In September 1949, the world learned that the Soviet Union had joined the United States as a nuclear power. This shocking news intensified fears in the US and put a premium on mathematicians. Mathematicians had helped win World War II, now there was hope that they could protect Americas strategic edge. One standout graduate from Princeton known as John Nash was of great interest as he had an extraordinary ability for numbers having earned his Ph.D degree with a 28-page dissertation on non-cooperative games. This thesis won Nash the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994.

In this biographical film we are given great insight into Nash’s life and how his genius was paired with mental illness, having spent several years at psychiatric hospitals being treated for paranoid schizophrenia.

Sadly on the 23rd of May 2015, John Nash was killed in a collision on the New Jersey Turnpike near Monroe Township, New Jersey. They were on their way home after a visit to Norway, where Nash had received the Abel Prize.