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Mathematics in Movies

This is a collection of movie clips in which Mathematics appears. It started during spring break 2006 (almost 16 years now). The site has changed in 2010 from Flash to HTML5 video. Direct video links allow a teacher to grab and include a clip, for example into a presentation. Since the formats used from 2006 to 2010 were small scale movies (bandwidth has still been an issue at that time), the movies are since 2016 added as separate pages. This is easier to maintain and extend than an ever growing relational database. It allows to adapt the quality of the movie depending on the available size and sometimes add additional content, pictures, links or comments without having to update a relational database. The page banner on the top is a 360 degree panorama gif, rendered in 2006 using the open source Povray raytracer.

Date: March 2006 - July 2022, by: Oliver Knill Department of Mathematics, Harvard University

News

Math in Computer science is very much related to ``Math in movies". Cryptology is a strong link. A list of 16 is advertised here at the occasion of a lecture on cryptology.

	Lambada [IMDb link] Kevin Laird, a Beverly Hills school teacher talks about complementary angles, the most useful angle, the identity cos(x)2 + sin(x)2=1 and the Cartesian coordinate system. (Thanks to Aleksandra Ravas for the suggestion). 1990 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.		Safe [IMDb link] A young girl with super memory and extraordinary math talent gets hunted by various mafia like gangsters. (Thanks to Tracy Leah for the suggestion). 2012 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Rushmore [IMDb link] Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) daydreams on solving the "hardest geometry equation in the world: "Computing the area of an ellipse (Thanks to Helen Chandler and Aaron Snitzer for the suggestion). 1998 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Moneyball [IMDb link] Using equations and statistics, baseball players are analyzed by Peter Brand. People are overlooked because of a variety of reasons: age, appearance, personality. Mathematics cuts right through this bias. 2011 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	Ring [IMDb link] A sign on a mathematicians blackboard is changed, producing some headache later on, shortly before the mathematician dies (the theme of this horror movie is that people die after they watch a specific tape and then get a phone call). (thanks to an anonymous tipster). 1998 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Hackers [IMDb link] Some mathematical formulas in a visualization of a "worm". Features a young Angelina Jolie and a good ol hexeditor which had already been useful to me on the Atari ST to "edit games". 1995 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Intacto [IMDb link] What is the chance to draw an ace in a randomly shuffled card deck of 52. There is one chance in a million for a plane to crash and for it to crash, leaving you the only survivor out of how many -- 237 passengers? One chance in 237 million. Later in this convoluted thriller, a Russian Roulette variant appears, where 5 of 6 chambers contain bullets. 2001 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	Network [IMDb link] Arthur Jenson (played by Ned Beatty) talks to Howard Beale (played by Peter Finch) about the only primal force of nature: money: "What do you think the Russians talk about? Karl Max? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, mini-max solutions and compute the prize-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments. Just like we do. " 1976 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.		12 Monkeys [IMDb link] A wonderful performance of Brad Pit. Here he talks about predicting the future with a probability matrix. As expected with time travel stories, the storyline of 12 Monkeys is intriguing. 1995 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			TSLauhe Maltese Falcon [IMDb link] Lots of meta talk and meta-meta talk and twisted logic in this conservation about the black bird. The statement "Mathematically correct" flagged the movie clip for this collection [I added the last remark to add a meta statement about this caption] 1941 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			The Ice Storm [IMDb link] Its when they say 2*2 is equal to 4, it is not numbers, it is space. It is perfect space. But only in your mind. You can not draw perfect squares in the material world. [While this movie scene is harmless, the movie itself is definitely not PG13.] 1997 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	Cranford [IMDb link] On addition of income numbers and a sentence on teaching mathematics or geography. [As all BBC drama, this miniseries contains delightful acting and is built on a wonderful script quite freely using Elizabeth Glaskells original text. ] 2007 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.		The Wild Blue Yonder [IMDb link] Chaotic transport in the solar system. [ Actual documentary footage and interviews are combined to a movie. The interview is real and serious but the context makes it funny.] Thanks to Martin Lo to mention this to me. Lo appeared with two other mathematicians in this movie. 2005 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			The killer inside me [IMDb link] A brief moment sanity in this dark, dark movie when Lou solves some integrals. It is an extremely disturbing movie because the dark side of Lou Ford, the psychotic killer, is not visible. Why the police men Lou does some math in this scene is unexplained in the movie. 2010 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			A Serious Man [IMDb link] The Uncertainty Principle in Quantum Mechanics. The entire movie is a celebration of this principle starting with the dead/alive cat scene, unsharp boundaries singing and TV receiption, accepting mysteries, culture clashs, quantum tunneling between relationships etc,etc. One of the best Cohen brother movies. P.S. Can you spot the error in the blackboard computation in this scene? The computation error probably has been implemented also by purpose on a meta level. 2009 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Star trek [IMDb link] Young Spock learns Math. He memorizes the formula (4pi/3) r3 for the volume of the sphere, the square root of 2396324 and the definition of dimensionality log(n)/log(d). 2009 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Star trek The Next generation [IMDb link] Probably the most hilarious statement about dimension in the galaxy appears in the episode "Where silence has Lease": "Is the lack of a dimension a dimension by itself?" Negative dimension. Mathematicians have not yet come up with this idea, but mathematicians have used also some time to come up with negative numbers. 2002 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Flatland (short) [IMDb link] The sphere shows the third dimension. This movie was done at the animation workshop at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University. A production based on an idea by the American animator John Hubley (1914-1977) and directed by Eric Martin. (Thanks to Jamie Clements for the suggestion). The movie can be obtained here. 1965 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Fermat's room [IMDb link] This brilliant movie is essentially about math only. A few famous math puzzles appear in this movie, where 4 mathematicians are trapped in a room where the walls slowly crush them. (Thanks to Evan Pellnitz for the suggestion).more. 2007 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	The Oxford Murders [IMDb link] Lecture on Wittgensteins pessimistic view on absolute truth followed by rather shallow sound bites: the beauty and harmony of numbers, the golden ratio, Fibonnacci, snowflakes and cancer, the secret meaning of numbers, the butterfly which flaps its wings to produce a hurricane which nobody can predict, logic and chance. Thanks to Detlev Beutner for the suggestion. 2008 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Run Lola Run [IMDb link] Beside the main theme of "sensitive dependence on initial conditions", there is a "run of Lola" in which she wins in roulette twice betting on the same number 20. The first time, the initial input of 100 mark is multiplied by 35. The second bet multiplies the now 3600 by 35 leading to a total win of 3500+126'000 = 129'500 has an element of Grass's Blechtrommel cry, mathematically related to "resonance". (Thanks to Mark-Willem Dogterom). 1998 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	Old School [IMDb link] This comedy not only shows shots of Harvard college but also some rather tough math test problems: like Harriot's method of solving cubics (named after Thomas Harriot, you find Harriot's method for finding the three solutions x=e-b2/e,e,b2/e of the equation x3+3 b2 x = 2 c3 here). Also Diophantine equations or integration problems appear in this test. 2003 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	Apocalypse Now [IMDb link] Surrounded by horror, forms of poetry, physics and math appear in a mad form too. Photojournalist: "this is dialectics, simple dialectics. It is very simple dialectics: 1 through 9, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel to space. You can not go to space with fractions. What do you land on: on one quarter or 3/8th? What do you do when you go to venus or something. Thats dialectic. Physics. Dialectic logic is: there is only love or hate." 1979 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	Alice in Wonderland [IMDb link] Riddle: Why is a raven like a writing desk? Carols own answer given in 1896: Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front! (Thanks to Tania Moloney for the suggestion). 1951 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.		Alice in Wonderland [IMDb link] Fooling around with complements. The unbirthday. Its a small world, most people share an unbirthday. Carol might have been inspired by the birthday paradox: in a class of 23 the chance to have two kids with the same birthday is already more than 1/2. (Thanks to Tania Moloney for the suggestion). 1951 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	23 [IMDb link] A true story about German Hackers/Spies. Numerology as in the movie "The number 23". Bach as a hacker composing palindromic music. (Thanks to Frank Josellis for the suggestion). 1998 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Mansfield Park [IMDb link] Reciting a scene with Fanny, Edmund and Mary, mentioning the teaching of mathematics. As frequently done by Jane Austen, the scene is also a play in a play where the dialog refers to the actual situation. An other most delightful example (not displayed in this clip) is the library scene when Sir Thomas unexpectedly comes home from Antigua. 1996 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
	The code conspiracy [IMDb link] The ulam prime spiral appears. One could overlook that almost nothing connected with codes, physics or math does make sense in this movie, but that the blue picture of the Ulam spiral is fake is slightly annoying. 2001 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			Marius [IMDb link] Bartender Cesar lectures Marius on mixing a picon-citron-curacao: one very small third of curacao, one third of citron, then a large third of picon. And to finish, a large third of water. (Movie suggested by Billy Carson) 1931 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.
			The Alien Girl [IMDb link] The "Toricelli Void" appears in this Russian thriller. This is not a strict mathematical reference but mathematicians like Blaise Pascal have thought about vacuum. Vacuum is still an enigma and is related to the question what is space and time. The holy grail of physics to relate quantum mechanics with general relativity is also a mathematical problem. (Thanks to Nk P for the suggestion). 2010 To the movie. Direct media links: Quicktime MP4, Webm and Ogg Vorbis.

News

This Math in movies page appeared podcast of Jamillah.

Thanks

Many thanks to all the following 160 individuals for valuable suggestions on this page. This website would never be what it is without you: Danny Aarons, Roger Alperin, Vanessa Aslan-Blair, Henry Baldursson, Irene Barnett, Mark Barsamian, Jason Baumgartner, Wyley Beatty, Ebru Bekyel, Detlev Beutner, Star Behar, Bret Benesh, A.M. Bernard, Cheryl Bjurstrom, John Boller, Michael Bradley, Tony Brockman, Demien Brown, Jennifer Brown, Ryan Brown, Martynas Buivys, Iftikhar Burhanuddin, Rebecca B. Candino, Jo Jo Cadray, Amy Carney, Rich Campbell, Becky Candino, Steve Cerce, Helen Chandler, Jamie Clements, Karen Conner, Keith Conrad, Christoph Cornut, Carlo Cosmatos, Ben Crossman, Joanne Crooks, Jane Ries Cushman, Kelli DeMoville, Maureen Desmond, Mark-Willem Dogterom, Celeste Doolittle, Patrick Downs, Olaf Drechsler, Tim Duff, Carlos Dutra, John Ehlers, Randy Fee, Joia Felice, C. Fernley, Ron Fisher, Orlando Figueiredo, Kelly Fitzpatrick, David Flottum, Greg Friedman, Cassandra Fuller, Arturo Saenz Garcia, Jim Greene, Steen Grode, Maxwell Grozovsky, Malanie Gurk, Linda Hand, Dan Hansch, Jennifer Harris, Diane Harrington-Kelly, Kathy Henderson, Mattias Hogstrom, Tatiana Ioudovina, Bob Jerrard, Ilona Jingizu, Carolyn Johnson, Jeanne Johnson, Erica Jones, Shawn Jones, Valerie Jones, David Jost, Frank Josellis, Pankaj Kamthan, Martha Kelly, Prasad Khotari, Ruth Knill, Andre Kristovskis, Tommy Lee, Christy Lyons, Luis Las Heras, Claire Laurain, Matt Leingang, Richard Levine, John Lib Chu-Wee Lim, Tyson Liskow, Quanquan Liu, Martin Lo, George Lowe, Colleen Lutes, Carla McFadden, Martha MacCormack, Christoph Machu, Pamela Martin, Peter M., Timothy Marsh, Christopher McDade, Alan Miesch, Thomas Moore, Judy McDarby, Cheryl McDuff, Paolo Macasaet, Bob McK., Carla McFadden, Kasper Maes, Hannah Maker, Aba Mbirika, Nivaldo Medeiros, Sebastian Melmoth, Yelena Melnichenko, Susan Milano, Terry Mills, Tania Moloney, Nicolae Moroi, Jim Musumeci, Jim Neumann, Maribeth Olberding, Eric Olsen, Arturo Pacifico Griffini, Nk P, Priyojit Palit, Michael Palme, Val Paradise, Alison Peachey, Leanna Peedin, Renee Pentecost, Evan Pellnitz, Shane Perdue, Rosie Perera, Martin Pettet, Don Ploger, Gregory Potter, Mason Porter, Andrew Ranicki, Sofia Rasmussen, Aleksandra Ravas, Richard Rebarber, Ullrich Reichenbach, Linda Richard, Malik Richardson, James Riordan, Jose Rivas, Brynne Roeder, Sheldon Ross, Steven Ross, Louis Sobrecueva, Pedram Safari, Amit Saha, John Sauer, David Scott, Sharon Serano, Carolyn Seubert, Mike Skaggs, John Shaposka, Ionica Smeets, Craig Smorynski, Aaron Snitzer, Jack Snoeyink, Larry Staggs, James Stiehl, Helen Stearman, Barbara Stonewall, Pete Swartz, Michael Sweigard, Richard Trotman, Misha Tiberend, Gilberto Tonali, Mark Tully, Lillian Tubbs, James Taylor, David Tello, Leah Tracy, Suzanne Underwood, Virginia Usnick, Lesa Vandiver, Andy Ventress, Jim Vogel, Benjamin Volk, Shannon Wallace, Kelly Wedding, Art Weiss, Kevin Westrich, Rufus Williams, Michael Wilson, James Windle, Rose Wisneski, Carol Wood, Peter Wung, Mike Yaris, Jacob Ye, David York, Robin Zaruba, Jon Zingale, Li Zhou, Mohammad Zokaie

Links

• Wikipedia: List of films about mathematicians
• Book by Burkard Polster and Marty Ross: Math goes to the movies
• Movie keyword search engine
• Beste Math movies list 2021
• 20 films about math
• mathematical movies database

gageablight.blogspot.com

Source: https://people.math.harvard.edu/~knill/mathmovies/

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