Fermat's Room
Encyclopedia
Fermat's Room is a 2007 Spanish thriller film directed by Luis Piedrahita
and Rodrigo Sopeña. Three mathematicians and one inventor are invited to a house under the premise of solving a great enigma, and told to use pseudonyms based on famous historical mathematicians. At the house, they are trapped in a room. They must solve puzzles given by the host, who calls himself "Fermat", in order to escape the slowly closing walls of the room.
. A friend approaches him letting him know that his office was broken into and his work destroyed, delaying any possibility of presenting it publicly. Another, an older mathematician, is shown playing chess with a friend who urges him to quit mathematics, citing many of the brilliant mathematicians eventually go insane. Lastly, a middle aged man is shown to receive a letter from an anonymous source using the name Fermat. The letter states that Fermat is organizing a meeting of brilliant intellectuals, and to attend, the recipient of the letter must solve a certain "enigma", which is to determine how the following numbers are ordered: 5, 4, 2, 9, 8, 6, 7, 3, 1. The man is shown to struggle until the deadline, when an offhand comment from a coworker leads him to realize that the sequence of numbers are in alphabetical order (in Spanish: cinco, cuatro, dos, nueve, ocho, seis, siete, tres, uno).
Upon completion of the puzzle, a second letter is received with instructions to show up at a given time and place, alone, without a cell phone, to work on the greatest enigma. All the recipients receive pseudonyms. The young mathematician is Galois
, the older mathematician is Hilbert
, and the middle aged man is Pascal
. We are then introduced to a fourth character, known as Oliva. Hilbert's car breaks down on the way to the meeting, and Galois stops to give him a ride to the meeting when he realizes Hilbert is going to the same place he is. Hilbert admits that he is familiar with Galois since he saw him in a mathematics magazine as a brilliant mind who had proved Goldbach's conjecture. When they are all at the meeting place, at a river, a car on the other side flashes its lights, and they use a row boat named Pythagoras
to reach it. Inside is a PDA with GPS directions that they follow to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Upon entering and searching, they find a room resembling what Hilbert describes as a room that intellectuals would meet in.
After a short waiting period, a man enters and introduces himself as Fermat. They begin to talk and discuss things, but eventually Fermat receives a phone call about his daughter, whom he claims is in a coma at a nearby hospital. Fermat leaves, but forgets his coat. Pascal chases after him, but Fermat has already driven off. Fermat's wallet drops out of a pocket in the confusion. Pascal picks up the open wallet, and notices a picture of a girl. He returns to the room.
Upon Pascal's return, the PDA emits a sound and displays the following enigma, along with a deadline of one minute for its solution: A candy merchant receives 3 opaque boxes. One box contains mint candies, another contains anise candies, and the last box contains a mixture of mint and anise
. The boxes are labeled Mint, Anise, and Mixed. All of the boxes are labeled incorrectly. What is the minimum number of candies the merchant will have to sample to correctly label each box? Hilbert, Oliva, and Galois work on the problem, exceeding the one-minute deadline but eventually Pascal reveals it to be a cliched problem and solves it. Meanwhile, Pascal had noticed that the room had begun to shrink when the deadline was reached. He notices an inventory sales order on a piano for 4 industrial strength presses. The group then realizes that the presses are set to compress the room when time on the enigmas is exceeded.
As the occupants of the room continue to work on more and more enigmas, details about their pasts begin to emerge. Pascal accidentally hit the girl in the photo he found with a car. Pascal believes that Fermat wants to kill him for this transgression, and that the others are collateral damage. Meanwhile, Fermat is shown at a gas station, and then at a hospital. He is shown upset when it turns out that the hospital didn't call him. The nurses suggest that he go home, but he realizes he left his keys in his jacket, and must return to the warehouse.
More details emerge about the characters' pasts. Oliva and Galois used to date, but broke up when Galois began to suspect she was having an affair. Oliva admits that she met a man online while playing chess, and she eventually met him and would go on boat trips out to international waters, to do things illegal in their country. She then reveals to the group that this man is Hilbert. The group then tries to use the furniture in the room to stop the moving walls, but the furniture shatters. When they discover an invitational letter addressed to 'Fermat' with unique instructions, Pascal makes the suggestion that the person who set all of this up could not have been Fermat, since he acted strangely, and they all assumed he was the host. They also realize that he could not have faked a phone call to himself. Pascal theorizes that since all this was a revenge plot, the person wanting revenge would want to see it happen. As there were no visible cameras or viewpoints, he suggests that the person trying to kill them is in the room. First, suspicion is thrown upon Galois for his anger at Oliva and Hilbert, but then Pascal realizes it couldn't have been him since Hilbert was the only one not with the group when Fermat received his phone call. Hilbert admits that he is the one responsible for their current predicament, and that he did it because he spent his entire career working on Goldbach's conjecture, and Galois solved it at such a young age. Galois admits that he faked the proof to impress Oliva, and that when the pressure and spotlight became too great, he sabotaged his own work. Hilbert states he'd been driven even harder by Galois, and that he'd actually solved the conjecture, and hands a folder with his work to Galois. Galois comments that the mathematics contained within is "brilliant". They try to call Fermat from Hilbert's cell phone, but Hilbert placed a chemical to kill Fermat, who dies en route back to the gathering. Hilbert says they should continue working on his enigmas, but Galois becomes angry, and attacks him, knocking Hilbert unconscious. Pascal then realizes that all of the pseudonym characters died at the ages of the people they are named after, except for Hilbert. A furious search for Hilbert's escape route begins, and they find it behind the chalkboard. Pascal, Oliva, and Galois escape with the folder containing Hilbert's solution to Goldbach's conjecture, leaving behind an unconscious Hilbert. They make their way back to their cars. While crossing the river, Galois comments that he doesn't want to release Hilbert's solution under Hilbert's name, because then he would have won, but releasing it under his own name would be unethical but solve his problems. Pascal throws the solution into the river, remarking that the world is still the same without the proof.
Luis Piedrahita
Luis Piedrahita Cuesta is a Spanish stand-up comedian, magician, script writer, broadcaster and author. He is known as "El Rey de las Cosas Pequeñas" , due to his monologues in which he critiques the lack of regard of everyday things such as toilet lids, carnivorous plants, etc.He became widely...
and Rodrigo Sopeña. Three mathematicians and one inventor are invited to a house under the premise of solving a great enigma, and told to use pseudonyms based on famous historical mathematicians. At the house, they are trapped in a room. They must solve puzzles given by the host, who calls himself "Fermat", in order to escape the slowly closing walls of the room.
Plot
The film opens with a small set of background pieces on the characters. One, a young mathematician, is shown discussing sums of prime numbers with some women, and it is revealed that he is scheduled to present a proof of Goldbach's conjectureGoldbach's conjecture
Goldbach's conjecture is one of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. It states:A Goldbach number is a number that can be expressed as the sum of two odd primes...
. A friend approaches him letting him know that his office was broken into and his work destroyed, delaying any possibility of presenting it publicly. Another, an older mathematician, is shown playing chess with a friend who urges him to quit mathematics, citing many of the brilliant mathematicians eventually go insane. Lastly, a middle aged man is shown to receive a letter from an anonymous source using the name Fermat. The letter states that Fermat is organizing a meeting of brilliant intellectuals, and to attend, the recipient of the letter must solve a certain "enigma", which is to determine how the following numbers are ordered: 5, 4, 2, 9, 8, 6, 7, 3, 1. The man is shown to struggle until the deadline, when an offhand comment from a coworker leads him to realize that the sequence of numbers are in alphabetical order (in Spanish: cinco, cuatro, dos, nueve, ocho, seis, siete, tres, uno).
Upon completion of the puzzle, a second letter is received with instructions to show up at a given time and place, alone, without a cell phone, to work on the greatest enigma. All the recipients receive pseudonyms. The young mathematician is Galois
Évariste Galois
Évariste Galois was a French mathematician born in Bourg-la-Reine. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a long-standing problem...
, the older mathematician is Hilbert
David Hilbert
David Hilbert was a German mathematician. He is recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many areas, including invariant theory and the axiomatization of...
, and the middle aged man is Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
. We are then introduced to a fourth character, known as Oliva. Hilbert's car breaks down on the way to the meeting, and Galois stops to give him a ride to the meeting when he realizes Hilbert is going to the same place he is. Hilbert admits that he is familiar with Galois since he saw him in a mathematics magazine as a brilliant mind who had proved Goldbach's conjecture. When they are all at the meeting place, at a river, a car on the other side flashes its lights, and they use a row boat named Pythagoras
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
to reach it. Inside is a PDA with GPS directions that they follow to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Upon entering and searching, they find a room resembling what Hilbert describes as a room that intellectuals would meet in.
After a short waiting period, a man enters and introduces himself as Fermat. They begin to talk and discuss things, but eventually Fermat receives a phone call about his daughter, whom he claims is in a coma at a nearby hospital. Fermat leaves, but forgets his coat. Pascal chases after him, but Fermat has already driven off. Fermat's wallet drops out of a pocket in the confusion. Pascal picks up the open wallet, and notices a picture of a girl. He returns to the room.
Upon Pascal's return, the PDA emits a sound and displays the following enigma, along with a deadline of one minute for its solution: A candy merchant receives 3 opaque boxes. One box contains mint candies, another contains anise candies, and the last box contains a mixture of mint and anise
Anise
Anise , Pimpinella anisum, also called aniseed, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor resembles that of liquorice, fennel, and tarragon.- Biology :...
. The boxes are labeled Mint, Anise, and Mixed. All of the boxes are labeled incorrectly. What is the minimum number of candies the merchant will have to sample to correctly label each box? Hilbert, Oliva, and Galois work on the problem, exceeding the one-minute deadline but eventually Pascal reveals it to be a cliched problem and solves it. Meanwhile, Pascal had noticed that the room had begun to shrink when the deadline was reached. He notices an inventory sales order on a piano for 4 industrial strength presses. The group then realizes that the presses are set to compress the room when time on the enigmas is exceeded.
As the occupants of the room continue to work on more and more enigmas, details about their pasts begin to emerge. Pascal accidentally hit the girl in the photo he found with a car. Pascal believes that Fermat wants to kill him for this transgression, and that the others are collateral damage. Meanwhile, Fermat is shown at a gas station, and then at a hospital. He is shown upset when it turns out that the hospital didn't call him. The nurses suggest that he go home, but he realizes he left his keys in his jacket, and must return to the warehouse.
More details emerge about the characters' pasts. Oliva and Galois used to date, but broke up when Galois began to suspect she was having an affair. Oliva admits that she met a man online while playing chess, and she eventually met him and would go on boat trips out to international waters, to do things illegal in their country. She then reveals to the group that this man is Hilbert. The group then tries to use the furniture in the room to stop the moving walls, but the furniture shatters. When they discover an invitational letter addressed to 'Fermat' with unique instructions, Pascal makes the suggestion that the person who set all of this up could not have been Fermat, since he acted strangely, and they all assumed he was the host. They also realize that he could not have faked a phone call to himself. Pascal theorizes that since all this was a revenge plot, the person wanting revenge would want to see it happen. As there were no visible cameras or viewpoints, he suggests that the person trying to kill them is in the room. First, suspicion is thrown upon Galois for his anger at Oliva and Hilbert, but then Pascal realizes it couldn't have been him since Hilbert was the only one not with the group when Fermat received his phone call. Hilbert admits that he is the one responsible for their current predicament, and that he did it because he spent his entire career working on Goldbach's conjecture, and Galois solved it at such a young age. Galois admits that he faked the proof to impress Oliva, and that when the pressure and spotlight became too great, he sabotaged his own work. Hilbert states he'd been driven even harder by Galois, and that he'd actually solved the conjecture, and hands a folder with his work to Galois. Galois comments that the mathematics contained within is "brilliant". They try to call Fermat from Hilbert's cell phone, but Hilbert placed a chemical to kill Fermat, who dies en route back to the gathering. Hilbert says they should continue working on his enigmas, but Galois becomes angry, and attacks him, knocking Hilbert unconscious. Pascal then realizes that all of the pseudonym characters died at the ages of the people they are named after, except for Hilbert. A furious search for Hilbert's escape route begins, and they find it behind the chalkboard. Pascal, Oliva, and Galois escape with the folder containing Hilbert's solution to Goldbach's conjecture, leaving behind an unconscious Hilbert. They make their way back to their cars. While crossing the river, Galois comments that he doesn't want to release Hilbert's solution under Hilbert's name, because then he would have won, but releasing it under his own name would be unethical but solve his problems. Pascal throws the solution into the river, remarking that the world is still the same without the proof.
Release
Fermat's Room was originally released in Spain on November 16, 2007. It grossed approximately 284,000 USD in its opening weekend there. The movie was released in the United States in international film festivals in early 2009, before going directly to DVD. Blockbuster Inc. acquired a temporary exclusive license for its rental release in the United States.Cast
- Alejo SaurasAlejo SaurasAlejo Martín Sauras is Spanish actor who is best known as Raúl Martinez in Los Serrano.-Biography:...
: "Galois" (a reference to Évariste GaloisÉvariste GaloisÉvariste Galois was a French mathematician born in Bourg-la-Reine. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a long-standing problem...
) - Elena Ballesteros: "Oliva" (a reference to Oliva Sabuco)
- Lluís Homar: "Hilbert" (a reference to David HilbertDavid HilbertDavid Hilbert was a German mathematician. He is recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many areas, including invariant theory and the axiomatization of...
) - Santi Millán: "Pascal" (a reference to Blaise PascalBlaise PascalBlaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...
) - Federico Luppi: "Fermat" (a reference to Pierre de FermatPierre de FermatPierre de Fermat was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and an amateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his adequality...
)