Shubhabrata Dutta
“Maths” is a word that would either fill our minds with excitement or with fear back in school. No matter how good or bad you are at the subject, it doesn’t keep you from relating to the stories of mathematicians. That’s the beauty of these movies: they have some maths here and there, but you don’t need to take out your calculators to understand what’s happening in the film. You just have to watch it and feel it. So, we’ve compiled some of the most inspiring, thoughtful, and emotional movies out there that are related to maths and can be found on Netflix. And you never know, you might just fall in love with mathematics after watching one of the movies!
7. ARQ (2016)
Produced by John Finemore, Kyle Franke, Mason Novick, and Nick Spicer, ‘ARQ’ is a science-fiction action film that stars Robbie Amell, Rachael Taylor, Shaun Benson, and Gray Powell. The Tony Elliott directorial is set in the near future when the global oil reserves have depleted, and corporations are forced to fight one another for remaining energy supplies. However, unbeknownst to most of these evil companies, a humble engineer solved the crisis with his new innovative technology. However, due to his invention, the protagonist is stuck in a seemingly endless time loop and must find a way out. You can watch the movie here.
6. Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know (2020)
Featuring Sasha Haco, Lindy Blackburn, Stephen Hawking, and Andrew Strominger, ‘Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know’ is a science documentary directed by Peter Galison. The film offers viewers an intriguing insight into the mysteries of our known world and the surprisingly accurate predictions of theoretical physics. At the heart of the documentary is the first-ever picture of a black hole that changed cosmology in unthinkable ways. Curious about the complex concepts at the foundation of our world? ‘Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know’ brings some of the most prestigious scientists worldwide to explain everything. You may watch the documentary here.
5. Coded Bias (2020)
Directed and produced by Shalini Kantayya, ‘Coded Bias’ is a documentary film. The movie documents the views of well-known researchers like Joy Buolamwini, Deborah Raji, Meredith Broussard, Cathy O’Neil, and Zeynep Tufekci to look at the ever-growing artificial intelligence and its influence on day-to-day life. The film primarily addresses the worrisome failure of specific face-recognition algorithms that fail to see dark-skinned faces accurately. While offering a deep insight into the present-day problems of technology, the film also highlights the future possibilities. Feel free to check out the film here.
4. Vaathi (2023)
The Indian film ‘Vaathi’ begins in the present day when a group of students discovers a box full of tape records. When these students play the said records, they find they contain the footage of an exceptional maths teacher interacting with his students. The narrative then shifts back to the past and is predominantly set against India’s economic liberalization. Balamurugan ‘Bala’ Sir (Tamil) / Bala Gangadhar Thilak ‘Balu’ Sir (Telugu) (Dhanush) is a mathematics lecturer who is sent to teach at a government junior college with the promise of a promotion and finds his life’s purpose at the most unlikely of places. He actively changes the perspective and perception of education in the minds of his students and their conservative parents, fights caste discrimination, and bravely stands up against powerful opponents with political and economic influence. You can check out the film here.
3. The Imitation Game (2014)
British mathematician Alan Turing is the mastermind who decrypted the Enigma machine that the Germans used to communicate during World War II. In the film ‘The Imitation Game,’ we see how Turing, along with his peers he selected to work with him on the project, built the machine to decode the messages. A mathematician who went down in history as the father of modern computer science and artificial intelligence, Turing’s life, both from professional and personal angles, is portrayed beautifully in the film, which shows how the two angles were intrinsically interlinked. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Turing to a T. He is joined by Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech, Mark Strong, and Charles Dance. The film is directed by Morten Tyldum and is based on Andrew Hodges’s 1983 biography “Alan Turing: The Enigma.” You can watch it here.
2. A Trip to Infinity (2022)
Directed by debutant filmmakers Jonathan Halperin and Drew Takahashi, ‘A Trip to Infinity’ is a fascinating exploration of the concept of infinity through various perspectives, including those of mathematicians, physicists, and even philosophers. The documentary film urges its audience to contemplate the vastness of the universe while questioning whether a human, limited by their mortality, can ever experience infinity in its completeness. In attempting to define a mathematical curiosity, ‘A Trip to Infinity’ approaches the subject with considerable authenticity. For instance, it explains a thought experiment by the twentieth-century German mathematician David Hilbert through a cartoon titled ‘The Infinite Hotel,’ in which mathematician Steven Strogatz is the narrator. You can watch ‘A Trip to Infinity’ here.
1. Moneyball (2011)
Starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in the lead, this film has been directed by Bennett Miller. It is based on Michael Lewis’ 2003 nonfiction book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” and shows how, during the 2002 Oakland Athletics season, general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) and his newly hired general manager Peter Brand (Hill), a graduate of Economics from Yale, make use of mathematics to evaluate the performances of different players and bring together a strong team within the limited budget. In the world of baseball, such a process of evaluation is called sabermetrics. To what extent do the duo’s calculations and choices prove fruitful? This is what we find out in this biographical sports drama. You can stream ‘Moneyball’ here.
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