''Fermat's Room'' ( es, La habitación de Fermat) is a 2007 Spanish
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
directed by
Luis Piedrahita and
Rodrigo Sopeña
Rodrigo is a Spanish, Portuguese and Italian name derived from the Germanic name ''Roderick'' ( Gothic ''*Hroþareiks'', via Latinized ''Rodericus'' or ''Rudericus''), given specifically in reference to either King Roderic (d. 712), the last Vi ...
. Three
mathematicians
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
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
A stranger using the alias "
Fermat
Pierre de Fermat (; between 31 October and 6 December 1607 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is ...
" invites several people to attend a convention of the country's best mathematicians. To accept the invitation, each must solve a math puzzle. Upon receipt of the correct solution, each receives as an alias the name of a famous mathematician or philosopher; they are forbidden to reveal their true identities. Each is instructed to arrive at a specific place and time, alone and without a cell phone, to work on "the greatest enigma".
At the appointed time, four individuals converge at a riverbank: a serious young man using the alias
Galois, an older man using
Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many ...
, a self-effacing young man using
Pascal
Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** Blaise Pascal, Frenc ...
, and a stylish young woman using
Oliva
Oliva () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of La Safor in the Valencian Community, Spain. To its east lie of coastline and beaches fronting the Mediterranean Sea, and eight kilometres to the north is Gandia.
The ''Passeig'' (promenade) ...
. At dusk, a car on the far side of the river flashes its headlights. In the car they find a PDA with GPS coordinates and travel instructions. These direct them to an abandoned warehouse, where a back room is set up as an elegant parlor stocked with books and a large dining table set for five.
An elderly man enters and introduces himself as Fermat. They socialize and discuss academia, mathematics, and puzzles. After dinner, Fermat receives a phone call about his daughter, whom he claims is in a coma at a nearby hospital. Mobile reception is poor, and Fermat is unclear about the meaning of the call. Insisting it might be dire news, he leaves hurriedly and forgets his coat. Fermat's wallet drops out of a pocket in the confusion. Pascal picks it up and notices a photo of a girl.
The PDA displays a math puzzle, with a time limit of one minute. Hilbert, Oliva, and Galois work on the problem but exceed the deadline. Pascal calls it an old cliché and solves it easily. The walls contract when the deadline is exceeded. Pascal finds a sales order for four industrial presses. The group intuits that the presses are set to compress the room each time they fail to solve a puzzle by the time limit. The door has been blocked, and there is no escape. The PDA periodically displays new puzzles. As the occupants of the room work to solve the puzzles, it is revealed that Oliva and Galois have a romantic history, and that Oliva cheated on him with Hilbert.
They pile the furniture in the room to hold the moving walls, but the furniture is broken as the walls continue to contract. Pascal identifies the girl in the photo as someone that he severely injured with his car. He proposes that Fermat is trying to kill him in revenge, and that the others are
collateral victims. When they discover an invitation addressed to Fermat with different instructions than theirs, they realize that Fermat was not their host after all, but another pawn of the true host; if this is a revenge plot, the person wanting revenge would want to see it happen. As there are no visible cameras or viewpoints, the person trying to kill them must be in the room with them.
Galois, who previously gained press attention for allegedly proving
Goldbach's conjecture
Goldbach's conjecture is one of the oldest and best-known unsolved problems in number theory and all of mathematics. It states that every even natural number greater than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers.
The conjecture has been shown to hold ...
, confesses that he lied to win back Oliva; the publicized sabotage of his presentation was staged to hide his failure. Hilbert reveals that he is the mastermind, that he has spent his entire professional life trying to prove Goldbach's conjecture and was insanely jealous that Galois beat him to the proof; he staged this "convention" to avenge himself. Fermat was a diversion who will be killed when undetectable poison gas is released in his car.
Hilbert announces that he has succeeded in proving Goldbach. He hands a folder to Galois. Galois admits that Hilbert's proof is brilliant. Frustrated by their impending doom, Galois becomes angry and strikes Hilbert, rendering him unconscious. Pascal realizes that the real Oliva, Galois, Fermat and Pascal each died at the same age as the current age of the guests using those names, but the real Hilbert died at 81, much older than the unconscious man before them. They conclude that Hilbert had an escape plan and did not intend to die with them. The three find a breakable wall panel and escape with Hilbert's proof.
As they return to their cars, Galois is conflicted about releasing Hilbert's solution: releasing it under Hilbert's name would let Hilbert "win", while releasing it under his own name would be unethical but would solve his professional problems. Pascal grabs the folder and scatters the pages upon the river, remarking that the world is still the same with or without the proof.
Cast
*
Alejo Sauras
Alejo Martín Sauras (born June 29, 1979 in Palma de Mallorca), is a Spanish actor who is best known as Raúl Martinez in ''Los Serrano''.
Biography
Sauras was born in Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca but he spend his childhood in Madrid. Sauras studi ...
: "Galois" (a reference to
Évariste Galois
Évariste Galois (; ; 25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, ...
)
*
Elena Ballesteros
María Elena Ballesteros Triguero (born 6 July 1981) is a Spanish actress.
Biography
Ballesteros began her career doing commercials while going to castings to achieve her dream of becoming an actress. Her first opportunity arrived with the ...
: "Oliva" (a reference to
Oliva Sabuco
Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera (2 December 1562 in Alcaraz) was a Spanish writer in holistic medical philosophy in the late 16th – early 17th century. She was interested in the interaction between the physical and psychological phenomena; there ...
)
*
Santi Millán
Santiago Millán Montes (born 13 September 1968, in Barcelona), professionally known as Santi Millán, is a Spanish actor, showman and television presenter.
Career
Millán studied theatre at Colegio del Teatro in Barcelona and in 1989 he joined ...
: "Pascal" (a reference to
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer.
He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...
)
*
Lluís Homar
Lluís Homar i Toboso (born 20 April 1957) is a Spanish actor and theater director from Barcelona. He is best known for his roles in Pedro Almodóvar's '' Bad Education'' (2004) and ''Broken Embraces'' (2009), in Emilio Aragón's '' Paper Birds' ...
: Hilbert (a reference to
David Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many a ...
)
*
Federico Luppi
Federico Luppi (; February 23, 1936 – October 20, 2017) was an Argentine-Spanish film, TV, radio and theatre actor. He won numerous awards throughout his acting career, including a Concha de Plata at the San Sebastian International Film Fest ...
: "Fermat" (a reference to
Pierre de Fermat
Pierre de Fermat (; between 31 October and 6 December 1607 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he ...
)
Release
''Fermat's Room'' was originally released in Spain on November 16, 2007. It grossed approximately 284,000
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
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.
Blockbuster LLC, formerly known as Blockbuster Video, was an American-based provider of home video and video game rental services. Services were offered primarily at video rental shops, but later alternatives included DVD-by-mail, streaming med ...
acquired a temporary exclusive license for its rental release in the United States.
References
External links
*
* {{rotten-tomatoes, id=fermats_room, title=Fermat's Room
2007 films
2007 thriller films
Spanish thriller films
Films shot in Barcelona
2000s Spanish-language films
Films about mathematics
2000s Spanish films