“You Know How They Say That We Can Only Access 20% Of Our Brain’s, This Lets You Access ALL OF IT”
Damn Morpheus, that was a bit deep… What about a nice middle? Instead of a red pill and a blue pill, could we have a ‘clear pill’ ? One that lets us unlock our full potential but stay exactly where we are… no aliens… no humans being used as batteries… just the potential part. That would be amazing.
That’s basically what ‘Limitless’ is, it’s ‘The Matrix’ but without all of the virtual reality headaches.
The Plot
An action-thriller about a writer who takes an experimental drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his mind. As one man evolves into the perfect version of himself, forces more corrupt than he can imagine mark him for assassination. Out-of-work writer Eddie Morra’s (Bradley Cooper) rejection by girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) confirms his belief that he has zero future. That all vanishes the day an old friend introduces Eddie to NZT, a designer pharmaceutical that makes him laser focused and more confident than any man alive. Now on an NZT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie’s read, heard or seen is instantly organized and available to him.
As the former nobody rises to the top of the financial world, he draws the attention of business mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro), who sees this enhanced version of Eddie as the tool to make billions. But brutal side effects jeopardize his meteoric ascent. With a dwindling stash and hit men who will eliminate him to get the NZT, Eddie must stay wired long enough to elude capture and fulfill his destiny. If he can’t, he will become just another victim who thought he’d found invincibility in a bottle.
The appeal of this film is the relatability of it’s central character, Eddie Morra (played by Bradley Cooper). We’ve all been Eddie at some point in our lives, stuck in a rut and clinging onto the hope that everything will be better tomorrow. In those moments we’d all kill for some kind of divine intervention to drag us out of that hole and deliver the tomorrow that we could see on the horizon, that’s what Eddie got when he took that pill – reminiscent of when Charlie won his ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
I’ll give you fair warning, before you go into this film with massively high expectations and accuse me of selling you a dream; the concept is a lot better than the film is…. It starts off with a lot of promise and really has you at the edge of your seat for the first 45 minutes, but after that it’s sort of like the writers didn’t know where to go with it. The story takes crazy turn after crazy turn and forgets to tie up a lot of loose ends, characters appears and disappear with such regularity that you stop questioning it (“What happened to… forget it”).
Limitless is one of my all-time favourite films, I will never get tired of watching it (I know this because I’ve watched it at least 10 times since it came out). It’s not highly regarded by critics because of the glaring plot holes, pacing issues and at times all around ridiculousness, but it is consistently entertaining throughout. Definitely worth watching (maybe even 10 times).
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