Beware this article may contain spoilers and some pretty cool inspiration ideas for a Hollywood movie with a twist.
Hidden Figures (2016)
The year is 1961. The president is John F. Kennedy. The plot starts to develop in Hampton, Virginia. The story portrays the life (and struggle) of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. The main character is the mathematician Katherine Goble who works as a human computer in the segregated division West Area Computers of the Langley Research Center. Now, keep in mind that during that time, a computer could only be fit in a huge hall and only a handful of people had access to ones, let alone know how to use them. So, a human computer was a real job, yes.
Katherine is actually a math genius but since she’s an African-American in the USA where they still have different lavatories for people of colour and they ride only in the back of the bus, her work isn’t easy at all even though she is smarter than most of her colleagues.
I think it’s safe to say that if she did have Escreo back in the day, she wouldn’t have to climb up ladders to solve her equations.
The Accountant (2016)
Meet Ben Affleck, Christian Wolff who is not only an accountant but also knows how to use AKs and martial arts! I guess you didn’t see that coming, did you?
So, basically Christian is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Using as cover a small-town mini-mall CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations. But when the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division starts to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.
Uncooking the books apparently means a lot of writing numbers on the glass walls of the office. We hope Chris was able to clean that off easily, because if not, he should’ve probably used Escreo for spontaneous bursts of creativity (and book uncooking).
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Probably one of the most tragic and yet genius stories told in Hollywood. Based on the true story of a Nobel Laureate in Economics, the movie meets us with John Nash – a brilliant mathematician who is obsessed with his work. In 1947 he arrives in Princeton University as a recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Scholarship for mathematics.
Nash is under a lot of pressure to publish, but he wants to publish his own original idea. One day the inspiration hit him when he and his fellow graduate students discuss how to approach a group of women at a bar.
The plot slowly moves to paint of a picture of John’s mental problem. There is an attempt to treat the schizophrenia and his hallucinations but it ends up getting even worse. After a lot of pain, suffering and personal issues, over the course of two decades, Nash learns to ignore his hallucinations. By the late 1970s, he is allowed to teach again.
One of the most memorable scenes of the movie is when John erratically works on his idea, trying to prove and present it to the world. He uses up all the space on the blackboard and starts wiring all over the glasses. This part once again got us thinking “what if he had a wall he could actually write on without consequences?”
If you can think of a great movie that involves a lot of writing on blackboards, walls and windows come to your mind, we’d be glad to hear from you!