Pi Page #7

Max sits on a bench sucking down pills. His head begins to

hurt. He touches the right side of his scalp and nubs it.

As the blood surges through his head it brings him waves of

pain. He gags several times. Then the pain lets loose and all

Max wants to do is die. He smashes the side of his head with

his fist.

Across the tracks on the far platform he sees someone.

For a moment Max's pain dissipates. His view is obscured by

the columns. Max gets up and sees the Young Hasidic Man - from

earlier - staring at him.

The Man stares at Max without any emotion. Max notices blood

dropping from the Man's right hand.

Max looks at the Man's face and sees for a split second his

own face staring back.

MAX:

Hey!

Max charges up a flight of stairs. He crosses a passage over

the tracks and flies down the stairs to the other side of the

platform.

The Man is gone. A pool of blood sits where the Man was. Max

touches it with his toe. It's sticky. He notices a trail of

blood leading off from the pool.

He follows it around a corner where it leads into a corner.

He notices something strange in the shadows. He carefully

advances on it. Hiding in the shadows is what looks like a

small piece of brain. It seems to be moving slightly.

Max uses a pen in his jacket to carefully touch it.

Suddenly, Max hears a train's HONK HONK behind him. Max spins

around. Nothing is there but silence.

He turns back to the gray matter. He touches it again. Once

again, he hears the deafening HONK HONK. Max spins around, but

nothing is there.

Frustrated, he pushes his pen deep into the brain - fiber

ripping apart.

Suddenly, a TRAIN is barreling down on Max. Seconds from

impact, Max SCREAMS!!!

DISSOLVE TO:

BLINDING WHITE VOID

We hear two deep, long sleep-filled breaths and then we CUT

TO:

INT. SUBWAY TRAIN - DAY

Max's eyes pop open. A TRANSIT COP is sticking him with a

nightstick.

TRANSIT COP:

Up, buddy Coney Island, last stop.

Max sits up. His nose is bleeding. The cop hands him a tissue.

TRANSIT COP:

Your nose.

Max wipes his nose and looks around nervously.

He sees the rides of Coney Island in the distance.

EXT. CONEY ISLAND BEACH - DAY

Max sits on a boulder on a Coney Island jetty. He watches the

sea.

Then Max sees an old man dressed like KING NEPTUNE scanning

the shore with a rusty metal detector. The old man picks up

something. He admires it for a moment before gently setting it

back on the ground. Then Neptune continues his search.

Max wanders over to the place where the old man exam

INT. MAX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

MAX'S POV through the microscope. Max sees the brain

structures.

Just then, there's a KNOCK on the door. The knock startles him

and his hand bumps the turret of the microscope. The lens

moves and he realizes that the magnification can be changed.

A KNOCK again.

Max looks out the peephole and sees nothing. Confused,

Looks down at his thumb. It's not shaking. He heads back to

his microscope.

There's a knock again. Max angrily unlocks the door and whips

it open.

IN THE HALLWAY is Jenna with her calculator.

JENNA:

Max, Max, can we do one.

MAX:

Jenna. I can't now, Jenna.

JENNA:

Please, Max.

MAX:

I'm working now, later okay?

Max shuts the door and returns to the microscope. He changes

the magnification. At a weaker magnification, the

mathematician sees that the cells are grouped in spirals.

Max is stunned, He grabs the phone and pulls a business card

out of his pocket He quickly dials a number.

Someone answers with a "Shalom" on the other end of the line.

Max asks for Lenny Meyer and is put on hold.

LENNY MEYER:

Hello, this is Lenny?

MAX:

Lenny, it's Max Cohen.

LENNY MEYER:

Max! How are you?

You want to come down?

MAX:

I've been thinking about

our conversation earlier.

Max looks into the microscope. He stares at the spirals.

LENNY MEYER:

That's good...

MAX:

I want to help.

LENNY MEYER:

Excellent.

MAX:

Do you have the Torah in

digital form?

DISSOLVE FROM TURRET TO:

SATELLITE IMAGE OF SPINNING TORNADO

Start in tight on the epicenter and pull out to reveal the

entire storm.

MAX (V.O.)

Thursday, September

fourth, sixteen forty-five.

The alchemist awakes. All of

my ideas, work and dreams are

spinning together It all has

to do with spirals. It began

with spirals and the answers

are thee.

INT. MAX'S APARTMENT – DAY

EUCLID'S INNARDS

Max uses a drill to rip out some old parts. He lays new wire

and does a bunch of soldering.

He rips down a bunch of old papers and does a general

housecleaning.

He also goes to school on the ant population in his apartment.

He plants some ant motels and sprays the room with. a pest

killer.

MAX (V.0.)

The most I can

remember about their

significance is from

Schneider's class. That

bullshit core for majors.

Schneider's fascination with

mystical geometry made him a

bit of a quack...but...then again,

look at Kepler. He was really into

Pythagoras. The leader of an

ancient sect which believed

the entire universe could be

represented by numbers.

Pythagoras' greatest contribution

was the golden ratio, which ended up

influencing art and science

for thousands of years,

arguably all the way up to

today.

TIGHT ON MAX writing a : b : : b : a + b.

He draws it over a copy of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous

drawing of man s anatomy.

MAX (V.0.)

The golden ratio,

if I recall, is this unique

relationship between the length

and width of a special

rectangle called the golden

rectangle.

TIGHT ON MAX carefully measuring out a golden rectangle.

The rectangle fits perfectly over Leonardo Da Vinci's Man.

MAX (V.O.)

If you take the

width of this rectangle and

use it to form a square within

the rectangle, the part left

over is a rectangle that has

the same ratio as the

original rectangle. au can

continue squaring the

rectangle, over and over

again, making the

rectangles smaller and smaller

to infinity.

TIGHT ON MAX squaring rectangle after rectangle. Then he draws

the golden spiral through the rectangles.

MAX (V.0.)

Then, if you

connect a curve through these

rectangles you get the golden

spiral. The Pythagoreans

loved this shape because

they found it everywhere

in nature.

MONTAGE OF IMAGES

The images mirror what Max talks about. We see NAUTILUS

SHELLS, SUNFLOWERS, PLANTS, RAM HORNS, HUMAN FINGERPRINTS, THE

MILKY WAY, and DNA STRANDS.

MAX (V.0.)

It really is amazing. In the sea,

on land, in air, our basic building

block DNA and even our home.

EXT. CHINATOWN - DAY

Max wanders through the crowded streets of Chinatown.

MAX (V.O.)

If we're built from

spirals, while living within

a giant spiral, is it

possible that all of human

behavior, if it could be

quantified, is in the form of

a spiral. Then, maybe,

extensions of our behavior

like the stock market. maybe

even the writing of The

Torah, is infused with the

spiral pattern.

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