In today’s video, we will go through the events of 2011’s Science Fiction Thriller
Film, Limitless.
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned. Make sure to give this video a thumbs up, comment
on what your favorite part was, and subscribe to our channel for more.
Eddie Morra is a struggling author who lives in New York City and has been trying for days,
weeks, and months to develop a great idea for a book, but to no luck. His girlfriend
Lindy, frustrated with his lack of progress in life and financially supporting him throughout
their relationship, breaks up with him. Eddie has also been briefly married before to a
girl named Melissa, right out of college. One day a hurt and depressed Eddie is wandering
around the city looking homeless and lonely, as he runs into Melissa’s brother Vernon.
Vernon, who once was a drug dealer, seems to have turned his life around. He reveals
that he now works for a pharmaceutical company. Over a drink, after learning of Eddie’s
woes, Vernon shares his secret with Eddie and gives him a pill of a smart drug called
NZT-48. He reveals that the drug allows a person to
access 100% of their brain capacity instead of an average person’s ability to normally
access only 20% of their brain. He tells him that this drug has helped him tremendously
in his career. Vernon then gives Eddie his visiting card and leaves.
After a lot of contemplation, Eddie finally takes the pill on his way back to his apartment,
concluding that his life can’t get worse than it already is. Eddie then runs into his
landlord’s young wife Valerie at the stairs after he takes the drug. Valerie berates him
for not being able to pay his rent when suddenly the drug kicks in.
The drug allows Eddie to access all the memories his brain has ever consciously or subconsciously
recorded, which normally is not possible, like identifying a book he saw in college
12 years ago on a desk or information from an odd museum show or a half-read article
or perhaps some PBS documentary. They are all bubbling in his frontal lobes, mixing
themselves into a sparkling cocktail of useful information. He is now able to analyze minute
details and information at incredible speed. Using his newfound ability, Eddie impresses
an angry rent-seeking Valerie and helps write her law school papers, and has intercourse
with her. With the drug making him have a clear head, Eddie first tidies up his apartment
and starts his book as he is flooded with new great ideas,
The following day when Eddie wakes, he finds his old self back. The drug’s effect has
disappeared, but he still has the pages he wrote for the book under its influence. He
takes it to his boss, who sends him multiple voicemails impressed by his writing. Eddie,
realizing what a jackpot he has hit with the drug, immediately goes to meet Vernon to ask
for more drugs but he is shocked to find him dead in his apartment. Looking at the mess
at the apartment, Eddie realizes that the people who killed Vernon were perhaps looking
for the same drug, and he finds a pack and some cash hidden in Vernon’s microwave.
After acquiring the big stack of drugs that would last him for months, Eddie changes his
life around. He finishes his book in four days, learns foreign languages, and travels
around the world paid for by rich people who want to hang out with him. With the fire of
always moving forward inside him, one day, Eddie begins investing in the stock market.
He starts taking increasing doses of the drug and quickly starts quadrupling his money.
He accepts a job at a brokerage firm and loans money from a local loan shark named Gennady.
He continues to reach new heights and his girlfriend Lindy comes back into his life.
Eddie soon catches the attention of Billionaire Finance tycoon Carl Van Loon who invites him
for a meeting. At the meeting, Eddie impresses Van Loon by analyzing his investments and
figuring out that he is considering a merger with Hank Atwood’s company without being
told about it. He also predicts the merger’s failure. Van Loon asks him to advise him how
to restructure his merger deals at the next meeting.
After the meeting, an overjoyed Eddie feels like walking. But he keeps walking and walking.
He goes to random bars, has intercourse with a woman at a hotel, gets followed by a man
in a trench coat, and fights with random people at the subway. His body is involuntarily doing
these things, and after the period ends and he gains control, he can't account for what
he did during that period. It was all a blur. He experienced an 18-hour loss of memory,
which he refers to as a "time skip.” After losing almost a whole day in the time
skip and running out of NZT-48 at his apartment, Eddie is unprepared for the scheduled Van
Loon meeting but he reluctantly goes after being forced by his boss. At the meeting,
Eddie sees a news telecast that a woman has been murdered in her hotel room.
After thinking hard, Eddie recognizes her as the woman he slept with during his time
skip and abruptly leaves the meeting in utter disbelief. Thinking he might have murdered
the woman, Eddie runs back to the apartment where he gets a call from Melissa who warns
him not to take the drug Vernon gave him. Searching for answers, Eddie calls the people
to whom Vernon used to supply the drugs with the help of his diary. To his dismay, he learns
that most people who have taken the drug have either passed away or have been hospitalized.
Later, the loan shark Gennady follows Eddie to his apartment as he never got his money
back. While beating Eddie up for not returning his money, Gennady spots the NZT-48 pills
that Eddie accidentally drops on the floor. Gennady then takes the drug and drags Eddie
to his bank to recover his money. After returning Gennady his money, Eddie experiences
a withdrawal before he gets to reach his apartment from the bank. Unable to function, Eddie struggles
but somehow makes it to Lindy’s office nearby. Now sick and pale, Eddie comes clean about
his newfound “motivation” and “clarity” in life to Lindy as she listens in amazement.
Eddie then pleads with her to get him his stack that he has hidden in her apartment.
After retrieving Eddie’s drug from her apartment, an old man in a long trench coat starts following
Lindy. Noticing the man, a scared Lindy asks two men on the street to save her from the
stalker, but the old man brutally murders the two men with a sharp dagger. A horrified
Lindy then frantically runs towards the park. She hides behind a rock and calls Eddie. He
tries to calm her down and tells her to take one pill of the drug.
At first reluctant, she eventually takes the drug after the stalker gets extremely close
to catching her. Soon the drug kicks in, and Lindy starts analyzing the park and runs straight
towards the nearby outdoor ice skating rink, followed closely by the stalker. Lindy zooms
through the rink, followed by the stalker with his dagger out. When he almost catches
up to her, she picks up a little girl and spins her around, slashing the stalker’s
face with the sharp blade of the little girl’s ice skating shoes. The stalker collapses on
the ground, and Lindy manages to flee. After getting his dose, Eddie recovers, and
he and Lindy spend the night at a hotel. The following day, Lindy is still shaken up after
having narrowly escaped death the other day. Eddie then apologizes to her for putting her
through this and tells her that he is back now, but Lindy replies that it is not the
real him and as long as he is under the drug, she can’t be with him.
Eddie pleads with her that he is planning on eventually getting off the drugs, but an
emotional Lindy leaves him anyway. Later, Eddie experiments with NZT-48 and learns
to control his dosage, sleep schedule, and food intake to prevent the side effects. He
makes it up to Van Loon for abruptly leaving his last meeting and continues to broker his
company's merger with Hank Atwood’s company. Tired of being constantly harassed by Gennady
for NZT-48 pills, Eddie hires two bodyguards to protect him from the loan shark.
He also hires an attorney to keep the police from investigating the death of Vernon and
the woman he had intercourse with at a hotel. He then orders a laboratory to reverse-engineer
the drug but is told that it will take at least six months.
On the day of the merger, Atwood doesn’t arrive at the meeting. Soon Mrs. Atwood walks
in and reveals that Mr. Atwood has gone into a coma, but their company is still looking
ahead to going forward with the merger as soon as Mr. Atwood is in the position to sign
the deal. While escorting Mrs. Atwood out, Eddie recognizes Mrs. Atwood's driver as the
man in the trench coat that has been following Eddie and Lindy all this time.
He suddenly realizes that Atwood is on NZT-48 and might not recover without another dose
of the drug. Eddie then reports to the police station in relation to the murder case of
the woman he had intercourse with. While he participates in a police lineup, his attorney
steals his supply of pills from his jacket pocket.
Unaware of the theft, Eddies returns to Van Loon’s office. There, he learns that the
news of the merger has been leaked to the press, and Van Loon questions Eddie about
it. As he struggles to come up with an answer, Eddie starts to enter into withdrawal, and
he quickly excuses himself to the bathroom to take his dose. However, he soon learns
that his pills have been stolen. He then receives a package with the severed hands of his bodyguards.
Eddie freaks out and frantically rushes to his home and locks himself inside. Out of
drugs, Eddie increasingly gets sick and watches as his life falls apart once again. Soon,
Gennady arrives at Eddie’s apartment with his goons.
Eddie’s metal door isn’t able to keep Gennady outside for long, and he soon breaks
into his apartment. After barging in, Gennady confronts Eddie and says that he is on his
last pill, and demands more NZT-48 from Eddie. He then flaunts his abilities while injecting
himself with NZT-48, explaining that by injecting it directly into the bloodstream, the effects
last longer, and the withdrawal symptoms are lessened.
When Eddie tells him he has run out of drugs, Gennady threatens to eviscerate him. As Gennady’s
goons get busy ransacking Eddie’s apartment looking for more pills, Eddie subdues Gennady
and stabs him with a knife to death. Now frail and sick, Eddie collapses on the
ground next to Gennady. A dying Eddie desperately in need of a dose drinks the NZT-48 laced
blood of Gennady from the floor. It works, and Eddie quickly recovers. He then takes
out Gennady’s two henchmen with his mental abilities.
Eddie then drops by Atwood's hospital to meet the man in the trench coat, where he learns
that Mr. Atwood has passed away. The trench coat man reveals that he and Eddie’s attorney
were tasked with acquiring the NZT-48 pills from Eddie, in order to save Mr. Atwood. But
the trench coat man and Eddie soon figure out that the attorney let Mr. Atwood die and
kept the drugs to himself after stealing the stash from Eddie’s coat. With his boss dead
because of the attorney, the Trench coat man tags along with Eddie to the attorney’s
apartment. They beat him up, and Eddie recovers his stash.
A year later, Eddie has retained his wealth, published a book, and is running for the United
States Senate. Van Loon pays him a surprise visit. He reveals to Eddie that he has absorbed
the company that produced NZT-48 and shut down Eddie's laboratory. He threatens Eddie
with cutting his supply of the drug and destroying his political ambitions. Eddie inquires what
Van Loon is planning to get out of him. Van Loon then acknowledges that Eddie may likely
become the President of the United States one day, and he wants special favors from
him in the future. Eddie counters by revealing that he has already perfected the drug and
weaned himself off of it, still retaining its abilities without any side effects.
Despite learning this information, Van Loon threatens Eddie that he will have to work
with him with or without the drug. Unphased by the threats, Eddie reveals his knowledge
of Van Loon’s illegal activities like insider trading. Eddie then has one quick feel of
Van Loon’s heart and speculates that he might not be alive next year because of his
dilated heart. A stunned Van Loon then leaves, and Eddie joins Lindy at lunch.
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