90s Sci-Fi Thriller Is A Daunting Early Conspiracy From An Iconic Director

Written by Robert Scocchi | Published 18 seconds ago

When I was in fourth grade, my teacher was amazed that I understood ninth-grade math. By ninth grade, my teacher was happy that I could follow along with everyone. By senior year, I was still functioning at the same level. I peaked early, and that was it.

So I majored in literature and creative writing instead because I already knew how to budget, balance a checkbook, and calculate the interest on the predatory student loans I had just signed. If I had stuck to math, I probably would have ended up like Max Cohen in 1998 Byea man so obsessed with numbers that they eventually destroy him.

Bye It’s one of those indie films that makes you see numbers everywhere. He’s like Jim Carrey Number 23But it’s actually smart. Complex mathematics and hidden symbols in nature drive Max mad, but it is his psychological makeup that fuels the film’s tension. Even without mathematics, Max was destined to destroy himself.

The road to hell is paved with 216 numbers

Bye It follows Max Cohen (Sean Goulet), a numerologist who is convinced that mathematics underpins everything. Suffering from severe headaches and addicted to medications to control the pain, he is obsessed with finding a pattern in Pi, the seemingly infinite series of random numbers that form a perfect circle. A victim of his own genius, Max loses track of time and becomes increasingly paranoid as encounters with people who wish to use his research for personal gain become more frequent.

His teacher, Sol Robson (Mark Margolis), urges him to stop before he ends up like him. Sol once chased the same code, suffered a stroke, and now lives in a wheelchair. Lenny (Ben Shenkman), a Hasidic Jew who studies mathematical patterns in the Hebrew alphabet, believes God has buried a secret code in the Torah. Lenny and Max form a transactional relationship when Max’s computer, Euclid, outputs the same 216-digit number that Sol once found; The same number Lenny is looking for.

Meanwhile, Wall Street agent Marcy Dawson (Pamela Hart) lures Max with a cutting-edge computer chip in exchange for his data, forcing him to question his integrity and the purpose of his work at Bye.

IUDs are everywhere

Max’s interpretation of the golden ratio and the spiral in Pi reflects the spiral that consumes his life. When he starts seeing patterns in everything, Saul worries that Max’s mind won’t survive his obsession. As someone who peaked in math in ninth grade, I internalize these ideas mostly thanks to Tool Brutal Album. The short version is that whether you are Max or a rock musician, you seek divine meaning through patterns you know in the form of numbers, notes, or rhythms that you understand conceptually, but whose true meaning you fail to fully understand as mere mortals.

As Max delves into number theory, his body, mind, and spirit collapse. Watching the vortex take hold is terrifying because you realize he’s not fighting a villain, he’s fighting his own mind.

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A new and approved independent psychological thriller film, Bye It proves that if you look for something long enough, you’ll find it, whether it’s real or not. It’s also a warning that when you lose yourself in obsession, answers rarely make sense outside of your own vague self-judgment. This low-budget, high-concept masterpiece is a cautionary tale of genius and madness, and will make you wish you’d paid more attention in math class.

As of this writing, you can stream Bye Free on Tubi.