After a tragic shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean claims the lives of his family, a young Indian man named Pi finds himself stranded on a lifeboat for 227 days. However, he is not alone; he must share his precarious sanctuary with a fearsome Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, forging an unexpected connection in a desperate battle for survival against the elements and starvation.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States United Kingdom Taiwan |
Premiere date |
November 21, 2012 |
Running time |
127 minutes |
Genre |
Adventure Drama Fantasy |
Budget |
$120,000,000 |
Box Office |
$609,016,565 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Ang Lee |
Produced by |
Gil Netter Ang Lee David Womark |
Written by |
David Magee |
Music by |
Mychael Danna |
Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Edited by |
Tim Squyres |
Production Co. |
Fox 2000 Pictures Dune Entertainment Ingenious Media |
Distributed by |
20th Century Fox |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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The Plot
The Storyteller and the Zoo
In Canada, a novelist named Yann Martel meets Pi Patel, an Indian man living in Montreal. Martel has been directed to Pi by "Mamaji," a friend of Pi’s late father, who promised that Pi had a story that would make him believe in God. Pi agrees to share his life story. In a flashback to his childhood in Pondicherry, India, Pi explains that his father named him Piscine Molitor after a celebrated swimming pool in France. However, by the time he reached secondary school, he grew weary of the cruel nickname "Pissing Patel" derived from the mispronunciation of his name. In a definitive act of self-reinvention, he stands before his classmates and adopts the name "Pi" (referencing the Greek letter, π), memorizing the mathematical constant to prove his point.
Pi grows up in the lush environment of his family's zoo, taking a deep interest in the animals, particularly a magnificent Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. His curiosity leads him into danger when he attempts to feed Richard Parker through the cage bars. His father, a strict rationalist, intervenes just in time. To teach Pi a lesson about the true nature of animals, his father forces him to witness Richard Parker brutally killing a goat, shattering Pi's naive view of the beast. Despite his father's secularism, Pi is drawn to the spiritual. Raised Hindu and vegetarian, he is introduced to Christianity and Islam at the age of twelve. Rather than choosing one, he decides to follow all three religions simultaneously, telling his perplexed parents that he "just wants to love God." While his mother supports his spiritual journey, his father attempts to convert him to reason and secular thinking.
The Sinking of the Tsimtsum
When Pi is sixteen, political changes in India prompt his father to move the family to Canada. They intend to sell the zoo animals in North America to fund their new life. The family boards the Japanese freighter Tsimtsum, along with their animals. One night, a catastrophic storm strikes while the ship is over the Mariana Trench. Pi is on deck when the vessel begins to founder. He attempts to return below to find his family, but the crew, in a panic, throws him into a lifeboat. As the ship tilts violently into the sea, a freed zebra jumps from the deck and crashes into the lifeboat, breaking its leg upon landing. Pi watches in horror as the Tsimtsum sinks beneath the waves, drowning his mother, father, and brother.
Amidst the storm, Pi spots what he believes to be a human survivor struggling in the water. He urges the figure to swim toward the boat, only to realize too late that it is Richard Parker. Pi tries to fend the tiger off with an oar, but the beast manages to climb aboard. Terrified, Pi throws himself into the bow of the boat as the storm rages on.
The Law of the Lifeboat
After the storm subsides, Pi assesses his grim reality. He is trapped on the lifeboat with the injured zebra and is soon joined by an orangutan, who survived by floating on a crate of bananas. The dynamic on the boat turns violent quickly. A spotted hyena emerges from under the tarpaulin covering half the boat and snaps at Pi, forcing him to retreat. The hyena attacks the helpless zebra, killing it and eating it alive. Later, the hyena turns its aggression toward the orangutan. A fight ensues, and despite the primate's efforts, the hyena kills her as well.
Just as the hyena threatens Pi, Richard Parker explodes from beneath the tarpaulin. In a flash of power, the tiger kills the hyena. He then turns his gaze toward Pi, attempting to attack. Thinking quickly, Pi grabs a rat and throws it into the tiger's mouth, momentarily distracting the predator. Richard Parker retreats under the tarpaulin and remains there, leaving Pi in a fragile standoff with the apex predator.
Surviving the Pacific
Realizing he cannot stay on the boat with the tiger, Pi retrieves biscuits, water rations, and a hand axe, then fashions a small raft out of oars and life vests, tethering it to the lifeboat to keep a safe distance. Over the coming days, Pi’s moral code against killing is tested as he begins fishing to feed Richard Parker, realizing that satisfying the tiger's hunger is the only way to prevent being eaten himself. He also collects rainwater for them to drink. On one occasion, Richard Parker jumps into the sea to hunt for fish. As the tiger swims back, struggling to board, Pi considers letting him drown to secure his own safety. However, seeing the animal's desperation, Pi helps him back into the boat.
Disaster strikes again one night when a breaching humpback whale lands on the rope connecting the raft to the lifeboat. The impact completely destroys the raft and most of Pi's supplies. Forced back onto the main boat, Pi must assert dominance. He trains Richard Parker to accept his presence, using food and territory markers. Pi realizes that the responsibility of caring for Richard Parker has given him a purpose, keeping him alive and sane through the isolation. He even resorts to eating fish, breaking his lifelong vegetarianism to survive.
The Carnivorous Island
Weeks turn into months. Emaciated and near death, Pi and Richard Parker encounter a mysterious floating island composed of interconnected mangrove trees. It seems like a paradise, teeming with edible plants, fresh water pools, and a massive population of meerkats. Pi and the tiger eat, drink, and regain their strength. However, the island hides a dark secret. At night, the ecosystem transforms into a hostile environment: the fresh water pools turn acidic, digesting the dead fish floating within them. Richard Parker retreats to the boat each evening, while the meerkats sleep high in the trees.
Pi’s suspicion about the island is confirmed when he finds a human tooth embedded inside a flower—the remains of a previous castaway. He realizes the island itself is carnivorous, slowly digesting anything that stays too long. Terrified of this fate, Pi gathers Richard Parker and they abandon the false paradise, returning to the open ocean.
The Truth and the Better Story
Eventually, the lifeboat washes ashore on the coast of Mexico. As they land on the beach, Richard Parker leaps from the boat. Pi watches, emotionally crushed, as the tiger disappears into the jungle without looking back or acknowledging the bond they shared. Pi is rescued by locals and taken to a hospital, where he weeps over the unceremonious desertion.
Later, insurance agents from the Japanese company that owned the freighter arrive to interview Pi. They are skeptical of his fantastical account involving the tiger and the carnivorous island. Pressed to tell the "truth," Pi offers a second, darker story. In this version, there were no animals. The lifeboat contained his mother (the orangutan), a Buddhist sailor with a broken leg (the zebra), and the ship’s brutish cook (the hyena). The cook killed the sailor to use as bait and food, and later murdered Pi’s mother after a dispute. In a rage, Pi killed the cook and survived on his flesh until reaching Mexico.
The agents are horrified but note the parallels: the sailor was the zebra, the mother was the orangutan, the cook was the hyena, and Pi himself was the tiger. Pi asks the writer, Yann, which story he prefers. Yann replies that "the one with the tiger" is the better story. Pi smiles and says, "And so it goes with God." Yann glances at the final insurance report, which concludes that Pi survived 227 days at sea "in the company of an adult Bengal tiger," confirming that the officials, too, chose the better story.
