Good Will Hunting (1997) - Will Solves Math Challenge (Matt Damon)

Most unrealistic part of this movie is that none of those students claimed they did it.

This movie was well-written and amazingly acted...but I think its success can also be attributed to the fact that we all wish we had an amazing, hidden talent.

This is actually based from a true story of George Dantzig a student who was late to class and thought it was an homework assignment and had hardtime solving it but did it in two days and surprised the whole world...Of course altered to Matt Damon as an custodian for a dramatic effect..

End of the semester? No sweat. Took two years to prove? No problem. "Bob" solves them in-between mop jobs, afterhours.

0:33 if you have any questions, i am sure that tom has the answers... Tom enters...students leave... Tom: "my life sucks"

This movie is pure Cinema. The it’s not your fault scene had me in tears.

As a school custodian, it always bothers me that he never wrings out the mop! 😅

Those students must've been smart enough to know he'd ask them to explain it.

This just proves that janitors are on another level from the rest of the human race

Its funny how he totally just hits on one of his students, and she just laughs and replies maybe..., like it happens all the time... lol.

Had to have Damon play that role since no one believes Affleck could be that intelligent

"oh you're a clever one" if only he realised what he said was actually accurate after he spoke it

he didn't even wring the mop before he swabbed....

People seem to miss why Matt's character is soo smart in this movie. Its because he wrote the damn movie.

I wish they would've shown more of his intelligence in the movie, the way he solved those tangents were amazing.

I had a flatmate at university who had a natural flair for maths we attended the same maths tutorial on a Wednesday afternoon (Wednesday afternoons were set aside for sports etc but some of us had very full timetables). Every week the Maths Professor would give us 20 problems and we had to pick 10 of them to answer. I used to spend a bit of time working out which ones I could answer. One very memorable week the Prof. who I think had once been on the staff at MIT asked us if anyone had tried question 7 - two people out of the tutorial class of 30 put their hand up. The Prof. asked one to come out and show his solution on the blackboard - yes it was my friend. There then followed a writing up on the 'board of a few lines of working and then the answer, the Prof who was tugging at his chin then stepped forward to ask questions like how did you get from there to here etc etc. The rest of us mortals were for the most part totally at sea. My friend went on to graduate in a joint 1st class honours in Naval Architecture and Mathematics. He did not attend any maths classes after second year - he just sat the exams. The depiction of mathematical genius in Good Will Hunting is the nearest thing to that real life story that I experienced. I never asked my friend for help with maths (many others did) because I felt it would ruin our friendship.

Sort of parallels the story of Ramanujan, who is considered one of the greatest mathematicians who've ever lived. He really had no formal training growing up dirt poor. The stuff that came out of his brain is mind blowing.

1:58 After dropping out of grad school, Nemesh went on to change his name to Lester. Later he gained employment at a Buy More as a Nerd Herder in California.

To be named by the professor as a mystery guy solves a math problem is an honor in my book. It means he saw the potential in me to have solved the problem.

If I had to choose a superpower, I’d definitely choose this.