PROFFESOR
The movie 21
The highly educational movie “21” is a story based on M.I.T students who basically counts cards so as to increase their probability of topping the Blackjack card games at casinos. Surprisingly, the movie successfully incorporated a lot of mathematics in it. This is evidenced from the obviously seen card counting.
The movie begins with the introduction of a young but highly significant character referred to as Ben Campbell. Ben Campbell is depicted as a highly intelligent student, who endeavors to succeed at all cost. Ben has always yearned for a scholarship that will enable him transfer to Harvard medical school. This has always been propelled by his strong desire of becoming a doctor. Unfortunately, bens dream almost becomes fully shattered when he realizes that he cannot afford the large sum of fee of about $ 300,000 to cater for his schooling requirements. This was further hindered by the fact that he comes from humble background.
One unique evening, Ben is introduced by his controversial professor to a small and secretive club of consisting of five students. The controversial professor impacted into them the skill of card counting at the blackjack. Derived by the desire to make money, Ben joins his new crew of friends and embarks on secret trips to Las Vegas where putting in use their skills of hand signals and code talks, Ben successfully makes thousands of dollars from winning in casinos from casinos. Ben is only motivated by the fact that he wants to raise enough money for his tuition fees at Harvard and then out of the group.
The card counting deal was a great deal for the entire group. Unfortunately, it came with a far much greater cost especially to Ben Campbell. His studies at M.I.T almost came to a standstill while his dreams for Harvard school of medicine continued to slowly varnish away.
In the film’s ending, Ben once again applies the basics of game theory in his final decision to get out of the team. It becomes crystal clear that Ben had anticipated the ultimate betrayal by fellow player, Professor Rosa.
The first thing that he and his friends was to establish a plan based on game theory in which they would make a lot of money as previously agreed with the greedy Rosa. This was to be done before the targeted hotel installed a fraud detecting biometric software.
Everything went according to plan and they accumulated the earnings that they had projected. However as they were leaving, they were confronted by the casino’s security team. Ben and his friends utilize this time by swapping the bags that contains the winning chips with another one containing chocolate earnings. Rosa thus when he double crosses the team only gets away with the chocolate chips and when he confronts Ben, he is apprehended by the Casino’s security chief who was also part of the plan. The security chief however takes all the winnings in the end after also confronting Ben with a gun.
Ben is finally able to quit the dangerous game and reconnect with his friends that he had previously abandoned. His basic reasoning is that although the thrill of making all that money through systematic card counting excited him, the thought of hanging out with his friends and participating in various life experiences with them was even better.
The general conclusion that can be made from his decision to leave the team is that game theory definitely played a significant part. If Ben had not applied it in the various experiences throughout this movie, he would not have reached the point where it no longer captivated him and hence his decision to leave his gambling team.
Work cited
Duncan, Ken, Philippe Antonello, Bonnie Steffen, Benedict Fitzgerald, and Mel Gibson. The Passion: Photography from the Movie the Passion of the Christ. United States?: Icon Distribution, 2004. Print.
White, James L, Taylor Hackford, and Linda Sunshine. Ray: A Tribute to the Movie, the Music, and the Man. New York: Newmarket Press, 2004. Print.
Donner, Richard, Mario Puzo, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, and John Williams. Superman, the Movie. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2001.
