Limitless
| Smart Drug permits an unsuccessful writer to use 100% of his brain and become a flawless version of himself. In this darkly funny and disturbing picture, his unusual skills attract nefarious forces who endanger his life.
CAST
In the first scene, we meet Eddie Morra who lives in New York City and is striving to become a writer. For many weeks now he's been living off of an advance from a book publishing company, as well as his girlfriend's income. The problem is that Eddie is struggling to come up with a story and hasn't been able to write a word yet. He has repeatedly started over and has become miserable, spending his evenings drinking at a bar. One day, Eddie's fiancé Lindy breaks up with him at a restaurant since he can't seem to clean up his act and get work done. Eddie tells Lindy he loves her and wants to share the rest of his life with her, but she ignores him. As she leaves, she mentions that she got the new position at her job, and Eddie is happy for her. When Eddie later walks home, a man called Vernon who is Eddie's ex-brother-in-law, suddenly stops him. 9 years earlier, Eddie was briefly married to a girl named Melissa, and Vernon was dealing drugs at the time, but Vernon tells Eddie that he's not doing that anymore. Vernon offers Eddie a drink and they go to a bar where Vernon then asks about his life. Eddie tells him he's writing a book, but that he lacks creativity and hasn't written anything.
Vernon then picks up a pill called NZT, saying it will help him. Eddie immediately thinks he's still dealing, but Vernon assures him it is a legal substance from a pharmaceutical company he works for, that has just got it approved by the FDA and comes out next year. Eddie is still skeptical but also curious. Vernon then tells him the pills activate receptors in the brain, allowing one to access 100% of one's brain capacity. Suddenly, Vernon gets a call and has to leave and hands Eddie his card. Vernon insists he keeps the pill, saying they cost $800 each. As Eddie is about to get home, he thinks to himself that his circumstances can't get much worse anyway, and so he swallows the NZT. As he walks up the stairs, he meets his landlord's wife who is upset and yells at him, calling him out for being late with his rent, saying he will be out on the street soon. Eddie is tired and doesn't want to listen, but then suddenly the drug kicks in and he starts feeling its effects. His senses intensifies and he starts seeing everything, and his brain begins processing a lot faster.
Suddenly he interrupts her and asks her what's bothering her since he can't be the single reason she's angry, and asks her if it's law school. She thinks Eddie is stalking her since she never told him she's studying, but Eddie figured it out just by noticing a corner of the book she's carrying. Years ago he had seen that same book, and his unconscious mind had picked it up. Suddenly, he remembers everything he has ever read, seen, and heard, and starts talking about law which he knew nothing about moments ago, advising her what to write in her school assignment. Her attitude towards him changes as she gets impressed by his knowledge, and invites Eddie in, who helps her write it, after which they end up in bed together. As he later enters his dismal and dirty apartment, he immediately gets an urge to clean it up. Using information, experiences, and creative ideas from his entire life that he now has access to in his brain, as well as the enormous motivation he suddenly has, he sits down and begins writing on his book without stopping, ending up with a 90-page preliminary draft.
The next morning, the drug's effects have worn off. He goes to the publishing company with his draft, and when he gets back home, he listens to voice messages from the editor expressing admiration for his work. To get more NZT, Eddie then goes home to Vernon, who Eddie sees has been injured.
When Eddie asks Vernon what happened, Vernon doesn't want to answer. As they start talking about the pills again, Vernon explains he lied about the FDA approval. However, already being hooked, Eddie wants more, and Vernon says Eddie can get more if he assists him in daily tasks. Eddie will do whatever to get his hands on more, and so he goes out to buy breakfast and get a cleaned jacket that Vernon requests. But when Eddie comes back, he finds Vernon's door kicked in and his apartment in a total mess, as well as Vernon himself on the couch shot in the head.
Eddie calls 9 1 1, but realizes more NZT could still be in the apartment. He starts searching before the police arrive and finds a small bag full of pills, as well as cash and a notebook with names. Later at the police station, Eddie is questioned about the event and gets a call from Melissa. Once home, he swallows a pill, and his mental capacity and unprecedented motivation returns. Using Vernon's money, he gets new clothes, a haircut, starts working out, and finishes the book in 4 days. He learns to play piano in 3 days, and becomes fluent in foreign languages. His fears and timidity are gone and he starts talking and reaching out to people, as well as doing other things he wouldn't otherwise do.
Suddenly, he gets an idea what to do, but needs money to get there. He reads up on the stock market, and manages to take Vernon's last $800 and turn it into $2,000 in one day, and reaching $7,500 the next. The process is too slow however, and Eddie decides to borrow money from someone called Gennady. Gennady warns him he will come after Eddie if he doesn't pay him back on time, but Eddie is confident that he will be able to pay him back in just a number of days. A friend Eddie recently made called Kevin, who owns a brokerage firm on Wall Street, helps Eddie set up an account and shows him how to leverage your money. Within 2 weeks, Eddie had made $2 million. Word quickly spreads about him, and one day he gets a voice message from Kevin that the very rich and successful finance guy named Carl Van Loon wants to meet with him.
Wanting to apologize to Lindy, Eddie invites her to a restaurant, and when ordering he starts speaking Italian with the waitress, shocking Lindy. He asks Lindy why she put up with him, to which she answers that, she was in love with him. Eddie tells her he is happy that she's with him. Next, we see them making love. The two start up together again. One day out walking, Eddie sees a man following them. That evening, while Lindy asks him to join her in bed, Eddie is looking out the window to see if he can spot the man. But suddenly something happens, and in an instant he finds himself in the corridor outside the apartment. Lindy who is behind him, asks if everything is okay. For some reason Eddie's mind slipped and he can't remember how he got there. Next day, Eddie meets with Carl Van Loon and his associate. While Carl's partner questions Eddie's methods to make money on stocks so fast, Eddie reply with explanations that impress Carl.
Feeling sick that he might have killed her, he excuses himself from the meeting and runs out to vomit on the street. Once he's back home, he gets a call from Melissa wanting to talk about Vernon's death, and they decide to meet at a diner. He gets Vernon's ledger that contains telephone numbers to people that he figures might know about the side effects of NZT, and then goes out in a park to call them, but eventually finds out they are all either dead or sick. Suddenly when he is calling on a number, he realizes the man who has been following him around is sitting right beside him and is the one answering his call. Eddie gets up and attempts to run from him with his sore leg, and finally succeeds by jumping inside a taxi that drives away. He gets to the diner where he meets Malissa, who tells him she also took NZT once, but that she decided to stop when she learnt that letting the brain work hard over a long period of time would cause mental burnout. 2 years have passed since she stopped, and she still experiences memory and concentration problems. She advises Eddie to stop too, but by gradually lowering the dosage since stopping right away could kill him.
Lindy is then tasked to retrieve more pills for Eddie so that he doesn't die. She goes home and retrieves them, but while on the phone with Eddie on her way back, she notices the man following her. She starts running and gets to Central Park where she asks two men for help, but they both get stabbed when trying to stop him. She manages to hide and picks up the phone again asking Eddie what to do. He tells her to swallow a pill, after which she will know. She takes it, and then suddenly an idea pops up in her head. She runs towards the Wollman Rink, picks up and throws a girl with skates at him, and cuts him in the face. She makes it back and gives Eddie an NZT just in time. Next day, Lindy explains she felt like another person after taking the pill, saying she won't see Eddie until he quits taking NZT. As she leaves, Eddie sees Gennady looking for him.
Eddie goes up to him, and Gennady requests more pills, which he gives him. He understands Gennady won't stop, so Eddie hires 2 bodyguards. Next, we see Eddie meeting Carl, telling him he is sorry but that he was sick during their last meeting. Carl doesn't like his excuse, but isn't too upset about it since he's once again impressed over a projection Eddie gave him. Eddie thus ends up brokering the largest merger in corporate history for him and Atwood. Soon, Eddie finds out that he can avoid episodes of memory loss by not drinking alcohol, getting good sleep, eating properly, and keeping a steady dosage of NZT. Later, Eddie gets a suit custom made with a pocket for his pills, as well as goes to a chemist to hopefully recreate the NZT. While on lunch, Eddie sees the police officer that interviewed him about Vernon's death, looking at him from across the room. When he goes up to talk with him, the cop informs him that a witness has placed Eddie at the scene where Maria was murdered. Eddie then hires the best lawyer in New York, who manages to get Eddie to walk free for now since the evidence is too weak. As Eddie meets with Carl and Atwood again, he notices Atwood's health has become much worse. Afterwards, Carl tells Eddie he will get $40 million when they sign the merger contracts. When Eddie comes home, he sees that someone has ransacked his apartment, and so he decides to buy a penthouse with a top-of-the-line security system. On the street, Eddie meets Gennady who demands 20 more NZT pills till next week. Also having hired security, Eddie tells Gennady he's getting smarter. A day later, Atwood doesn't show up for the signing of the merger. Instead Atwood's wife shows up, telling them her husband is at the hospital, but assures them they have every intention to sign the agreement. Carl and Eddie follow her to her car, when Eddie suddenly sees the man that has been following him and Lindy, who is Atwood's chauffeur. Eddie thus figures Atwood is dying because he's out of NZT. Later that day, Eddie meets with his lawyer at the police station for a police lineup, and Eddie hands his attorney his suit jacket before he goes in.
Eddie laughs as he now understands the whole swindle. Suddenly, someone is trying to break down his door. As Eddie checks his monitors, he sees Gennady and his goons using heavy metal tools and circular saws in attempts to break in.
Since he has no other way out, Eddie stands on his balcony and considers jumping. But as he is about to slip, he stops himself, remembering he has one NZT left in his metal box somewhere among his packed things, and so he quickly begins to search for it. The exact second Gennady kicks the door open, he finds one, but becomes so stressed that he trips and drops it and loses it.
They grab Eddie and sit him down. As Gennady injects an NZT directly to his blood and explains the effects of the NZT become more enhanced and prolonged that way, Eddie spots a knife beside him, as well as that one of the goons has a blind eye. While Gennady’s guys search around for NZT, Gennady picks out tools to torture Eddie with. The two goons find a safe and start using a circular saw to open it, making loud noises.
As Gennedy looks away, Eddie quickly takes the knife and hides it behind him.
When Gennedy walks up to him, Eddie swiftly stabs him and manages to kill him.
But since Eddie is weak from no NZT, he lies on the floor.
Then he remembers that Gennedy just injected NZT to his blood, and so Eddie starts sipping it from the floor. It does the trick and the enhanced Eddie comes back. The goons haven’t heard anything due to their tools’ noises, but suddenly the thug with one eye sees Gennady on the floor and runs to him. When Eddie mumbles something the goon can’t hear, the goon leans forward to hear Eddie, who then picks out a syringe from his mouth and pricks the thug’s working eye, blinding him completely. Eddie then runs and hides in the security room, where he grabs the monitor to hit the other goon with.
He tells Eddie that he left Wall Street for the pharmaceutical industry. Having found out Eddie used NZT, Carl has now shut down Eddie’s small lab and has started producing it himself. In exchange for favors, he offers Eddie a steady supply of them, but as they get out to Carl’s car to go and talk more over lunch, Eddie refuses to comply with his bribe. He then tells Carl he managed to change the NZT so there were no side-effects, and then he slowly phased out, and is now off of it.
In the last scene, Eddie walks into a Chinese restaurant and meets Lindy.
As Eddie orders, he speaks Chinese with the waitress and cracks a joke in the foreign language. When the waitress leaves, Lindy looks at Eddie without saying anything, and Eddie says, what?.
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