Pi
Written by
Darren Aronofsky
Story by
Darren Aronofsky & Sean Gullette & Eric Watson
Copyright © 1998 Shooting Script, 1998
by Darren Aronofsky
Harvest Filmworks, NY
Plantain Films, New York, NY;
Truth and Soul Pictures NY;
Protozoa Pictures, New York, NY
FROM WHITE CRASH CUT TO:
EXTREME CLOSE-UP of Maximilian Cohen's eyes popping open.
1 INT. MAX'S APARTMENT, CHINATOWN FLAT, NEW YORK CITY -- NIGHT 1
Max jolts his head from his desk and tries to orient himself
in the darkness. He has intelligent eyes set in an exhausted,
good-looking face.
Then, he notices the blood dripping from his nose. Max wipes
it.
MAX'S VOICE-OVER BEGINS:
MAX (V.O.)
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.
CUT TO:
2 INT. BATHROOM -- DAWN 2
A pull-string light flips on. Max examines his bloody nose
in the mirror.
MAX (V.O.)
The doctors didn't know if my eyes
would ever heal. I was terrified.
Alone in that darkness. Slowly
daylight crept in through the bandages
and I could see.
Max drinks from the sink and splashes a generous amount of
water on to his head and face, cleaning his nose.
He wipes his nose and examines the last remnants of blood on
his fingertip. Then, he dips his finger under the tap. But
something else had changed inside me. That day I had my first
headache.
TIGHT SHOT on Max's hand as three unmarked, circular pills
hit his palm. Then, he slams the pills into the back of his
mouth. Max replaces the cap on a plastic bottle of unmarked
prescription drugs.
CUT TO:
(CONTINUED)
2.
2 CONTINUED: 2
3 INT. MAX'S APARTMENT, MAIN ROOM -- DAY 3
Max's room is constantly dark because the windows are blacked
out. He flips on his desk lamp.
A tiny ant crawls across his desk. He looks at it for a moment
before getting angry and squashing it.
Sitting on the desk are three computer monitors, which Max
flips on.
Then, he pops on more lights and more switches. We pull back,
revealing that Max's apartment looks more like the inside of
a computer than a human's home.
The room is knee-high in computer parts of all shapes and
sizes. The walls are covered by circuit boards. Cables hang
from the ceiling like vines in a Brazilian rain forest. They
all seem to be wired together to form a monstrous homemade
computer.
This is Euclid, Max's creation. The computer is alive with
sounds and lights.
Max works on Euclid with his solder and drill. He cares for
the machine as if it were his dream car.
MAX (V.O.)
Heat's been getting to Euclid. Feel
it most in the afternoon when I run
the set. Have to keep the fans on
all night from now on. Otherwise,
everything is running top notch. The
stack of 286s is now faster than
Columbia's computer science
department. I spent a couple hundred
dollars. Columbia's cost? Half a
million?
(small snicker)
Ha...
Max checks the peep-hole on his front door. No one is there.
He unbolts the five locks and slides into the hall.
CUT TO:
4 INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY -- DAY 4
As he secures his apartment, a young girl named Jenna runs
up to him. Her mom looks apologetic down the hall.
(CONTINUED)
3.
4 CONTINUED: 4
Jenna's eyes light up and she pulls out her Fisher Price
calculator.
JENNA
Max, Max! Can we do one?
MOM (O.S.)
(over and over again)
Jenna! Jenna!
MAX
Oh, no.
JENNA
What's three hundred and twenty-two
times four hundred and ninety-one.
Jenna types it into her calculator. Max finishes locking his
door.
MAX
(instantly)
One hundred fifty-eight thousand, a
hundred two. Right?
JENNA
(eyes light up)
Right.
Max heads down the staircase.
MOM
Jenna...
Jenna screams after him.
JENNA
OK, seventy-three divided by twentytwo.
MAX
(instantly again)
Three point three one eight one eight
one eight...
CUT TO:
5 EXT. CHINATOWN -- DAY 5
Max watches people bustle through the busy intersections of
Chinatown. The streets are clogged with people.
(CONTINUED)
4.
5 CONTINUED: 5
MAX (V.O.)
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.
CUT TO:
6 EXT. ELECTRONIC MEGA DUMP -- DAY 6
Max scavenges electronic parts as he carefully navigates an
endless dump for old and rotting computers.
He unscrews a random IBM board from a keyboard and slides it
into his pocket.
CUT TO:
7 EXT. PLAYGROUND -- DAY 7
MOVE IN on Max looking up at something as he reclines on a
public bench.
MAX (V.O.)
Therefore: There are patterns
everywhere in nature. Evidence: The
cycling of disease epidemics. The
wax and wane of caribou populations.
Sunspot cycles. The rise and fall of
the Nile.
MOVE IN on a tree branch -- shaking gently in the wind.
SLOW DISSOLVE TO:
EXTREME CLOSE-UP of stock ticker --
Bright stock quotes drift across the screen.So what about
the stock market? A universe of numbers that represents the
global economy. Millions of human hands at work... billions
of minds... a vast network screaming with life. An organism.
A natural organism.
CUT OUT TO:
(CONTINUED)
5.
7 CONTINUED: 7
8 INT. MAX'S APARTMENT -- DAY 8
Max watches the right edge of the screen where the numbers
appear. He wants to see what's before that edge...
MAX (V.O.)
My hypothesis: Within the stock
market, there is a pattern as well.
Right in front of me, hiding behind
the numbers. Always has been. 12.50:
Press return.
Max slaps the return button on his computer.
The phone starts ringing. Max eyes it suspiciously.
Just then, Euclid starts printing results on an old dot matrix
printer.
Max suspiciously answers the phone. Hello?
WOMAN'S VOICE
(on phone)
Maximilian Cohen, please.
MAX
Yeah?
WOMAN'S VOICE
(on phone)
Hi, it's Marcy Dawson. You might
remember me, I'm a partner with the
predictive strategy firm Lancet-Percy.
MAX
I told you already...
The printer finishes printing.
MARCY DAWSON
(on phone)
I'm sorry I haven't kept in touch
but I was hoping that we could have
lunch tomorrow, say one o'clock?
But before Marcy finishes, Max hangs up. He rips off the
print-out and heads to the front door.
He checks the peep-hole. His landlady, Mrs Ovadia, is sweeping
the hallway stairs humming a turn of the century (the last
one, not this one) tune.
(CONTINUED)
6.
8 CONTINUED: 8
Max waits a moment. He tousles his hair. Then, he checks
again. She's gone. He opens his locks and releases several
bolts.
CUT TO:
9 INT. MAX'S BUILDING, HALLWAY -- DAY 9
Max locks his front door. Meanwhile, his next-door neighbor,
Devi Minstry, a sexy young Indian woman, is just getting
home. Max looks away and tries to get his door locked.
She's weighed down by a bunch of bags filled with food.
DEVI
Max, good!
MAX
Hi, Devi.
DEVI
I grabbed you some samosas.
MAX
Great.
Devi heads over to Max with her bags of food. She looks up
at Max.
DEVI
Your hair.
Devi hands the bags to Max. Then, she goes to pat down his
hair. Max retreats.
MAX
What are you doing?
DEVI
Your hair, you can't go out like
that.
MAX
It's fine.
DEVI
Don't worry.
MAX
It's fine.
Devi pats down his hair. Max is humiliated.
(CONTINUED)
7.
9 CONTINUED: 9
DEVI
You need a mom.
Max hands back the bags and heads quickly for the stairs.
MAX
I have to go.
DEVI
Max, wait! Your samosas!
An embarrassed Max takes the bag.
MAX
Thanks.
CUT TO:
10 INT. COFFEE SHOP -- DAY 10
At the counter, Max stirs cream into his coffee. Then, he
takes three pills from the plastic bottle and drops them in
his coffee.
Max flips past a full-page ad in the paper that reads: `LANCETPERCY
86% ACCURACY (ONLY GOD IS PERFECT).' Max flips the
page before he or we can absorb it.
He compares stock quotes in the Wall Street Journal against
his print-out.
MAX (V.O.)
16.23. Results: Euclid predicts NTC
will break a hundred tomorrow...
good bet. Other interesting anomalies.
Euclid predicts PRONET settling at
sixty-five and a quarter, a career
high.
Max marks up the paper with lines and diagrams as he ponders
his hits and misses.
Then, a puff of cigarette smoke drifts by and succeeds in
bothering Max. He fans it away, when --
VOICE FROM OFF-SCREEN
Am I bothering you?
Max shrugs and looks over.
The Voice belongs to Lenny Meyer -- a bearded man in his
late twenties sucking on a cigarette.
(CONTINUED)
8.
10 CONTINUED: 10
On closer inspection, something is off. It seems that Lenny
is an Orthodox Jew. His yarmulke sticks out slightly from
his wide-brimmed hat and the fringes from his tsi-tsis hang
out from the bottom of his untucked shirt.
LENNY MEYER
I'm sorry, I'll put it out.
(which he does)
The name's Lenny Meyer.
Lenny sticks out his hand. Max responds with a small nod.
And you are?
MAX
Max.
LENNY MEYER
Max?
MAX
Max Cohen.
LENNY MEYER
Cohen!?
(judging)
Jewish?
Max shrugs and turns back to his work.
LENNY MEYER
It's OK.
(joking)
I'm a Jew, too.
(serious)
Do you practice?
MAX
No, I'm not interested in religion.
LENNY MEYER
Have you ever heard of Kabbalah?
MAX
No.
LENNY MEYER
Jewish mysticism.
MAX
Look, I'm kinda busy right here.
(CONTINUED)
9.
10 CONTINUED: (2) 10
LENNY MEYER
I understand... it's just that right
now is a very exciting moment in our
history. Right now is a critical
moment in time.
MAX
(sarcastic)
Really?
LENNY MEYER
Yeah, it's very exciting. Have you
ever put on tefillin?
Max has no idea what Lenny's talking about. Lenny pulls a
leather box with black leather straps from his pocket.
LENNY MEYER
You know tefillin. Yeah, I know it
looks strange. It's an amazing
tradition. It has a tremendous amount
of power. It's a mitzvah for all
Jewish men to do. Mitzvahs, good
deeds.
And then, Max notices that his thumb is twitching. He grabs
it self-consciously.
LENNY MEYER
They purify us and bring us closer
to God. You want to try it?
TIGHT SHOT on Max's hand as three unmarked, circular pills
hit his palm. Then, he slams the pills into the back of his
mouth. Max replaces the cap on a plastic bottle of unmarked
prescription drugs.
MAX
Shit...
LENNY MEYER
You all right? You all right, Max?
CUT TO:
11 INT. MAX'S BATHROOM -- NIGHT 11
Max splashes water on his face.
He pulls a metal vaccination gun out of the medicine cabinet.
Then, he loads it with a small bottle of medicine. He rolls
up his sleeve, dabs alcohol on his arm, and fires the gun
into his arm.
(CONTINUED)
10.
11 CONTINUED: 11
MAX (V.O.)
17.55. Personal note: Second attack
in under twenty-four hours.
Administered eighty milligrams
promazine HCI and six milligrams
sumatripan orally as well as one
milligram dihydroergotamine mesylate
by subcutaneous injection.
Max slaps himself in the face a few times.
He watches his thumb twitch. And then, pain shoots through
him. He grabs the right side of his head, massages it, and
pushes it in with his fingers.
In the mirror, he examines the right side of his scalp. He
sees nothing. Ahh...
Max walks back into the --
12 MAIN ROOM 12
-- and sits down in a chair. The lamp is blinding so he snaps
it off. Only the bathroom light illuminates the room. He
takes a few breaths.
Leave me alone.
Max gags and rubs his head.
Then, the pain seems to disappear. Max looks at his hand
which was rubbing his head.
Then, he looks at the front door. The door seems to move.
Something begins knocking on Max's door. The knocking gets
louder and louder. Then, the locks begin to unlock.
Now, something starts pounding on the door. The door knob
quivers. The locks unbolt. The chains are the only things
keeping out the intruder. The door shakes and the chains are
strained.
Max is paralyzed with terror. No! No!
And then the door smashes open. Blinding light fills the
room and we crash into the --
13 BLINDING WHITE VOID. 13
A moment of silence, then we --
CUT TO:
11.
14 INT. BATHROOM -- DAWN 14
A phone rings incessantly. Max's eyes pop open. He's scrunched
up in a corner of the room, squashed beneath the sink.
His nose is bleeding.
Max crawls into the --
15 MAIN ROOM 15
-- and picks up the phone. He pinches his nose and tilts his
head back.
MARCY DAWSON
(on phone)
Mr Cohen. Marcy Dawson here again,
from Lancet-Percy. I was just looking
over my schedule and I realized I'll
be in Chinatown tomorrow around three.
Max heads to the --
16 FRONT DOOR 16
-- and checks the locks. He is barely listening to Marcy.
The locks seem secure.
MARCY DAWSON
(on phone)
I would love to stop by and see you.
I am so anxious to meet you. It will
be worth it -- for both of us. How's
three sound?
MAX
How'd you get my address?
MARCY DAWSON
(on phone)
Oh, don't worry, I got your address
from Columbia. So three it is. Looking
forward to it. It has been given a hydrographic of a monstrous dragon snorting fire. Sit on your horde and wait for any who come to take it
Max tries to stop her but, before he can, Marcy hangs up. A
bewildered Max slowly hangs up.
Max checks the peep-hole -- all clear.
Then, he opens his --
12.
17 CLOSET 17
-- which is filled with random computer parts and boxes.
He pulls a thick neuroscience book from a shelf in the back
of the closet. He almost knocks over an old dusty brass
microscope on the shelf.
Max flips through the book. It contains old plates
illustrating the brain. Max examines some of the diagrams.
CUT TO:
18 EXT. SOL'S HALLWAY -- DAY 18
Max rings the bell on an apartment door.
A few moments pass, and then, Sol Robeson opens the door.
Sol is a wise-looking man in his early seventies. He walks
with difficulty, leaning, out of breath, on a wooden cane.
His arms are covered with faded Russian prison tattoos and
he speaks with a thick Eastern European accent. He's happy
to see Max.
SOL
Max!
Max is happy to see Sol, but he's a bit bashful and
intimidated.
CUT TO:
19 INT. SOL'S STUDY -- MOMENTS LATER 19
Tight on the Japanese game of Go being played. Sol is white
and Max is black. Sol's moves are secure and controlled while
Max is hesitant.
Sol's study is packed with worn books and soft sunlight. A
bowl of goldfish sits prominently next to the Go board.
Dave Brubeck tunes groove out of antique speakers.
SOL
Stop thinking, Max, just feel. Use
your intuition.
(beat)
So what did you think of Hamlet?
MAX
I didn't get to it.
(CONTINUED)
13.
19 CONTINUED: 19
SOL
It's been a month.
(knowingly)
You haven't taken a single break.
MAX
I'm so close.
Sol changes the subject. He feeds his goldfish and points to
one of them.
SOL
Have you met the new fish my niece
bought me? I named her Icarus. After
you. My renegade pupil. You fly too
high you'll get burned.
Max looks up at Sol.
SOL
I look at you, I see myself thirty
years ago. My greatest pupil.
Published at sixteen, PhD at twenty.
But life isn't just mathematics,
Max. I spent forty years looking for
patterns in Pi, I found nothing.
MAX
You found things...
SOL
I found things, but not a pattern.
CUT TO:
20 INT. MOVING TRAIN -- DAY 20
Max sits in the corner of a rickety New York City subway
car. The train is almost completely deserted.
Max looks down at his hand. He opens his palm and reveals a
black Go chip.
MAX (V.O.)
Not a pattern. II.22. Personal note:
Sol died a little when he stopped
research on Pi. It wasn't just the
stroke, he stopped caring. How could
he stop when he was so close to seeing
Pi for what it really is?
(CONTINUED)
14.
20 CONTINUED: 20
Max notices a Skinny Man in a business suit staring at him.
The man catches Max's eye and looks away, but then, he quickly
looks back, making Max turn away.
Max looks down at his Wall Street Journal and draws a circle
with its diameter. Then, he writes `A = ?r2' and `C = 2?r'.
Next, he writes, `? = 3.14159. . .'
MAX (V.O.)
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 string of numbers.
MAX (V.O.)
3.14 off into infinity.
Suddenly, Max hears someone singing. Max looks up. It is the
skinny Man and he's singing with passion. It's all very
strange to Max who nervously looks away.
Max continues with his work.
And then, the singing stops -- mid-verse. Max looks up and
the man is gone. Vanished. Max looks around -- no one in
sight.
CUT TO:
21 INT. APARTMENT STAIRCASE -- DAY 21
Max heads up the stairs to his apartment. Just then, a toy
Slinky appears from nowhere marching down the stairs.
Max stops and waits until the Slinky hits his foot. He picks
it up and looks at it.
He looks around, wondering what's going on. Then, Jenna leans
out over a railing and starts laughing at Max.
CUT TO:
22 INT. COFFEE SHOP -- DAY 22
Max sits at the counter frantically looking at the Wall Street
Journal. He plops three pills into his coffee.
He draws circles and other shapes across the page.
(CONTINUED)
15.
22 CONTINUED: 22
Max is interrupted by a puff of smoke. At the same time,
someone touches his shoulder and says:
LENNY MEYER
Hey! Max! Lenny Meyer.
(motioning to the
cigarette)
Sorry, I'll put it out.
(which he does)
So, what do you do?
MAX
Um, I work with computers... math.
LENNY MEYER
Math? What kind of math?
MAX
Number theory. Research mostly.
LENNY MEYER
No way, I work with numbers myself.
I mean, not traditional...
(points to his yarmulke)
I work with the Torah.
(awed by the
coincidence)
Amazing.
MAX
(passing it off as a
coincidence)
Yeah...
LENNY MEYER
Yeah. You know Hebrew is all math.
It's all numbers. Did you know that?
MAX
Hm.
Lenny pulls out a worn, dog-eared Bible from his pocket.
There are paper slips marking what seems like every other
page. When he opens it up, Max sees that the pages are marked
up by highlighter pens, notes and diagrams.
Lenny points to the text.
EXTREME CLOSE-UP of Hebrew letters.
(CONTINUED)
16.
22 CONTINUED: (2) 22
LENNY MEYER
Here, look... the ancient Jews used
Hebrew as their numerical system.
Each letter is a number.
Lenny pulls out a pen and grabs Max's Journal. He writes on
it as he talks:
LENNY MEYER
Like the Hebrew `A', Aleph, is one.
`B', Bet, is two. You understand?
But look at this. The numbers are
interrelated, like take the Hebrew
word for father, Ab. Aleph, Bet. One
and two equals three. All right?
Hebrew word for mother, Ame. Aleph,
Mem. One and forty equals forty-one.
Sum of three and forty-one: fortyfour.
Now, the Hebrew word for child
is Yellen. That's ten, thirty, and
four... forty-four.
The waitress refills Max's coffee.
LENNY MEYER
The Torah is just a long string of
numbers. Some say that it's a code
sent to us from God.
MAX
(mildly impressed)
That's kind of interesting.
LENNY MEYER
(proud)
Yeah, that's just kid's stuff. Check
this out, OK? The word for the Garden
of Eden, Kadem. Numerical translation:
one forty-four. Now the value of the
tree of knowledge... in the garden,
Aat Ha Haim, two thirty-three. One
forty-four, two thirty-three. Now
you can take those numbers and...
MAX
They're Fibonacci numbers.
LENNY MEYER
Huh?
MAX
You know, like, the Fibonacci
sequence.
(CONTINUED)
17.
22 CONTINUED: (3) 22
LENNY MEYER
Fibonacci...?
MAX
Fibonacci is an Italian mathematician
in the thirteenth century.
Lenny lights up a cigarette and takes a drag.
MAX
If you divide a hundred and fortyfour
into two hundred and thirtythree
the result approaches theta.
LENNY MEYER
Theta?
MAX
Theta. The Greek symbol for the golden
ratio. The golden spiral.
Lenny exhales the smoke. Max draws a spiral.
LENNY MEYER
Wow, I never saw that before. That's
the series you find in nature. Like
the face of a sunflower.
MAX
Wherever there's spirals.
SLOW MOTION: Max looks down at his coffee cup. He pours cream
into his coffee. It shoots up and mixes with the black coffee
forming spirals in the mug.
LENNY MEYER
You see, there's math everywhere.
Lenny's smoke drifts by Max's eyes.
SLOW MOTION: Max's POV of smoke spirals spinning in front of
him.
NORMAL SPEED: Suddenly, Max stands up and leaves. Whoa, hey,
Max!
CUT TO:
23 INT. MAX'S APARTMENT -- DAY 23
Max draws spirals all over his Wall Street Journal. Then he
takes a thick black marker and draws a giant spiral across
the entire page.
(CONTINUED)
18.
23 CONTINUED: 23
Max is ecstatic as he pounds code into the computer, takes
moments to wake up, drops pills and drinks a ginseng soda.
MAX (V.O.)
13.26. 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.
Max works feverishly: sketching, pounding out code, and
downing ginseng soda.
MAX (V.O.)
So what about the stock market? A
universe of numbers that represents
the global economy. Millions of human
hands at work... billions of minds...
a vast network screaming with life.
An organism. A natural organism. My
hypothesis: Within the stock market,
there is a pattern. Right in front
of me, hiding behind the numbers.
Always has been. 10.18: Press return.
Max is about to slap RETURN but he stops himself -- he's
nervous.
Next door, Devi and her boyfriend are making love. He looks
at the wall with disdain. Then, he looks back at the screen,
shrugs and confidently slaps RETURN on his keyboard.
Stock prices float across the screen. Max can't believe his
eyes -- the quotes are absurd.
Suddenly, a number flashes on to the screen. It blinks on
and off a couple of times.
MAX
What the...
And then, Euclid crashes. The electricity in Max's room flips
off. The numbers on Max's screen fade to black.
IN DARKNESS:
MAX (O.S.)
Shit!
CUT TO:
19.
24 TIGHT ON A FUSE BOX 24
Max removes a fuse. He replaces it with a penny.
MAX (V.O.)
10.28. Results: Bullshit. Euclid
predicts AAR at six and a half. AAR
hasn't been beneath forty in twenty
years. Explanations for anomaly:
Human error.
CUT TO:
25 MAX'S ROOM 25
Max tries to reboot Euclid, but nothing happens. He tries a
second time, he tries repeatedly, but nothing happens.
Max puts on a pair of latex gloves. He dons a surgical mask.
He climbs up to a loft above his monitors. A glass case, fed
cool air by a vent tube, encases some computer parts. He
carefully removes the front glass cover.
When he gets it off he's stunned. Not only have the chips
melted down, but a strange gooey, gel-like substance covers
the board.
MAX
Shit.
Then, Max spots a single ant crawling over the chips. Max
crushes it between his fingers.
Max grabs his face, frustrated.
Suddenly, he angrily throws Euclid's mainframe on to the
ground. It lands with a smash!
Then, he jumps on the smashed mainframe. He collapses on to
his bed and covers his face. A moment later:
MAX (V.O.)
11.11. Results: Failed treatments to