List of films about mathematicians
by ezazleo | created - 01 Oct 2013 | updated - 01 Oct 2013 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 21 (2008)
PG-13 | 123 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Inspired by real events and people, 21 is about six MIT students who become trained to be experts in card counting in Black Jack and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.
Director: Robert Luketic | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Aaron Yoo
Votes: 266,434 | Gross: $81.16M
2. 21 Grams (2003)
R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, Danny Huston
Votes: 245,820 | Gross: $16.29M
3. Agora (2009)
R | 127 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom
Votes: 73,031 | Gross: $0.62M
4. Antonia's Line (1995)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama
A Dutch matron establishes and, for several generations, oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive.
Director: Marleen Gorris | Stars: Willeke van Ammelrooy, Jan Decleir, Veerle van Overloop, Els Dottermans
Votes: 9,470 | Gross: $4.82M
5. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
PG-13 | 135 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
A mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 986,557 | Gross: $170.74M
6. The Bank (2001)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
The Bank is a thriller about banking, corruption and alchemy.
Director: Robert Connolly | Stars: David Wenham, Anthony LaPaglia, Sibylla Budd, Steve Rodgers
Votes: 2,990
7. Enigma (2001)
R | 119 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A young genius frantically races against time to crack an enemy code and solve the mystery surrounding the woman he loves.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam
Votes: 21,918 | Gross: $4.30M
8. Fermat's Room (2007)
Not Rated | 89 min | Mystery, Thriller
4 mathematicians are invited to solve an enigma. Once there, they're locked in a mechanically shrinking room and given 1 minute to solve each puzzle via cellphone while also figuring out why they're there.
Directors: Luis Piedrahita, Rodrigo Sopeña | Stars: Alejo Sauras, Elena Ballesteros, Lluís Homar, Santi Millán
Votes: 22,805
9. Good Will Hunting (1997)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance
Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 1,067,262 | Gross: $138.43M
10. I.Q. (1994)
PG | 100 min | Comedy, Romance
A mechanic romances the mathematician niece of physicist Albert Einstein, with help from him and his friends.
Director: Fred Schepisi | Stars: Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, Lou Jacobi
Votes: 26,632 | Gross: $26.37M
11. Infinity (1996)
PG | 119 min | Biography, Drama
Story of the early life of genius and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.
Director: Matthew Broderick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Force, Peter Riegert
Votes: 1,994 | Gross: $0.20M
12. An Invisible Sign (2010)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Mona Gray is a 20-year-old loner who turned to math for salvation as a child after her father became ill. As an adult she now teaches the subject and helps her students through their own crises.
Director: Marilyn Agrelo | Stars: Jessica Alba, Chris Messina, Sonia Braga, John Shea
Votes: 4,385
13. It's My Turn (1980)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Drama
A successful but stressed mathematics professor goes to her father's wedding and falls in love with her father's bride's son, a prematurely retired pro baseball player. She must choose ... See full summary »
Director: Claudia Weill | Stars: Jill Clayburgh, Michael Douglas, Charles Grodin, Beverly Garland
Votes: 1,121 | Gross: $11.00M
14. The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
PG-13 | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A shy, middle-aged professor enters into a romantic but non-physical relationship with an unlucky-in-love colleague.
Director: Barbra Streisand | Stars: Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges, Lauren Bacall, George Segal
Votes: 22,394 | Gross: $41.25M
15. N Is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdös (1993)
Not Rated | 57 min | Documentary, Biography
N Is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdos is a 1993 biographical documentary about the life of mathematician Paul Erdos, directed by George Paul Csicsery.
Director: George Paul Csicsery | Stars: Paul Erdös, Ronald Graham, Joel Spencer, J.W.S. Cassels
Votes: 243
16. The Oxford Murders (2008)
R | 108 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
At Oxford University, a professor and a grad student work together to try to stop a potential series of murders seemingly linked by mathematical symbols.
Director: Álex de la Iglesia | Stars: Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonor Watling, Jim Carter
Votes: 30,663 | Gross: $0.00M
17. Pi (1998)
R | 84 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart
Votes: 186,384 | Gross: $3.22M
18. Proof (2005)
PG-13 | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father's ex-students, who wants to search through his papers, and her estranged sister, who shows up to help settle his affairs.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal
Votes: 46,303 | Gross: $7.52M
19. Raising Genius (2004)
R | 83 min | Comedy, Drama
The film is about a boy who locks himself in the bathroom to work out math equations on the shower wall. The boy has obsessive compulsive parents. The boy is obsessed with a cheerleader named Lacy, who lives across the street from.
Directors: Linda Voorhees, Bess Wiley | Stars: Justin Long, Wendie Malick, Ed Begley Jr., Stephen Root
Votes: 470
20. Sneakers (1992)
PG-13 | 126 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A security pro finds his past returning to haunt him when he and his unique team are tasked with retrieving a particularly important item.
Director: Phil Alden Robinson | Stars: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, Jo Marr
Votes: 62,511 | Gross: $51.43M
21. Stand and Deliver (1988)
PG | 103 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Jaime Escalante, a high school teacher who successfully inspired his dropout-prone students to learn calculus.
Director: Ramón Menéndez | Stars: Edward James Olmos, Estelle Harris, Mark Phelan, Virginia Paris
Votes: 22,317 | Gross: $13.99M
22. Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
I.R.S. auditor Harold Crick suddenly finds his mundane Chicago life to be the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire existence, from his work to his love life to his death.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah
Votes: 236,425 | Gross: $40.14M
23. Raising Genius (2004)
R | 83 min | Comedy, Drama
The film is about a boy who locks himself in the bathroom to work out math equations on the shower wall. The boy has obsessive compulsive parents. The boy is obsessed with a cheerleader named Lacy, who lives across the street from.
Directors: Linda Voorhees, Bess Wiley | Stars: Justin Long, Wendie Malick, Ed Begley Jr., Stephen Root
Votes: 470
24. Straw Dogs (1971)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young American and his English wife come to rural England and face increasingly vicious local harassment.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, T.P. McKenna
Votes: 64,480
25. A Summer's Tale (1996)
G | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
As a reserved young graduate vacations in a seaside town, he hopes his girlfriend will join him. But he ends up bonding with a local young woman whose female friend is also smitten with him.
Director: Éric Rohmer | Stars: Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon, Aurelia Nolin
Votes: 9,973 | Gross: $0.20M
26. Tall Story (1960)
Approved | 91 min | Comedy, Sport
A young insecure college sportsman is in trouble. He wants to marry his very straightforward girlfriend, also a student, but has no money. When he is offered a bribe to fix a game, he is torn even more about the matter.
Director: Joshua Logan | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Jane Fonda, Ray Walston, Marc Connelly
Votes: 1,242 | Gross: $12.00M
27. Travelling Salesman (2012)
80 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Four mathematicians are hired by the US government to solve the most powerful problem in computer science history.
Director: Timothy Lanzone | Stars: Danny Barclay, Eric Bloom, David John Cole, Malek Houlihan
Votes: 1,370
28. The Calculus of Love (2011)
Not Rated | 15 min | Short, Drama, Thriller
Mathematics Professor AG Bowers is obsessed with solving the fabled 250 year old Goldbach Conjecture. When a series of mystery letters arrive hinting at a solution, Bowers believes his lifelong dream may at last be within reach.
Director: Dan Clifton | Stars: Keith Allen, Amy Noble, Siobhán O'Kelly, Irfan Hussein
Votes: 45
29. Lambada (I) (1990)
PG | 104 min | Drama
Kevin Laird is a Beverly Hills school teacher by day and a mystery man by night. Using his lambada dance moves to first earn the kid's respect and acceptance, Kevin then teaches them ... See full summary »
Director: Joel Silberg | Stars: J. Eddie Peck, Melora Hardin, Adolfo Quinones, Leticia Vasquez
Votes: 1,182 | Gross: $4.26M
30. Safe (I) (2012)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Mei, a young girl whose memory holds a priceless numerical code, finds herself pursued by the Triads, the Russian mob, and corrupt NYC cops. Coming to her aid is an ex-cage fighter whose life was destroyed by the gangsters on Mei's trail.
Director: Boaz Yakin | Stars: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Chris Sarandon, Robert John Burke
Votes: 117,555 | Gross: $17.14M
31. Equilibrium (2002)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In an oppressive future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system and state.
Director: Kurt Wimmer | Stars: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs
Votes: 346,915 | Gross: $1.20M
32. Person of Interest (2010)
72 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD becomes convinced that the federal government is setting him up as the fall-guy in a soon-to-be domestic terrorist attack.
Director: Gregory Bayne | Stars: J. Reuben Appelman, Nova Tydings, Stitch Marker, Nick Corbin
Votes: 355
33. Rushmore (1998)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A teenager at Rushmore Academy falls for a much older teacher and befriends a middle-aged industrialist. Later, he finds out that his love interest and his friend are having an affair, which prompts him to begin a vendetta.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel
Votes: 197,917 | Gross: $17.11M
34. Moneyball (2011)
PG-13 | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 464,350 | Gross: $75.61M
35. Amarcord (1973)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Magali Noël, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia
Votes: 46,797 | Gross: $0.58M
36. The Ice Storm (1997)
R | 112 min | Drama
In suburban New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, middle-class families experimenting with casual sex and substance abuse find their lives beyond their control.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Henry Czerny
Votes: 59,949 | Gross: $7.84M
37. Rites of Love and Math (2010)
26 min | Short, Drama
Is there a mathematical formula of love without death? The film 'Rites of Love and Math' is a sprawling allegory about Truth and Beauty, Love and Death, Mathematics and Tattoo, set on the ... See full summary »
Directors: Edward Frenkel, Reine Graves | Stars: Edward Frenkel, Kayshonne Insixieng May
Votes: 40
38. Proof (2005)
PG-13 | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father's ex-students, who wants to search through his papers, and her estranged sister, who shows up to help settle his affairs.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal
Votes: 46,303 | Gross: $7.52M
39. The Knack... and How to Get It (1965)
Approved | 84 min | Comedy
A young school teacher tries to master the art of flirtation using his neighbor's skills.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Rita Tushingham, Ray Brooks, Michael Crawford, Donal Donnelly
Votes: 3,751
40. A Serious Man (2009)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Drama
Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed
Votes: 149,847 | Gross: $9.19M
41. The Time Machine (2002)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds humankind divided into two warring races.
Director: Simon Wells | Stars: Guy Pearce, Yancey Arias, Mark Addy, Phyllida Law
Votes: 130,366 | Gross: $56.68M
42. Breaking the Code (1996 TV Movie)
75 min | Biography, Drama
A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the digital computer and one of the key figures in the breaking of the Enigma code, used by the Germans... See full summary »
Director: Herbert Wise | Stars: Derek Jacobi, Alun Armstrong, Blake Ritson, William Mannering
Votes: 671
43. The Code Conspiracy (2002)
PG-13 | 97 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
What if a computer disc held a code so powerful that it could change the world forever? While translating the Dead Sea Scrolls, a professor discovers a hidden formula that not only unlocks ... See full summary »
Director: Hank Whetstone | Stars: Jim Fitzpatrick, Maria Conchita Alonso, David Warner, Lou Rawls
Votes: 2,151
44. Cast Away (2000)
PG-13 | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez, Lari White
Votes: 638,350 | Gross: $233.63M
45. The Saint (1997)
PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
Simon "The Saint" Templar (Val Kilmer), is a thief for hire, whose latest job to steal the secret process for cold fusion puts him at odds with a traitor bent on toppling the Russian government, as well as the woman who holds its secret.
Director: Phillip Noyce | Stars: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Serbedzija, Valeriy Nikolaev
Votes: 72,229 | Gross: $61.36M
46. Contact (1997)
PG | 150 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
Votes: 292,999 | Gross: $100.92M
47. Good Will Hunting (1997)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance
Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 1,067,262 | Gross: $138.43M
48. Like Mike (2002)
PG | 99 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A 13-year-old orphan becomes an NBA superstar after trying on a pair of sneakers with the faded initials "MJ" inside them.
Director: John Schultz | Stars: Shad Moss, Jonathan Lipnicki, Morris Chestnut, Brenda Song
Votes: 22,548 | Gross: $51.43M
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