A Beautiful Mind(2001)

Plot Summary

• In 1947, John Nash (Russell Crowe) arrives at Princeton University. He is a co-recipient, with Martin Hansen (Josh Lucas), of the prestigious Carnegie Scholarship for mathematics. At a reception, he meets a group of other promising math and science graduate students, Richard Sol (Adam Goldberg), Ainsley (Jason Gray-Stanford), and Bender (Anthony Rapp). He also meets his roommate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany), a literature student. Nash is under extreme pressure to publish, but he wants to publish his own original idea. His inspiration comes when he and his fellow graduate students discuss how to approach a group of women at a bar. Hansen quotes Adam Smith and advocates "every man for himself," but Nash argues that a cooperative approach would lead to better chances of success. Nash develops a new concept of governing dynamics and publishes an article on this. On the strength of this, he is offered an appointment at MIT where Sol and Bender join him.Some years later, Nash is invited to the Pentagon to crack encrypted enemy telecommunications. Nash can decipher the code mentally, to the astonishment of other Decrypters. He considers his regular duties at MIT uninteresting and beneath his talents, so he is pleased to be given a new assignment by his mysterious supervisor, William Parcher (Ed Harris) of the United States Department of Defense. He offers Nash a job, in which Nash would help him to decode the messages to detect a bomb the Soviets had been hiding. The code is said to be found in normal magazines, newspapers and such. He is to look for patterns in magazines and newspapers in order to thwart a Soviet plot. Nash becomes increasingly obsessive about searching for these hidden patterns and believes he is followed when he delivers his results to a secret mailbox.Meanwhile, a student, Alicia Larde (Jennifer Connelly), asks him to dinner, and the two fall in love. On a return visit to Princeton, Nash runs into Charles and his niece, Marcee. With Charles' encouragement, he proposes to Alicia, and they marry. Nash begins to fear for his life after witnessing a shootout between Parcher and Soviet agents, but Parcher blackmails him into staying on his assignment. While delivering a guest lecture at Harvard University, Nash tries to flee from people he thinks are foreign Soviet agents, led by Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer). After punching Rosen in an attempt to flee, Nash is forcibly sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility he believes is run by the Soviets.Dr. Rosen tells Alicia that Nash has paranoid schizophrenia and that Charles, Marcee, and Parcher exist only in his imagination. Alicia investigates and informs Nash that the Department of Defense does not have a "William Parcher" working for them and reveals the unopened documents he had delivered to the secret mailbox. Nash is given a course of insulin shock therapy and eventually released. Frustrated with the side effects of the anti-psychotic medication he is taking, which makes him lethargic and unresponsive, he secretly stops taking it. This causes a relapse, and he "meets" Parcher again.Shortly afterward, Alicia discovers Nash is once again working on his "assignment" in an abandoned shed not far from their house. Realizing he has relapsed, Alicia rushes into the house to find Nash had left their baby unsupervised and nearly submerged in the bathtub, which had been filling with water. Nash claims that Charles was watching the baby. Alicia calls Dr. Rosen, but Nash believes Parcher is trying to kill her. He rushes in to push Parcher away, and accidentally knocks Alicia and the baby to the ground. As Alicia flees the house with their baby, Nash jumps in front of Alicia's car affirming to her: "Marcee can't be real! She never gets old!". Nash tells her that he realizes that he has never seen Marcee age, even though he has known her for three years. He finally accepts that Parcher and other figures are hallucinations. Against Dr. Rosen's advice, Nash decides not to restart his medication, believing that he can deal with his symptoms himself. Alicia decides to stay and support him in this.Nash returns to Princeton and approaches his old rival, Hansen, now head of the mathematics department. Hansen grants Nash permission to work out of the library and to audit classes. Over the next two decades, Nash learns to ignore his hallucinations. By the late 1970s, he is allowed to teach again.In 1994, Nash wins the Nobel Prize for his revolutionary work on game theory, and is honored by his fellow professors, including Hansen. At the Nobel ceremony, he dedicates his prize to his wife, saying "I'm only here because of you." The movie ends as Nash, Alicia, and their son leave the auditorium in Stockholm; and although Nash sees Charles, Marcee, and Parcher standing to one side and watching him, he looks at them only briefly before departing.

Storyline

• John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery. From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash, Jr. experienced it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over his tragedy, and finally - late in life - received the Nobel Prize. — Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia. Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today. — rmlohner John Nash goes through a myriad of highs and lows from his time as a Mathematics student in graduate school at Princeton in the late 1940's to his Nobel Prize win for Economics in 1994. A brilliant but somewhat arrogant and antisocial man, Nash preferred to spend his time with his thoughts, which were primarily of seeing mathematical formula associated with everyday occurrences, than with people. Two people he did make a connection with were Charles, his roommate at Princeton, and Alicia Larde, one of his students when he was teaching at M.I.T. in the early 1950's. He and Alicia eventually marry. As time goes on, Nash lives more and more within himself which causes major problems in his life. But Alicia stands by her husband to his redemption to the Nobel Prize win. Nash learns that his graduate school colleagues, with whom he had a cordial but somewhat distant relationship, are closer friends than he imagined, although in his later life he really does miss Charles' company more than anything despite knowing that spending time with Charles is not in his or anyone's best interest. — Huggo