The Zero Theorem
| The Zero Theorem | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Terry Gilliam |
| Produced by | |
| Written by | Pat Rushin |
| Starring | |
| Music by | George Fenton |
| Cinematography | Nicola Pecorini |
| Edited by | Mick Audsley |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Stage 6 Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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111 minutes |
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| Language | English Romanian |
| Budget | $8.5–13.5 million |
| Box office | $1.2 million |
The Zero Theorem is a 2013 British-French-Romanian science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, written by Pat Rushin, and starring Christoph Waltz, Lucas Hedges, Mélanie Thierry, and David Thewlis. The story centres on Qohen Leth (Waltz), a reclusive computer genius working on a formula to determine whether life holds any meaning.
Some have called it the final part of "The Brazil Trilogy", though Gilliam has not referred to the film this way. Nevertheless, one can easily regard the film as the third of a satirical dystopian trilogy or "Orwellian triptych" begun with 1985's Brazil and continued with 1995's 12 Monkeys.
The film began production in October 2012.
Qohen Leth, an eccentric programmer who refers to himself in the plural, is assigned to "crunch entities" for a company named Mancom. Finding himself suffering existential angst, Qohen constantly waits for a phone call, hoping that it might bring him happiness or the answers he seeks. Requesting a "disability" evaluation, three company doctors determine that Qohen is physically healthy, but request he have therapy from Dr Shrink-ROM, an AI therapist designed to provide mental evaluation. Wanting to meet with "Management", Qohen attends a party held by his supervisor, Joby. Stumbling into an empty room, Qohen finds Management and requests to work from home, as he would be more productive and would no longer risk missing his call; Management simply notes he finds Qohen "quite insane".
Attempting to leave the party, Qohen is pressed into staying by Joby and, when Qohen starts choking on an olive, he is rescued by partygoer Bainsley. His request granted by Management, Qohen is informed he is to start working from home, and is shown a massive supercomputer dubbed "The Neural Net Mancive"; containing all of the entities crunched by workers, Qohen is required to order its data to solve the "Zero Theorem", a mysterious mathematical formula. Spending months as a hermit whilst working on the program, he is diagnosed with numerous conditions by Shrink-ROM, and begins suffering nightmares involving a black hole.
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Wikipedia