem with no solution.
And that's what I do, I solve problems.
Dr. Rosen: This isn't math.
You can't come up with a formula to change the way you experience the world.
John: All I have to do is apply my mind.
Dr. Rosen: There's no theorem, no proof.
You can't reason your way out of this.
John: Why not? Why can't I?
Dr. Rosen: Because your mind is where the problem is in the first place.
John: I can do this.
I can work it out.
All I need is time.
[hear Marcee giggles]
Is that the baby?
Alicia: The baby is at my mother's, John.
Dr. Rosen: Without treatment, John, the fantasies may take over... entirely.

John: I can't go back to that hospital.
I won't come home.
Alicia: He said that if you said that, he has commitment papers for me to sign.
John: Maybe you won't sign them.
Maybe you'll just give me some time.
I will try to figure this out.
Whatever you do, Rosen is right about one thing, you shouldn't be here.
I'm not safe anymore.
Alicia: Would you have hurt me, John?
John, saw Marcee running around: I don't know.

You want to know what's real?
[put her palm on his face] This...
[put his palm on her face] This...
[and to her heart] This...
This is real.
Maybe the part that knows the waking from the dream, maybe it isn't here, 
 [touch his head]
maybe it's here [touch his heart]
I need to believe that something extraordinary is possible.
~Alicia Nash

Charles: John, you can't ignore me forever.
John: Charles, You've been a very good friend to me. The best.
But I won't talk to you again. I just can't.
[To Marcee] Same goes to you, baby girl.
Good bye.

Martin: Are they gone?
John, look around and found 3 of them walking along with him: No, they're not gone.
And maybe they never will be.
But I've gotten used to ignore them, and I think they've given up on me.
You think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin?
You've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive?
Martin: John, they haunt you, though.
John: They're my past, Martin.
Everybody is haunted by their past.

Thomas King: The awards are substantial.
They require private funding as such... the image of the Nobel is...
John: So you came here to find out if I was crazy?
Find out if I would screw everything up if I actually won?
Dance around the podium, strip naked ans squawk like a chicken?
Thomas King: Something like that, yes...
John: Would I embarrass you?
Yes, it is possible.
You see, I am crazy.
I take the newer medications, but I still see things that are not here.
I just choose not to acknowledge them.
Like a diet of the mind, I choose not to indulge certain appetites.
Like my appetite for patterns.
Perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream.

*****