Religion
Throughout the film we see Max interact with Lenny and other Orthodox Jews. They are in search of a number that represents the true name of God. And when they have this number they will be able to unlock the gates of Heaven and commune with God and welcome in the Messianic era. We see how God uses numbers in creation as wee see from Lenny that by adding the two numbers that represent man and woman it equals the number for child. The golden ratio is also used throughout the picture to show us how nature has a divine sequence it was created in to make it beautiful to the eye. In the end we understand that the Jewish people seeking this number are simply after it for their own paradise. Are they truly out to find it in order to help others? If not, what makes them any different than the wall street people who seek to kill Max for the numbers in his head?
Cracking the Code
The film is all about numbers, sequences, discovering an order that will be not only meaning but prophecy to the world. By breaking the code Max will be able to accurately predict the stock market. He's already begun to do so with picks from recent days. But, it's the weight of the code that truly gets to Max as what he must go through in order to find it is beyond any boundaries of reason or sanity. It becomes so absurd that it fries his brain to the point where he is willing to put an electric drill to his head to get it out.
Order and Chaos
When one sees order next to chaos it's apparent that the two are completely different. But this film asks the question, "What if they are the different side of the same coin?" We see Max play Go with Sol. It's a game of strategy Max believes, but Sol says it's one of Chaos and infinite possibilities. Thus from the order that they create on the board they can find chaos. And the opposite is also true, from the chaos order can be found. Thus these two approaches go hand in hand, they create each other, they break each other and they live within nature and within us.
Paranoia
The entire film is shot is a paranoid style. The camera moves quickly and the frame is tight while the contrast is incredibly stark, it's hard to tell what's what or who's who. This reveals the state that Max is living in, one of uncertainty and clutter. Once where the difference between good and evil is so minuscule it could be missed. Max lives with multiple locks on his door to keep people out and is constantly looking through his peephole so that he doesn't have to engage with anyone as he believes all they want is to take something from him. He's become so obsessed with finding an answer to his problem that he has become paranoid and everyone is out to get him.
