A drug that makes people smarter…yeah, that’s pretty impressive. A drug that makes them smarter and clean their houses—sign me up!
Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a loose-ends kind of guy who wants to be a writer, but not badly enough. He loves his girlfriend, Lindy (Abbie Cornish), but understands why she leaves him. He looks like he could use a good shower and shampoo—definitely a new wardrobe—and he lives in a dump in New York’s Chinatown. We learn all that in flashbacks, as Limitless begins with a very different Eddie Morra perched on a high balcony, contemplating suicide. His contemplations lead to his introduction of the events that culminate on the balcony ledge.
One day, as Eddie walks the streets of Manhattan, he runs into his ex-brother-in-law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), a former drug dealer who is working on something much bigger. The something bigger is a drug that allows people to use 100% of their brains. Eddie takes a pill, experiences a few visual effects, and is suddenly a super-thinker and housekeeper. He visits Vernon to get more of the drug, and Vernon agrees to supply him with it, and sends him out to get his dry cleaning and breakfast.
When Eddie returns from the errands, he finds Vernon’s apartment trashed and Vernon sitting on the couch with a bullet through him. He calls the police, then searches the apartment himself, turning up a stash of pills hidden under the oven floor. He also turns up a huge wad of cash.
Taking the pills, Eddie attains a four-figure I.Q. and writes his book in a few days. Using Vernon’s cash, Eddie makes a killing in the stock market. That’s when things get a little sticky. Eddie is in no position (as a loser) to get a bank loan, so he borrows $100,000 from an Eastern European mobster (Andrew Howard), quickly turning it into two million dollars. He becomes more active and well known on Wall Street, eventually meeting Carl VanLoon (Robert DeNiro) who involves him in the biggest merger in history. Eddie’s going to make $45 million, and everything looks rosy until there’s a slight glitch.
When the situation starts to go bad, it’s a juggernaut that affects every aspect of Eddie’s life, from his relationship with Lindy, to his health, to his personal safety. Action builds until we rejoin Eddie on that ledge, thinking about jumping off. He changes his mind, reenters his apartment just as the Eastern European and his thugs are breaking in, and manages to lose the last of his pills—the one thing that would let him think his way out of his predicament.
Limitless is a wild ride, filled with excitement, unexpected turns, spectacular editing and camera work, and an intense storyline. How does it end? Disappointingly, in a happily-ever-after finish that is so unlikely, it’s not even ironic. Instead it leaves the viewer wishing the writers had taken some of Eddie’s magical pills.
Looks like a nice movie, I mean who wouldn't want such an amazing drug.
This is a movie that I love, thinking about that idea of a pill that makes you use your brain 100%. I like the camera effects and how the main character has to think to get out of trouble fast.