It’s a popular myth that people only use ten percent of their brain’s potential.
This would make evolution look pretty bad. A big brain that never reaches its full capacity. Of course, the brain does more than remember the random crap we read online, it keeps the heart beating, reminds us when to eat, when to sleep, tells us who to flirt with, and also remembers rather a lot of random crap that we read online.
Limitless takes the idea that we only use 20% of our brain power and offers up a pill that allows us to use all of it. Take a little clear pill and all of your synapses hop to attention and instantly supply you with whatever bit of info you need at the moment. Way cool.
But no drug is perfect and one of the cute gags for the TV Show Limitless lists the many side effects, including death, that can result from the use of NZT. I somehow missed seeing this film when it came out in 2011, either that or I totally forgot it, which is a possibility.
Limitless tells the story of a loser who wants to be a novelist. He can’t pay his rent. His apartment is a mess. He looks like a homeless bum. And his current girlfriend tosses him to the curb as the story opens. Then he meets his ex-brother-in-law. A good old fashioned drug dealer who says he has something that our hero might like. He does like it. He likes it a lot.
It’s a standard science fiction trope that any loser can become rich and famous with the help of a bit of technology. The catch is usually that someone will come along and want you to pay for that tech. In Limitless the catch is that you have to take the drug forever, else you become a dull boy with no attention span and no interest in getting a hair cut or washing your clothes.
Limitless was a cute film and I think it should make a good TV Show. It was not a great film.
For a super genius it takes out hero a while to decide to do the obvious, reverse engineer the pill. As Limitless rolls to an end, we find that Bradley seems to be on the same path as Lucy. Using all of your brain doesn’t just make you smart, it makes you a minor god. If such were really the case, we would all be bowing low to Google.
This is a simple formula film with a few good scenes. One of the weak spots that bothered me was when our ‘hero’ murders one of the countless women he can now instantly seduce and basically shrugs it off. He kills other people, who are admittedly bad guys, but this doesn’t seem to bother him either. In the end, it’s clear that he can see the future, but he doesn’t appear to give a damn about anything that happens. He’s an asshole who likes to use his enhanced brain to chat up wait staff in their native language.
In the end, I didn’t like Limitless. He started off as a loser, but at least he was an honest loser. He ends up being a mass murder and an egomaniac who cheats to get everything he has.
And oh, yeah, I would take NZT in a heartbeat, just as I would take Lance Armstrong’s cycling cocktail if he ever decides to sell it at CNG.
