Pi - Story Explanation and Analysis 

All of Max’s problems come from being mentored by Hector Salamanca

Pi was the film that made me want to be a filmmaker.

Max is not a numerologist, he is a mathematician.

This review is strangely timely. I believe what we're seeing in the world right now is the result of our society's unwillingness to accept and integrate its shadow. Purity is poison.

For me, the moral of "Pi" is that some things people can't bear with the human mind, and trying to understand them let you fall into madness

i remember watching this movie thinking i chose "life of pi" and just kept watching from how much more interesting a film i had found. Had never thought anyone would cover this.

This is one of all time favorite films. Now it's being covered by one of my favorite RU-vidrs.

This was one of my favorite films when I was in High School. I didn't fully understand it, but it never stopped me from watching it over and over again hoping to find more clarity on everything. On top of that, the score is one of my favorites of any movie.

To be fair, Max is a mathematician turned numerologist. Otherwise, this is a very well-examined analysis.

This has ranked among my top ten mindbender movies since it released along with The Fountain, Cube, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, Memento, Fight Club, etc... not one you can watch over and over, but one that creates its own groove in the grey matter that resurfaces in reference from time to time like a forgotten nightmare...

Talk about synchronicity, I just started researching Pi earlier today for a film essay I'm working on and then this appears in my subscription feed. Not enough people talk about this masterpiece, what a debut!

I am glad I watched this, it showed me that light cannot exist without darkness, order without chaos, it really shows us how fragile the mind really is and how easy it is to fall to one side or they other. Thank you Max Derrat for mental health awareness :)

Weird how it was only when he destoryed his right brain he was unable to compute the complex math equations. Even though logic, math, etc. exists in the left right, it was onlywhen he lost the traits of the right brain - intuition, imagination, etc. that he was unable to solve the problems for Jenna on the spot, indicating perhaps, that his ability to do these calculations came from intuition.

I am so happy I came upon your channel. I forget which of your videos was the first one I watched, but I subbed immediately, even before the video had finished. Your explanation/commentary on Pi covered all of the things I experienced while watching this movie almost 20 years ago. Thank you!!

Oh my goodness. This is one of my all time favorite film, and nobody in my life knows of it! It's incredible to see you not just talking about it, but giving it such a great in depth examination!! Truly appreciate it!

Wow , really beautiful! I love this director ! Thank you for posting, RU-vid needs more content like this in the mix .🎥

I'm glad you got a chance to watch this film. I wasn't expecting this video and it was a treat to see your take on it. This one made a big impression on me at a time I was probably too young to fully appreciate what was happening.

Hey max! good to see you back. I'm glad you have chosen this movie. It's an old school classic. Keep up the good work bro.

I'm so glad I found your channel and learned of this movie!

I saw this film once a decade and a half ago, I'm actually surprised by how much of it I can remember, despite not being overwhelmed by it at the time. Thanks for your wonderful analysis!

This story explanation and analysis, was fairly educational, WOW! Thanks to you again Max. 👍

This is exactly why I love your channel Max. You've likely already seen it, but I'd highly recommend the film Primer. Seems right up your alley my man

Fantastic work once again!

Re: left brain / right brain: I'm going to very lazily recommend Max and anyone else read _The Master and His Emissary,_ despite not having read it myself.

Very good video. I love all the correlations you made between human beliefs and media, like alchemy or cosmogony. Pi was a marking movie for me. I got some kind of the same pursuit (aka, the seeking of truth) searching the dichotomy of good and evil. Your analysis of the equilibrium of order and chaos is satisfaying and kind of the same conclusions I had with all my time passed analyzing stuff. Got surprised that in the theory of brain sides the right side is the more chaotic one, as I first learned about this theory I believed the opposite.

I've seen this film twice, I've heard about the rational vs irrational concept who knows many times, and never really understood either of them. After seeing your video, I have a much better understanding of both. Thank you!

Thanks Max! Great video!

What an excellent look at one of my favorite movies. I really enjoyed this video.

Max Derrant delivers again. Nice video

I can listen to these analysis videos all day.

thank you for this one, haven't watched Pi in ages. Also, the soundtrack is 🔥🔥🔥

Love your analysis. So spot on. Music reveals chaos and order. When you put sounds into the timeline youre literally filling space and time. Think of it like a song. I can throw notes out all day long but if I don't put it in a time value then all its going to sound like is random noise. Random noise is chaos. A bird singing is harmonious because its ordered.

So good! thanks a lot for that!

You've outdone yourself this time. Amazing.

Overlooked classic, thanks for this reflection

Thank you sooo much Max.

Did love this movie.

I needed this, thank you.

Brilliant explanation!!

I immediately liked the video as soon as you defined Max as a numerologist.

hearing the theme song at the end gives me chills. powerful film

best intro ive seen in a long time

Great work man, and awesome movie. I still hope one day you'll make a video about another of my favorite movies, Sucker Punch :) criminally underrated

thank you for this awesome insight.

Max Derrat is a form of light in a way too dark world! 🙏🏻🌏

Fantastic breakdown. Pi is one of my all time favorites, and it should mandatory curriculum for every know-it-all.

Max, just want to let you know that yours is my favorite channel on all of RU-vid, no one presents analyses and interpretations quite as clearly as you do. Keep it up and this channel will be huge.

Thank you a lot for sharing these interesting artwokrs with people

your right brain left brain theory actually makes sense considering in the end he drills into the left side of his brain (as opposed to the right side he has been trying to damage up to this point) to escape the suffering his mathmatical pursuits has led him to and then after that he's unable (or at least pretends to be unable) to answer simple mathmatical equations he'd have no problem answering before (the drilling was just a hallucination but still)

Cool analysis! I believe many of the side characters to also be symbolic figments of Max’s creation.

Brother, you're amazing!!

I really liked this movie! Funny to see you cover it

very interesting. I was unaware that Devi was in fact an ancient god. My first instinct of Devi was that she was the anima of Max and the film was more geared toward the internal struggle of the main character. However, I do think that your take of the refutation of chaos has more than a few legs to stand on. Another thing that makes this film so great in my opinion is that Max's use of the black go pieces works on so many different levels considering that Max spent at least a portion of his life in total darkness. Perhaps that is the reason why Max was so unwilling to face that part of himself and by extension the broader world because he had gone to that place. That being said he later claimes that in the moment that his vision was fading he had an inkling of a grander understanding. It's difficult to really pin it down as it is with all such media as I'm sure it was made that way by design. All the different angles and perspectives gives this film as well as the whole of human experience so much depth

Dude I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE TALK ABOUT THIS MOVIE ... finally. God bless

thanks so much!

Sensacional! Uma verdadeiro aula!

this is the best analysis in the world

I need to watch this movie, it looks right up my alley.

My brother introduced me to this movie around 2000 and I’ve never watched anything like it. This and Requiem for a Dream at the time. So good!

Numbers are just how we define intervals. Since reality exists through an aspect called time, all things in reality are expressed in intervals. However, a definition is just a simple cognitive signpost that points toward a truth, and conflating a signpost to an actual expression of reality is the common error that I think the movie is trying to point out. I think it's present in the title of the film, Pi, which is a number we haven't found any repeating pattern in no matter how far we've chased it down the rabbit hole. I think that sort of symbolically represents what the main character is doing in the film. If we haven't found a repeating pattern in Pi by the end of the universe, that means our time would've been better spent doing something else. In the same way, the main character's time would've been better spent doing other things, like taking care of himself and connecting with others, instead of trying to find a pattern in the chaos. You could say it's the difference between analysis and engagement, or thought and action. One without the other is instability, so you need both. The main character represents only one side of a duality that is only stable when blended together. These are just the thoughts that this video generated for me, I have never seen the film. Great work as usual.

9:34 Max, in case you didn't notice that one (I just did and found it interesting) Devi always wear a tiger spotted clothing piece... Tiger skin, that's to symbolise dominion over your animalistic nature in Hinduism (Shiva sometimes sit on a tiger skin) , also, Durga-Devi's vahana (vehicle) is a tiger :D [Durga fights ego [Mahishasur was an avatar of that , the Minotaur basically, bullheadedness... in kung fu panda a tiger come again and has to be fought btw... the tiger /dragon dichotomy/team...] (the vahana is something that all Hindu god have, some pulsion/part of them that they dominate, and ride and it's funny because it 's similar to animal totems and witches' familiars... in the Owl House they even have sentient magic scepters/wands that doubles as familiar and broomstick (they fly with it) So I guess I might be on to something here.)

I haven't seen this movie, but now I'm interested 🤔

Awesome ☯️

I recall seeing this but I do not remember it. Looks like I have a movie to watch tomorrow.

This film is amazingly clever and I always loved it.

Yes! I've loved this movie for nearly twenty years!

Pie? Yeah, I love them some pies. The apple pie, the pineapple pie, all kinds of pies.

Thanks

Nice video

Never even heard of this film before. After watching this video, I have no desire to watch it. It seems like something right out of my own nightmares.

I love your mind Max, have you watched Terry Gilliam’s “The Zero Theorem”? It kinda fell under the radar, but something about it feels meaningful. Give it a watch if you have the time. I can even send you my blu ray copy if you want.

Love this.

watched this when i was 18 and thought it was a cool film about numbers, i really should rewatch it

From the ever curious mind to obsessive behavioural patterns to horrifying migraine attacks, my younger self fell deeply for this movie and it's still my favourite ones in terms of how I interpret my subjective life experience and relate to the world outside of my inner making. I'm not sure I follow your conclusion, I can't quite put it into words but feel I have a different interpretation of the end of that story. Maybe you can help me out understanding you better through answering this question, is order and chaos duality or polarity to you?

Worth a watch.

This mindset will limit and stifle human tech. I was diagnosed with serious allergies as a teen. It explained why I had issues eating certain foods and having excess mucus as a child and teen. I cured myself reprogramming my body after studying neurology, physics and eastern spirituality. If I thought like you or most psychologist, I'd still be sick carrying around an epipen and having constant mucus in my sinuses.

This film has had a lasting impact on me. Many of its ideas and themes slithered deeply into the recesses of my consciousness, and have borne strange and wonderful descending notions. In my book "Vitruvia 144". There are several ideas which probably emerged from its integration with a multitude of other thoughts gestating in the womb of my mind...

This is like obsessing over whether or not we are living in a simulation. Even if we are, what can you do about it?

The full movie is free on RU-vid right now

I've never heard of someone (besides myself) who knows if this movie, so this is exciting

Out of sheer curiosity, when did you watch Pi and what drew you to Pi along with some of Arronofsky's other films?

Damn I'm astonished. Talking about Max's name, I recently played Life Is Strange, I wonder if you liked it and would you make a video about it? Just, couldn't stop thinking you are the right person to talk about that kind of game.

Just realized 😳 the thing on Max's head is the Greek symbol for wavelength.

Just watched it again, and I knew it from the first viewing but, it is perhaps the best movie ever made.

ty

Hi Max, could you add English subtitles? because I can't use the translating program and your videos are very interesting. Greetings from Italy!

You would love the work of austin osman spare, he had duality to a t - u should check him out

This video is right under the A24 trailer for this movie....

Wow, really deep

'A beautiful mind'

this is getting personal... i like it.

I've never seen this movie but by the way it was described max could be considered very brave and very strong willed for devoting his life to what he thought mattered and forgoing the more pleasant parts of life. Probably a bad way to portray his situation but like I said I haven't seen it.

That was a solid analysis despite the few little mistakes nothing serious, the analysis was very good though in terms of his personality.

Max isn’t a numerologist, he’s a mathematician.

Wow I was just recently talking with my friend about most bizarre films, and I recommend him exactly this one - Pi.

I thank you dude. You growed me in such a intellectual way, ineffable...

One fo the first Movies i ever saw, i still think is one of the best and quite futuristic maybe more than we can asume.

I also noticed Devi. I thought Saul's name was also symbolic it sounds like Sol, maybe a reference to Icarus . EDIT: after looking it up, it seems like his name is spelled Sol

In my perception this film is about feel the world.eventhough you are being rational but you can't make everybody around you as rational person. It just lesson for us to live with the chaos and vibe. Good review by the way 👍 i somewhat felt this film is similar to "serial experiment lain" considering Darren Aronofsky is fond of satoshi kon perfect blue& black swan,in lain there is also a concept of becoming god and lain being fond technogeek just like max being with pattern or order.

I coincidentally started watching clips of this movie on 2/16 That's really crazy