Years before Black Swan, writer/director Darren Aronofsky exploded across the cinematic universe with his surprisingly low-budget film, Pi. The film is a violently pensive study of the fine line between madness and genius, as well as a warning about the consequences of failing to respect human boundaries. Filled with thoughtful metaphors, extraordinary cinematography, recurring themes, and phenomenal acting, Pi is a chilling creative success for both the film industry and the world of philosophy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayA surreal exploration of the brilliantly unhinged mind of mathematical genius Max Cohen. Pi follows Max as he falls victim to an incurable obsession with finding the number. model – or true response – to an otherwise chaotic universe. Believing that this 216-digit pattern exists in every aspect of the world – in the stock market, in the digital translation of the Torah, and in the irrational number pi – Max descends into a self-deprecating madness. He becomes completely obsessed with the idea of ​​understanding life and consequently becomes consumed by this quest for the unknowable. Paranoid and lonely, Max seems at first glance like the most unlikely hero in any story. Protected from the rest of the world by three different locks on his cheap apartment door and harboring an involuntary habit of shaking violently in the presence of strangers, Max is surprisingly cloistered – to the point of hinting at social disorder. In fact, it may be precisely this seclusion that ultimately drives him to madness. His reluctance to share his knowledge or abilities with anyone, including Hasitic Jew Lenny (who wants it for spiritual purposes) and Wall Street investor Marcy (who similarly wants Max to predict stock prices), pushes him into a self-fatal attitude. -importance and greed. His desire to keep the answer to himself leads him to believe that he is "the chosen one", as he himself claims in the film. Because of this surprising transformation in superiority and height, it is logical to assume that the elusive 216 digit motif represents piety. Not only does Lenny explain the correspondence in Jewish myth (the number is said to be the true name of God), but it is also seen in Max's attitude as he gets closer and closer to the discovery. He becomes selfish and arrogant ("I understand it and I will see it. I was chosen!") and begins to consider himself a true god, superior to the rest of the characters due to their obvious inability to find the right God . answer for themselves. However, it is also quickly apparent that the pursuit turns Max into an agonized man, both physically and figuratively, mutilating his own brain. He experiences terrifying hallucinations and becomes mentally unstable. The film depicts several scenes where Max pokes and stimulates an alleged brain illusion, depicting his completely tortured attempt to find an answer. The mutilation intensifies over time, and in the end he is overwhelmed by the sheer weight of knowledge and driven to perform a lobotomy on his own brain. The ant, which seems to represent the ultimate number, is also shown several times throughout the film – always in scenes that emphasize the importance of the motif. For example, the ant crawls into the mainframe of Max's supercomputer, Euclid, when it crashes with the 216-digit "bug", and sits idly on the wall when Max accurately predicts stock prices. More importantly, the ant is.