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— [3] —

Max drinks from the sink and splashes a generous amount of water on to his head and face, cleaning his nose.

He wipes his nose and examines the last remnants of blood on his fingertip. Then, he dips his finger under the tap. But something else had changed inside me. That day I had my first headache.

TIGHT SHOT on Max’s hand as three unmarked, circular pills hit his palm. Then, he slams the pills into the back of his mouth. Max replaces the cap on a plastic bottle of unmarked prescription drugs.

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(small snicker) Ha . . .

Max checks the peep-hole on his front door. No one is there. He unbolts the five locks and slides into the hall.

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Max heads down the staircase.

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MOVE IN on a tree branch — shaking gently in the wind.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:

EXTREME CLOSE-UP of stock ticker —

Bright stock quotes drift across the screen.So what about the stock market? A universe of numbers that represents the global economy. Millions of human hands at work . . . billions of minds . . . a vast network screaming with life. An organism. A natural organism.

CUT OUT TO:

Max slaps the return button on his computer.

The phone starts ringing. Max eyes it suspiciously.

Just then, Euclid starts printing results on an old dot matrix printer.

Max suspiciously answers the phone. Hello?

But before Marcy finishes, Max hangs up. He rips off the print-out and heads to the front door.

— [9] — He checks the peep-hole. His landlady, Mrs Ovadia, is sweeping the hallway stairs humming a turn of the century (the last one, not this one) tune.

Max waits a moment. He tousles his hair. Then, he checks again. She’s gone. He opens his locks and releases several bolts.

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Max marks up the paper with lines and diagrams as he ponders his hits and misses.

Then, a puff of cigarette smoke drifts by and succeeds in bothering Max. He fans it away, when —

The Voice belongs to Lenny Meyer — a bearded man in his late twenties sucking on a cigarette.

On closer inspection, something is off. It seems that Lenny is an Orthodox Jew. His yarmulke sticks out slightly from his wide-brimmed hat and the fringes from his tsi-tsis hang out from the bottom of his untucked shirt.

Lenny sticks out his hand. Max responds with a small nod. And you are?

Max shrugs and turns back to his work. It’s OK.

(joking) I’m a Jew, too.

(serious) Do you practice?

And then, Max notices that his thumb is twitching. He grabs it self-consciously. They purify us and bring us closer to God. You want to try it?

TIGHT SHOT on Max’s hand as three unmarked, circular pills hit his palm. Then, he slams the pills into the back of his mouth. Max replaces the cap on a plastic bottle of unmarked prescription drugs.

Max slaps himself in the face a few times.

He watches his thumb twitch. And then, pain shoots through him. He grabs the right side of his head, massages it, and pushes it in with his fingers.

In the mirror, he examines the right side of his scalp. He sees nothing. Ahh . . .

Max walks back into the —

MAIN ROOM

— and sits down in a chair. The lamp is blinding so he snaps it off. Only the bathroom light illuminates the room. He takes a few breaths.

— [15] — Leave me alone.

Max gags and rubs his head.

Then, the pain seems to disappear. Max looks at his hand which was rubbing his head.

Then, he looks at the front door. The door seems to move.

Something begins knocking on Max’s door. The knocking gets louder and louder. Then, the locks begin to unlock.

Now, something starts pounding on the door. The door knob quivers. The locks unbolt. The chains are the only things keeping out the intruder. The door shakes and the chains are strained.

Max is paralyzed with terror. No! No!

And then the door smashes open. Blinding light fills the room and we crash into the —

BLINDING WHITE VOID.

A moment of silence, then we —

CUT TO:

Max heads to the —

FRONT DOOR

— and checks the locks. He is barely listening to Marcy.

The locks seem secure.

(on phone) I would love to stop by and see you. I am so anxious to meet you. It will be worth it — for both of us. How’s three sound?

Max tries to stop her but, before he can, Marcy hangs up. A bewildered Max slowly hangs up.

Max checks the peep-hole — all clear.

Then, he opens his —

CLOSET

— which is filled with random computer parts and boxes.

He pulls a thick neuroscience book from a shelf in the back of the closet. He almost knocks over an old dusty brass microscope on the shelf.

Max flips through the book. It contains old plates illustrating the brain. Max examines some of the diagrams.

CUT TO:

— [18] — CUT TO:

— [19] — But life isn’t just mathematics, Max. I spent forty years looking for patterns in Pi, I found nothing.

INT. MOVING TRAIN — DAY

Max sits in the corner of a rickety New York City subway car. The train is almost completely deserted.

Max looks down at his hand. He opens his palm and reveals a black Go chip.

Max notices a Skinny Man in a business suit staring at him. The man catches Max’s eye and looks away, but then, he quickly looks back, making Max turn away.

Max looks down at his Wall Street Journal and draws a circle with its diameter. Then, he writes `A = πr<sup>2</sup>‘ and `C = 2πr’. Next, he writes, `π = 3.14159. . .’ How could you stop believing that there is a pattern, an ordered shape behind those numbers when you were so close? We see the simplicity of the circle. We see the maddening complexity of the endless string of numbers. 3.14 off into infinity.

Suddenly, Max hears someone singing. Max looks up. It is the

— [20] — Skinny Man and he’s singing with passion. It’s all very strange to Max who nervously looks away.

Max continues with his work.

And then, the singing stops — mid-verse. Max looks up and the man is gone. Vanished. Max looks around — no one in sight.

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(which he does) So, what do you do?

(awed by the coincidence) Amazing.

Lenny points to the text. Extreme close-up of Hebrew letters.

— [22] — interrelated, like take the Hebrew word for father, Ab. Aleph, Bet. One and two equals three. All right? Hebrew word for mother, Ame. Aleph, Mem. One and forty equals forty-one. Sum of three and forty-one: forty-four. Now, the Hebrew word for child is Yellen. That’s ten, thirty, and four . . . forty-four.

The waitress refills Max’s coffee. The Torah is just a long string of numbers. Some say that it’s a code sent to us from God.

— [23] —

Lenny lights up a cigarette and takes a drag. If you divide a hundred and forty-four into two hundred and thirty-three the result approaches theta.

SLOW MOTION: Max’s POV of smoke spirals spinning in front of him.

NORMAL SPEED: Suddenly, Max stands up and leaves. Whoa, hey, Max!

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INT. MAX’S APARTMENT — DAY

Max draws spirals all over his Wall Street Journal. Then he takes a thick black marker and draws a giant spiral across the entire page.

— [24] — Max is ecstatic as he pounds code into the computer, takes moments to wake up, drops pills and drinks a ginseng soda.

Max works feverishly: sketching, pounding out code, and downing ginseng soda.So what about the stock market? A universe of numbers that represents the global economy. Millions of human hands at work . . . billions of minds . . . a vast network screaming with life. An organism. A natural organism. My hypothesis: Within the stock market, there is a pattern. Right in front of me, hiding behind the numbers. Always has been. 10.18: Press return.

Max is about to slap RETURN but he stops himself — he’s nervous.

Next door, Devi and her boyfriend are making love. He looks at the wall with disdain. Then, he looks back at the screen, shrugs and confidently slaps RETURN on his keyboard.

Stock prices float across the screen. Max can’t believe his eyes — the quotes are absurd.

Suddenly, a number flashes on to the screen. It blinks on and off a couple of times.