A Beautiful Mind Scenes 16-20 Summary

Scene 16

  • John's in a car headed back to the Wheeler Defense Lab at MIT.
  • John has to go teach, and he's not excited about it.
  • He's also mad that he's sharing the cover of Fortune with a bunch of other folks.

Scene 17

  • John's in the classroom, and he basically tells the students that being in class is going to be a waste of time. Well, at least he's honest?
  • He closes the window to drown out construction noise.
  • Apparently, it's quite hot closed, so a girl in the class goes to the window, opens it, and asks the construction workers to stop. Hmm, that was simple enough.
  • John is obviously intrigued by her.

Scene 18

  • The creepy guy who was staring at John at the Pentagon shows up outside John's office building.
  • Turns out, he works for the Department of Defense.
  • The guy takes John into a restricted area on campus as they chat.
  • John had thought that all those buildings were abandoned, but apparently not.
  • The dude, whose name is Parcher, tells John about an operation that he wants John's help with, since John's such an ace code breaker. It's kind of a continuation of the task he went to the Pentagon to help with.
  • Suddenly, we see John undergoing some supersecret spy prep. He's asked to memorize some content, and the folks at DoD implant him with a tracking device.
  • Yikes, this looks like heavy-duty stuff for a mathematician.

Scene 19

  • Back in non-spy-land, a guard is escorting Window Girl from John's class into his office. She asks what he's working on.
  • Apparently, he had left a problem on the board, and she said she's solved it.
  • Oops, she spoke too soon—apparently she made a bad assumption in working out the problem and got it wrong.
  • At least John thinks that her solution was "elegant," though.
  • He tries to return to his work, but she continues standing there.
  • Oh, now her stalling makes sense: she wants to ask him to dinner.
  • John is super-awkward about the invitation, but he tells her to leave her address with his office and he'll pick her up Friday.
  • Oh, and he finally gets her name: Alicia.

Scene 20

  • John is taking Alicia to a fancy party.
  • He's a bit distracted, but Alicia is pretty successful at getting/keeping John's attention.
  • They bond over staring at the stars together outside.