Name:
This movie is about the mind of one of the most peculiar yet ingenious
men to ever live. John Nash, Jr. grew up in the early half of the 20th
century (1928 -) in West Virginia. He was an American Mathematician
who made major contributions to military code break, economic
theory, has provided insight into the forces that govern chance and
events inside complex systems in daily life. John Nash had a mild case
of Paranoid schizophrenia which is the explanation of his peculiar
behavior.
Section 1
Summary: Graduate and post-grads at Princeton are meeting for a potluck at the beginning of the year. Nash
appears and is immediately marked as the social outsider, although he has a strong reputation for math. He sets
up his dorm room and meets Charles Owen. The other math students intentionally irritate Nash, and he shows
himself a poor sport. In fact, he demonstrates quite a bit of social inadequacy. Charles supports him. Nash finds
that he didn't win the desired prize. In frustration, he hits his head on the window.
Key Vocabulary
Princeton, Cold War, Einstein
Questions:
1.
Describe the opening sequence when John Nash sees the others. What patterns does he see?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
2.
What is Nash’s role at Princeton? What is there to do?
______________________________________________________________________________________
3.
How does Nash relate to the other students? What does he think of them? What do they think of him?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
4.
What does Nash mean when he says, “The game is flawed”? Why does he say this?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
5.
How does Nash see patterns? How does his mind work and how do the filmmakers show this? (in the
library scene)
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
6.
What is it meant by the statement, “In competitive behavior, someone always loses”? Do you agree?
Explain.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
7.
What is meant by the statement, "My odds of success dramatically improve with each attempt"? Do you
agree? Do human relationships depend on probability?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
8.
Why do all of the professors give their pens to one man?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
Section 2 (starts after the desk gets thrown out of the window)
Summery-While in a bar with the math guys, Nash suddenly has the idea he has been waiting for. The seasons
pass, and he wins the highest math prize possible for his year. He also gets a job deciphering codes for the military.
At the end of the scene, he sees a man in a black suit, "Big Brother", watching him. John drives home and then
sets up his lab with his two assistants. Nash teaches, miserably. One of his students attracts his attention. William
Parcher meets him in a secret lab and asks for Nash's help decoding Soviet plans that are distributed through
common newspapers and magazines.
Key Vocabulary: Adam Smith, latitude, longitude, Big Brother, The Pentagon, H-Bomb, MIT, Oppenheimer,
Mcarthy.
9.
During the bar scene, John Nash describes why Adam Smith is wrong. What is John’s theory called?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
10. What is Nash’s main job working for MIT?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
11. Describe Nash as a teacher. What is his attitude toward the stuents? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
12. Why does Parcher think Nash will be good at his new job he describes? List as many reasons as you can.
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
13. What is Nash’s new job with Parcher?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Section 3 (Starts when he speaks to the little girl)
Charles Own reappears with his niece. The little girl and Nash immediately warm to each other. Nash talks to
Charles about marriage. At a restaurant, Nash gives Alicia a prism. He proposes. They are married. Government
agents watch from a distance. As Nash makes one of his secret drop-offs, William Parcher arrives and they end up
in a car chase and shootout. The enemy car crashes. Extremely disturbed, Nash returns home. He refuses to talk to
Alicia about it, and locks himself in his office.
14. Who is chasing William and Nash?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
15. After the car chase do you recognize Nash’s illness more? How?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
16. Where is the National Mathematics Conference held?
______________________________________________________________________________________
17. Why doesn’t anyone help Nash when he is being taken away? They don’t believe what he is yelling?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
18. Later we find out that most of Nash’s work could be all a possible fake. He is acually imaginging all of this
because of his illness. What do you think about about his roommate being imaginary? Was everything
fake? What about his work? Your thoughts…
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
~End after garbage man scene~