A story about the life of John Nash, who experiences the highs, and lows of life through
his schizophrenia. His ability to overcome it proves that recovery is possible and extraordinary
things can happen. This is a magnificent story that represents the power of the human brain,
and how we can make ourselves believe whatever we set our minds to. The movie starts with a scene
from Princeton University, where a professor is welcoming bright mathematicians. Here is
when we are introduced to John Nash, who is the protagonist of the story. He is a young,
bright mathematician but he is also anti-social. He does not introduce himself to his fellow
intellectuals. His fellow students find him quite odd; he gets amused by the smallest things such
as a reflecting light of a glass which they find strange. He tries to communicate to them but the
conversation is rather odd, which makes John go to his room. There he meets his roommate,
who is a drunker. His name is Charles Herman. The young mathematician doesn’t want to waste his time
and gets to studying. Charles wants to get to know John better and asks him to have a talk. They go
outside for a drink and start chatting. John opens up to Charles and explains his ideas. His goal is
to stand out, to come up with something so genius, something that’s never done before. He focuses on
his studies because he comes from a poor family and cannot afford to lose this opportunity. John
gets to his plan, he starts analyzing everything around him. He’s analyzing the birds’ movements
when his fellow students notice him. He is challenged by the classmate Martin to a chess
game. John ends up losing the game but he is in shock as his moves had been perfect. He tries to
explain to Martin that the game is flawed but everyone makes fun of him. He leaves the game
humiliated. After that he spends his next two days in the library. He is trying to find a topic for
his doctorate. He hasn’t eaten for two days, so his roommate Charles invited his for some
food and drinks. They go to a bar and as John is playing pool, his friends notice a girl looking
at him. He goes over to the girl and has a chat with her. After some casual conversation, he gets
straight to the point. He tells the girl he wants to have intense moments with her, he doesn’t like
to delay the obvious thing. How do you think the girl responds? Well of course she feels
offended and she even slaps John. “Poor” John is left alone and humiliated at the bar; However
you will be surprised at what happens later on so let’s get back to the story. The following day we
see John having a conversation with a university professor. Believe it or not the genius John has
not attended any lectures yet, and the professor was worried about his midyear report. I mean John
wasn’t even close to publishing his paper. He tries to buy more time from the professor but his
request is denied. The professor says that if John doesn’t finish his assignment he would not get a
placement this year. John starts working on his theory. Like any genius, he starts going crazy,
there’s papers around him, writings on the windows and walls. One day he is so frustrated because he
is unable to progress so he bumps his head onto the glass window. The glass broke of course,
making John bleed. Luckily his friend Charles is here to calm him down. He continues working
on his theory for months. He finally finishes it and takes it to the professor. After looking
at his theory, the professor says that his discovery is ground breaking. His paper is on
governing dynamic and according to the professor he can get any placement he wants. John chooses
a place called Wheeler’s lab and takes his two friends along with him. Some time passes, and as
John work keeps progressing, he is invited in the pentagon as an analyst. He is told by the general
that the Russians are communicating through some codes and they are unable to decipher these codes
through their computers. John, being a genius, is able to break the codes with ease and informs the
general that the Russians are using longitudes and latitudes. He even points them the exact places on
the map, which of course impresses everyone. Upon talking with the general and his team,
John notices a man in a black suit with a black hat looking at him from the above. John asks for
his identity, but they don’t reveal it to him. John continues working in the wheeler’s lab
but is unhappy. He is also assigned a teaching job which he hates. As he goes to his classes,
he is totally uninterested in teaching. He usually holds the classes by writing a difficult
math problem on the board and asking everyone to solve it. One day as John is leaving his class,
he stumbles upon the man in the black suit. He introduces himself as William Parcher from the
department of defense. He takes John on a walk and expresses his gratitude toward him and his
work at the pentagon. William reveals to John that Russia has deployed sleeper agents in the U.S.
and the most interesting thing is that they are communicating through codes in the news papers.
As we know by now John is a code breaker and Parcher asks for his help. John agrees with a
job. In order to start working he is implanted with a radium diode. He is told that the diode
is safe and that the numbers imprinted on his arm are the access codes for his drop spot. In
the following days John starts deciphering the codes from newspapers and magazines. He
is constantly working in his office, being left alone to focus. One day a beautiful girl names
Alicia enters his room. She is there to give the solutions to a problem John had previously given.
John tells her that her method is correct but the solution isn’t. As Alicia is about to leave
she gets the urge to invite John to dinner, and so she does. John is nervous but he agrees. He
picks up Alicia and they go to a party together. It is clear as a day that Alicia is into John,
as they spent some alone time outside the party. The next day John continues decoding the codes
for Parcher. He puts his work inside an envelope and delivers it by scanning the diode on his hand.
John leaves quickly because he is afraid. The next scene begins with John and Alicia having
a beautiful picnic. John decided to be foreword again and asks Alicia to have intense moments
with him. John is surprised when Alicia kisses him instead of slapping him. A match made in heaven,
right? A couple of days pass and John is doing his usual search in the newspapers. As he’s sitting in
a garden, a young girl approaches him. She introduces herself as Charles’s niece, who
has come to meet him. Old friends are catching up together as they reunite. John tells Charles about
Alicia and asks of his opinion about her. This is where John reveals that he wants to propose to
Alicia. His proposal is unique as he is a unique man. He proposes to Alicia by giving her a glass
sphere that can display every possible color and asking her to marry him. She loves it and accepts
the proposal. The next scene is their wedding day. They walk out as a newly married couple and
get into a car to go to their honeymoon. Right as John is about to get into the car he sees William,
watching him from afar. He feels odd but decides nothing of it. He keeps delivering his work to
what he thinks is Parcher’s address. Due to his confidential work, John is scared because he feels
like he is being followed. John decides to have a talk with Parcher. He goes into his office and
tells him that he doesn’t want to work for him anymore, because he has a family that he needs
to take care of. Parcher denies his request and explains to him that if he were to quit, he would
be killed by the Russians. John is petrified, because he has to continue what he is doing, this
effects Alicia too as she is worried for John. They manage to get through times like that for a
while. John gets an invite to have a speech at the Harvard University. As John arrives he sees that
Charles and his niece are also there to support him. John begins his speech but as it progresses,
he sees a few man at the top of the stairs and assumes they are the Russians. He tries to run
away from them but gets cornered. A psychiatrist comes up to him and introduces himself as Rosen.
John doesn’t believe them and tries to run off again but is stopped and injected with sedatives.
The men take John to the center. Rosen asks John about his job but John says that he cannot reveal
anything. While John is being tackled down by a group of men, he sees Charles and thinks that he
is with the Russians. The men take Charles away and this is where we get to know about John’s
serious illness. Unfortunately John is suffering from severe schizophrenia,- a disease where people
start seeing imaginary things, things that don’t even exist. We all know John to be a genius,
this is why his weird behavior went unnoticed. The psychiatrist explains this to Alicia. Here
is the plot twist no one wouldve imagined? John never even had a roommate; Charles was just an
imaginary friend to John. The doctor tells Alicia that he had called the University and they have
confirmed that John never had a roommate. Charles only exists in John’s reality. Alicia, blinded by
her love doesn’t believe it and decides to unfold the truth herself. She goes into John’s office and
sees all the information and work John had done. She goes to the house that John continuously sent
letter to. When she sees that it is a ghost house and the letters are in the box she realizes that
John has schizophrenia after all. William Parcher is one of his imaginary characters
as well. She goes to see John in the center, to explain everything to him. When she does as such,
John is angry and doesn’t want to accept the reality as he leaves. To prove that he isn’t
living in an imaginary world, John decides to cut his arm, where the supposed diagram would be but
finds nothing. The nurses in the center decide to tie John to a bed so that he doesn’t hurt
himself again. Alicia is devastated, like any wife would be. She allows the doctors to begin
the treatment so that John could get better. The treatment involved electric shock to the patient
on regular intervals. John continues to receive such treatments for a year and gets better. John
and Alicia have a baby and liv a normal life, as John is taking his medication regularly. The
medications have made John to be less romanticaly active because of that. His wife is devastated
and has a breakdown. John is sad because he can’t really do anything. John wants to live
a normal life as he stops taking his medication. As expected John starts hallucinating again and
meets William once more. William takes him a new camp he has set up near his house. John says that
he doesn’t believe William, but his hallucination gets the best of him as she starts hallucination
again. Days pass and Alicia doesn’t notice John’s hallucinations. One day as she goes to pick up
the laundry she discovers John’s office in the backyard. As she sees the chaos, she realizes
that John hasn’t been taking his medication and that their baby is in danger. The baby had almost
drowned while John was talking to Charles. Alicia runs away from John. John is told to finish her
but notices something strange. He stops Alicia and explains to her that his hallucinations cannot be
real as Charles’s niece didn’t age and had not grown in years. Alicia calms down and they call
doctor Rosen. He suggests more treatment as his schizophrenia had gotten worse. John doesn’t want
that and asks for some time to come up with a solution. John decides to start teaching at
Princeton’s University; sadly he cannot control himself as he is humiliated once more. As all
things, he takes his time and doesn’t give up on his goal. He teaches in the university for long
and even though he sees his imaginary friends he decides to ignore them. Could you believe in the
power of one’s mind? Time passes and we see John as a great University professor. One day Thomas
King informs John that he is being considered for a Nobel price as his work has become a cornerstone
for economics. To congratulate John all the professors give him their pens. The last scene
of the movie changes to The Nobel Prize ceremony in 1994. As John is accepting the prize he thanks
his wife Alicia as she had been the only one that stood by his side no matter what. He claims that
the greatest discovery in his life was his love with Alicia. The ceremony ends and John continues
to see Charles but chooses to ignore them as the movie ends. Want to know the biggest plots
twist? This movie is an autobiography of John Forbes Nash Jr. and it’s based on a real story.