A Beautiful Mind

Nash:
I have respect for beer.

Hansen:
Cowards, all of you. Come on. Whoever wins, Sol does his laundry for the semester.

Sol:
Does that seem unfair to anybody?

Bender:
No, not at all.

Nash:
Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.

Charles:
That Isaac Newton fellow was right.

Nash:
He was on to something.

Charles:
Clever boy.

Charles:
So what's your story? You the poor kid that never got to go to Exeter or Andover?

Nash:
Despite my privileged upbringing, I'm actually quite well-balanced. I have a chip on both shoulders.

Nash:
There has to be a mathematical explanation for how bad that tie is.

Hansen:
So how about it, Nash? You scared?

Nash:
Terrified... mortified... petrified... stupefied... by you.

Nash:
I find you very attractive. Your assertiveness tells me that you feel the same way about me. But ritual remains that we must do a series of platonic actions before we can have intercourse. But all I really want to do is have sex with you as soon as possible.

Charles:
There's no such thing as "for sure". That's the only sure thing I do know.

Nash:
I've made the most important discovery of my life. It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logical reasons can be found. I'm only here tonight because of you. You're the only reason I am... you're all the reasons I am.

Alicia:
I need to believe, that something extraordinary is possible.

Nash:
Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart.

Nash:
Find a truly original idea. It is the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It is the only way I will ever matter.

Nash:
Alicia, does our relationship warrant long-term commitment? 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.

Alicia:
How big is the universe?

Nash:
Infinite.

Alicia:
How do you know?

Nash:
I know because all the data indicates it's infinite.

Alicia:
But it hasn't been proven yet.

Nash:
No.

Alicia:
You haven't seen it.

Nash:
No.

Alicia:
How do you know for sure?

Nash:
I don't, I just believe it.

Alicia:
It's the same with love I guess.

Alicia:
I was wondering Professor Nash, if I could take you to dinner?

Alicia:
You do eat don't you?

Alicia:
You want to know what's real? This...

Alicia:
... this is real.

Nash:
I don't exactly know what I am required to say in order for you to have intercourse with me. But could we assume that I said all that. I mean essentially we are talking about fluid exchange right? So could we go just straight to the sex.

Nash:
She never gets old. How can she be real if she never gets old?

Nash:
If we all go for the blonde and 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 no on likes to be second choice. But what if none of us goes for the blonde? We won't get in each other's way and we won't insult the other girls. It's the only way to win. It's the only way we all get laid.

Nash:
This is a woman chasing a man who stole her purse.

Charles:
John, you watched a mugging. That's weird.

Charles:
When's the last time you ate? You know... food.

Charles:
It's not my problem and it's not your problem. It's their problem. Your answers are not on that wall. They're out there, where you've *been* working.

Nash:
You wanted to see if I was crazy and would screw everything up if I actually won.

Nash:
They are my past. Everyone is haunted by their past.

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

Hansen:
Nash. Who's winning - you, or you?

Nash:
Classes will dull your mind.

Nash:
It looks like you won after all.

Hansen:
No. They were wrong, John. No one wins.

Nash:
I've gotten used to ignoring them and I think, as a result, they've kind of given up on me. I think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares, Martin, we've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive.

Charles:
The prodigal roommate arrives.

Charles:
Is my roommate a dick?

Charles:
I arrived last night. Right in time for English Department cocktails. The cock was mine. The tail belonged to a lovely young thing with a passion for D.H. Lawrence.

Nash:
Martin. It is Martin, isn't it?

Hansen:
Why yes, John, it is.

Nash:
I assume you've gotten used to miscalculation. I read your pre-prints. Both of 'em. And I'm convinced there wasn't one seminal or innovative idea in either one of them... Enjoy your punch.

Nash:
You once said that God must be a painter because he gave us so many colors.

Alicia:
I didn't think you were listening...

Nash:
I'm always listening.

Alicia:
It's called "life," John. Activities available; just add meaning.

Parcher:
Conviction, it turns out, is a luxury of those on the sidelines, Mr. Nash.

Nash:
There is no point in being nuts when you can't have fun.

Nash:
She's so small.

Charles:
Well, she's young, John. That's how they come.

Dr. Rosen:
Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?

John Nash:
Hello, Martin.

Martin Hansen:
Jesus Christ.

John Nash:
No. I don't have that one. My savior complex takes a different form.

John Nash:
And then, on the way home, Charles was there again. Sometimes I miss talking to him. Maybe Rosen is right. Maybe I have to think about going back to the hospital.

Alicia Nash:
Maybe try again tomorrow.

General:
You ever... just *know* something, Dr. Nash?

Nash:
Constantly.

MIT Student:
Can we open up the window, Professor? It's hot in here.

John Nash:
Your comfort comes second to my ability to hear my own voice.

[John has been in the library for two days]

Charles:
You've been in here for two days.

John:
You know Hansen's just published another paper? I can't even find a topic for my doctorate.

Charles:
Well, on the bright side, you've invented window art.

John:
[points] This is a group playing touch football. This is a cluster of pigeons fighting over bread crumbs. And this here is a woman who is chasing a man who stole her purse.

Charles:
John, you watched a mugging. That's weird.

John:
In competitive behavior, someone always loses.

Charles:
Well, my niece knows that, John, and she's about this high.

John:
See, if I derive an equilibrium where prevalence is a non-singular event where nobody loses, can you imagine the effect that would have on conflict scenarios, arm negotiations …

Charles:
When did you last eat?

John:
… currency exchange?

Charles:
When did you last eat? You know, food.

John:
You have no respect for cognitive reverie, you know that?

Charles:
Yes. But pizza – now, pizza I have enormous respect for. And of course beer.

[He leaves]

John:
[throws stuff down and follows] I have respect for beer. [shouts] I have respect for beer!

John:
I can't fail. This is all I am.

Charles:
Come on, let's go out. I got to get something done. John!

John:
- I can't keep staring into space.

Charles:
-John, enough!

John:
Got to face the wall, follow their rules, read their books

Charles:
You want to do some damage? Fine

Charles:
Come on! Go on, bust your head! Kill yourself. Go do it. Don't mess around. Bust your head! Go on, bust that worthless head wide open.

John:
Goddamn it, Charles!

Hansen:
Recall the lessons of Adam Smith, the father of modern economics. "In competition …"

Everybody:
"… individual ambition serves the common good."

John:
Adam Smith needs revision.

Hansen:
What are you talking about?

John:
Adam Smith said the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself. Right? That's what he said, right?

Hansen:
Right.

John:
Incomplete. Incomplete, okay? Because the best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself … and the group.

Hansen:
Nash, if this is some way for you to get the blonde on your own, you can go to hell.

John:
Governing dynamics, gentlemen. Governing dynamics. Adam Smith...he was wrong.

[John bangs his head against the window pane, cutting his forehead]

Charles:
Jesus Christ, John.

John:
I can't fail. This is all I am.

Charles:
Come on, let's go out.

John:
I got to get something done.

Charles:
John!

John:
I can't keep staring into space.

Charles:
John, that's enough!

John:
Got to face the wall, follow their rules, read their books …

Charles:
You want to do some damage, fine! But don't mess around!

John:
… do their classes.

Charles:
Come on! Go on, bust your head! Kill yourself. Don't do it. Don't mess around. Bust your head! Go on, bust that worthless head wide open!

John:
Goddamn it, Charles! What the hell is your problem?!

Charles:
It's not my problem. And it's not your problem. It's their problem. Your answer isn't face the wall. It's out there, where you've been working.

John:
You knew Oppenheimer?

Parcher:
His project was under my supervision.

John:
Which project? … That project.

Parcher:
It's not that simple.

John:
Well, you ended the war.

Parcher:
We incinerated over a hundred thousand people.

John:
Well, great deeds come at great costs.

Parcher:
Well, conviction, it turns out, is a luxury of those on the sidelines, Mr. Nash.

John:
I'll try and keep that in mind.

Colonel:
General, this is Wheeler team leader Dr. John Nash.

General:
Glad you could come, Doctor.

John Nash:
Hello.

General:
Right this way.

General:
We've been intercepting radio transmissions from Moscow.

General:
The computer can't detect a pattern, but I'm sure it's code.

John Nash:
Why is that, General?

General:
Ever just know something, Dr. Nash?

John Nash:
Constantly.

Charles:
God, that's wonderful! There's no accounting for taste, is there?

John:
Should I marry her?

Charles:
Oh, Gosh.. Right.

John:
I mean, everything's going well. The job is fine, I have enough money

Charles:
It all seems to add up, doesn't it John?

John:
... but how do you know for sure?

Charles:
Nothing's ever for sure, John. That's the only sure thing I do know.

John:
Have you met Harvey? [points to the empty seat Sol is about to sit in]

Sol:
[startled, and worried] John, there's no...

John:
Relax, it's okay. There's no point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun.

Sol:
Jesus Christ. I should have known...

Studenten:
Hello. I've been studying your equilibrium, you know, the one you wrote here, at Winceton.

Studenten:
I tried to come up with something original, the way you did.

Nacho:
You know, I was young.

Jesse:
Umm... I've been developing a theory. I believe I can prove... that Galileo's extensions are covering the spaces the you used to talk about. That everything,/.. everything is connected. and, ehm... that it's all part of some larger topic [eyes shine up bright]

Nash:
Hey dreamy! When was the last time you ate?

Jessica:
Excuse me?

Nash:
[smiling] You know, food.

Nash:
Oh, uh- that can't be right then. My wife, analytica, she loves pimento cheese.

Dave:
Oh, thank you.

Nash:
Thank you!! :)

Dr. Rosen:
You can't reason your way out of this!

John:
Why not? Why can't I?

Dr. Rosen:
Because your mind is where your problem is in the first place!

Alicia:
You want to know what's real? This. This. This. This is real. Maybe the part... that knows the waking from the dream, maybe it isn't here.

John:
Maybe it's here.

Parcher:
Is this what you are, soldier? Some useless ghoul? The local madman?

John:
I'm not a soldier.

Parcher:
You're gonna end up in a cell! Old, worthless, discarded.

John:
There's no mission.

Parcher:
And while you rock and drool, the world will burn to ashes!

John:
You are not real! You are not real!

Parcher:
You're still talking to me, soldier!

John:
There's no mission! I'm not a soldier!

[Hansen rushes to John's side]

Hansen:
John? John? John, John, John, John. Hey, hey, hey. John, John! It's okay. I just heard what happened, I'm sorry. John--

John:
I'm not a soldier.

Hansen:
John. Hey, Nash. Nash, hey. Hey, you're all right.

[John walks off]

Parcher:
Ladies and gentlemen, the great John Nash!

Dr. Rosen:
[to Alicia] John has schizophrenia, people with this disease are often paranoid.

You can lead a blond to water but you cant make her drink....

After all, its just a matter of fluid exchange...

The hubris of the defeated:
: so many supplicants, so little time

Ive read your preprints, both of them, on ninlinear equations and ____, and Im convinced theres not a seminal or innovative idea in either one of them. Enjoy your punch.

Helinger:
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, gentlemen.