Plot Summary
It is 1947. John Nash, a co-recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Scholarship for mathematics, arrives at Princeton University. He soon meets Richard Sol, Ainsley, and Bender at a reception. Later he (John Nash) also meets his new roommate. His roommate, Charles Herman, is a literature student. There is uncertainty how these relationships will evolve.
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Nash is determined to find a truly original idea. He is not able to dedicate the time he desires towards finding this idea because of pressure from the mathematics department as well as his peer and rival, Hansen. This frustrates Nash tremendously. During his graduate schooling, he finds inspiration for his original idea. He correlates Adam Smith's idea of "every man for himself" to how to approach women at a bar. He soon develops and publishes a new concept, governing dynamics. As a result, he is offered an appointment at MIT. His peers Sol and Bender join him in his developments.
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Years later, Nash is invited to the Pentagon to crack encrypted enemy telecommunication. He is able to crack the codes mentally. The other code-breakers were amazed. Because of this experience, he is dissatisfied with his work at MIT and is excited when William Parcher, from the United States Department of Defense, offers him a new assignment. He begins this assignment by looking for patterns in newspapers and magazines to discover the details in a Soviet attack. Nash becomes consumed by this assignment and looses sight of all other reality. After the course of mysterious events, he believes he is being followed.
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While working on this important assignment, he also continues teach classes. One of his students, Alicia Larde, asks him to dinner. As a result, the fall in love. Nash visits Princeton and is reunited with his old roommate, Charles. Charles is accompanied by his niece, Marcee. Nash loves Marcee and has a special place in his heart for her. Charles encourages Nash to propose to Alicia. They soon get married.
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Nash is in the middle of a shootout between Parcher and the Soviet agents. As a result, he begins fearing for his life and the life of his wife. He pleads with Parcher to let him quite the special assignment but Parcher informs him this would put Nash in more danger. While giving a lecture at Harvard University, Nash believes foreign agents are planning to capture him. Dr. Rosen and his team end up forcibly sedating him and they brought him to a psychiatric facility. Nash is convinced the facility is run the the Soviets.
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Dr. Rosen informed Alicia that Nash has schizoprenia. He also tells her that Charles, Marcee and Parcher are a part of is imagination. Alicia is shocked and does her own investigation. He concludes that Nash has imagined his who secret mission, Charles, and Marcee. To help with the visions, Nash is given insulin shock therapy. Later, he is released. He is told to take antipsychotic medication but is frustrated with the side-effects. Because of this, he secretly stops taking his medication. As a result, there is a relapse and he interacts with Parcher again.
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Nash almost unintentionally drowns his son because he is under the assumption that someone is watching him. Alicia, in fear of her life and the life of her baby, tries to escape from the house. Nash confronts the car and exclaims "She never gets old". The she he was referring to was Marcee. He realized that Marcee had not grown older and this allows him to decipher who is really and who is not. Dr. Rosen advised Nash to continue his medication but Nash refuses. Upon contemplation, Alicia decided to stay by Nash's side and support him.
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Nash asks is friend and rival, Martin Hansen permission to work out of the library and audit classes. Throughout the years, Nash learns how to deal with and ignore his hallucinations. Eventually, he is able to teach again. In 1994, years later, Nash is honored by his fellow professors and eventually wins the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his revolutionary work on the game theory. As the movie closes, it is made known that Nash's hallucinations have not been removed but he has learned to live with them.
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