Limitless

Plot synopsis:
Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a dishevelled unemployed writer. He has a contract to write a book but is more talk than action. He has writer's block. At lunch with his girl Lindy (Abby Cornish), she gives him his keys back and breaks up, frustrated with his lack of career progress while she has recently been promoted to editor.Walking morosely down the New York St, he bumps into his ex-brother in law Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), after nine years. Vernon is friendly and invites Eddie for a drink. They talk about Melissa, who is living upstate. Eddie confesses he is behind schedule on the book. Vern is consulting with a pharmaceutical company, he passes Eddie a new brain drug to come on the market next year. Vern has to leave but leaves his business card. Eddie takes the translucent pill on his way home.In the stairwell he bumps into the landlord's wife, she rags him about late rent and lack of career. The drug begins to take effect and Eddie notices things with clarity. He then starts talking to the woman with confidence about legal studies and a short time later they go and have sex.Back in his slovenly apartment Eddie notices the mess and quickly cleans up, he then gets on his laptop and starts writing. The words fly. The next morning he is back to normal but he has several hundred pages of his book printed out. He brings them to his editor who eyes them warily. At his apt he checks his voicemail, the editor is anxious to talk, she has read 40 pages and is impressed.Eddie goes to visit Vernon. Vern's face is bloody but won't say what happened. Vern explains the drug is called NZT48 and asks Eddie to pick up his dry cleaning and get some food. On returning the door is ajar. Vern is on the sofa, dead and the apartment is turned over. Eddie is stunned and scared. He settles down and calls 911. Then he searches for the NZT48 stash, while waiting for the police he finds a plastic baggie full of the pills inside the oven, along with a wad of cash and an address book.He hides these from the cops who eventually release him after a short interview. At the police station he has a telecon with Melissa, his ex-wife. Back at home he takes another pill and gets a haircut, new clothes and motivation to finish the book in four days. He learns piano, cards, fitness, new languages, new friends and talks like a know-it-all about everything. One of his listeners, Kevin Doyle (Darren Goldstein), gives him a business card. He is invited to a jet-set beach party down south. He zooms around with a babe and a Maserati, then shows off by cliff diving from over 100 ft. He realizes he needs money.He slowly starts day trading but needs more capital. A cafe owner sets him up with a Russian loanshark, Gennady (Andrew Howard). The Russian hands him $100,000 but threatens to skin him alive if he doesn't pay it back.Now he starts stock trading in earnest and rapidly increases his brokerage account to $2M. Job offers and reporters call. Kevin Doyle offers a meeting with Carl Van Loon. At dinner, Lindy is impressed with the new Eddie. They re-connect. Eddie's photo is in the paper as "mystery trader". A man in a tan coat (Tomas Arana) seems to be spying on them. At night Eddie is nervous, sensing something.Eddie meets corporate raider Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro) in a restaurant. He jokingly says his secret is a drug but then expounds on his knowledge and hints at a formula based on mass psychology. In a limo Carl tests Eddie by asking him to review a file of different companies. Eddie guesses there is a major merger in the works, he is dropped off in Chinatown as Carl invites him the next day for another meeting.Walking, Eddie loses track of time. Among disjointed events; In a subway station he recalls Bruce Lee movies to help him battle a gang of muggers. He then ends up in a bar and meets new friends and shags a blonde woman, 18 hours later he finds himself back to normal. His can of NZT 48 is empty and he can't decipher the corporate files anymore. He calls to beg off the meeting with Carl but Kevin convinces him to attend.Carl asks him about Hank Attwood, one of his corporate rivals who came from nowhere 2 years ago. On the TV Eddie notices a news item about the murder of a blonde woman in a hotel the previous day. He excuses himself and vomits outside. He thinks to himself did he kill the girl?Eddie tries to find Vernon's other clients to get more NZT. Each phone call is a dead end. The next call he makes co-incidentally seems to ring the phone of the tan-coat tough guy sitting on the other side of a parkette. Eddie realizes first and makes an escape.He meets his ex wife Melissa (Anna Friel) in a cafe. She is a strungout junkie, admits she took NZT too. She tried to quit it, then found out from Vern other users have died. Now off of it for two years she cannot concentrate for more than 10 minutes and her life is a mess. She urges him to taper off slowly or else he will die.The Russian loanshark finds him and demands his money. In rousting Eddie he finds the NZT and takes it. He feels good and lets Eddie go after getting his $100k back. Eddie, sick and bedraggled, staggers into Lindy's office. He tells her everything and admits he needs the drugs. His main stash is in Lindy's house, she recovers the plastic bag. In the taxi coming back she is attacked by the man with the tan coat from the parkette. He kills two bystanders trying to help Lindy as she runs off and hides in a park. She phones Eddie and he encourages her to take one of the pills. Under the influence, Lindy escapes.Eddie and Lindy sleep together, in the morning she dresses and is sombre. She doesn't want anything more to do with NZT, Eddie says he needs more time with it to set things up. Lindy leaves him.Once again the Russian meets Eddie and wants some of the pills. Eddie then hires two bodyguards. He meets Carl again looking and acting sharp. Now he is charge of brokering the largest takeover in history. Eddie has figured out the proper dosage to take and not to take alcohol with it.He hires a chemist to reverse engineer the NZT pills in 6 months.At a restaurant he notices the police detective who shows him the photo of him in the newspaper, he was identified as being at the hotel of the murdered blonde. Eddie hires a good lawyer, there is only circumstantial evidence. Meanwhile the merger goes on. Eddie wants to move on but Carl wants him to keep working, Carl also reminds him he has a freak ability and hasn't paid his dues.Eddie goes to buy an $8.5M secure condo. He meets the Russian again who wants 20 pills, or else.At the office Carl and Eddie meet Hank Attwood's wife, she tells him he is in the hospital but the deal will close when he gets better. On the street he notices Mrs.Attwood's limo driver is the man with the tan coat and realizes Attwood must be an NZT user also.Eddie has to go to the police station and is put in a ID lineup but his lawyer, Morris Brandt, gets him released.At the office Carl is upset. Attwood is in a coma and Carl wants to know where Eddie has been and thinks Eddie knows what is going on. In the washroom Eddie notices his pills are missing (stolen). A box arrives addressed to him, Eddie grabs the box and leaves a fuming Van Loon. Inside the box are severed hands (his two bodyguards).At the condo Eddie watches TV and sees Mrs. Attwood and her lawyer, Morris Brandt also. He sees the Russians coming on the security video. They start bashing in his steel door. Eddie goes to the balcony edge and is ready to kill himself. He suddenly remembers where one last NZT pill is and tries to retrieve it as the Russians break in. The Russian shoots up the last pill via needle and begins to threaten Eddie with slow painful torture. With one final thrust Eddie manages to turn the tables and kills the Russian. The other two Russian thugs come back in the room and Eddie manages to fight them off after licking the dead Russias's blood, that contains NZT.At the hospital Hank Attwood dies. Eddie realizes that Brandt stole his pills but did not give them to Mr. Attwood. Eddie meets the man with the tan coat in the waiting room, who, now that his boss was dead, allows Eddie to search Brandt's safe (while Brandt is tied and gagged by the tan-coat man) where he finds his pills packet.12 months later Eddie's book is published. He is running for the U.S. Senate (NY) and meets Carl in his campaign office. Carl hints that he knows how Eddie has done it and has shut down his lab. Carl will guarantee a limitless supply in return for some future inside information. Eddie aggressively comes back, showing off his abilities he says he is off NZT and doesn't need it as he pushes Carl away. At an upscale Chinese restaurant Eddie and Lindy are together again.

Tags: murder, stupid, cult, clever, flashback, psychedelic, suspenseful, entertaining

Review:
I never thought he was a bad actor, but he was able to honestly portray a guy that had absolutely nothing going for him and became a "somebody." The movie graphics, plot, and main actors (well, DeNiro, Cooper, and Johnny Whitworth) were all intriguing.
It proceeds in a generally credible and suspenseful way from its premise--a pill that allows you to use all of your brain.Of course, the notion that we're only using a small fraction of our brains is untrue, but I liked how the film uses this urban fib as a springboard for its engaging story.There are one or two moments that strain credulity, (I'm thinking, particularly, of the one-eyed thug who can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn with his gun) but I think every good story has a few of those.The camera tricks and visual effects used to externalize what's going on in the main character's head are also a lot of fun.
Good performances by all the actors.If you yearn for science fiction movies and thrillers that you can actually believe from moment to moment and haven't seen 10 times before, then I'd recommend this one..
Limitless is one of the few recent films to deny the misconceptions from its efficient marketing.It's sold as Bradley Cooper gets smart drug fix from Robert De Niro then must defeat him through a series of cat and mouse games.
In actuality Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a struggling writer/slob who acquires a drug called NZT-48, a pill that allows him to recall everything from the briefest of encounters.
LIMITLESS is a film that you want to see succeed - an idea with 'limitless' possibilities, a setting that involves Wall Street (part of our core issue of economic chaos), some interesting camera work, and a a script that likes to make puns.
Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper attempting to break away from his guy roles in road show movies) is a wannabe writer - a man who has been attempting to write a novel for years but has not achieved one word on a page.
Eddie moves into a filthy flat and he takes on the appearance of a street person until he encounters his ex-wife's (Anna Friel) brother Vernon (Johnny Whitworth) who gives Eddie a pill called NZT, a medication that is purportedly able to make the brain use 100% of its capacity (fragments of memory, encountered headlines, books slightly read etc all become immediately available to the 'patient').
His changed life introduces him to, of course, the stock market where he makes it so big that he garners the attention of major player Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro) - along with the people involved with the now murdered Vernon who want the drug back: evil Gennady (Andrew Howard) and his thugs (Eddie Fernandez and Ray Siegle) a strange 'man in a tan coat' (Tomas Arana) et al.
Based on the novel 'The Dark Fields' by Alan Glynn, the screenplay (full of holes perhaps due to the same writer's block as the main character's) is by Leslie Dixon and the film is directed by Neil Burger, a man with some creative ideas who concentrates on gimmicks more than plot and character development.
A stylish movie with an interesting premise that delivers more than it fails.Bradley Cooper, as "Eddie Mora," was good in the lead and actually all the characters in the film were interesting.
The aspirant writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a complete loser and has been just dumped by his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) that sees no future in their relationship.
But Eddie is chased by a stranger and pressed by Gennady that want the NZT, threatening his life."Limitless" is an original and intriguing thriller with the story of a man capable to use the full capacity of his brain.
The film is full of action and developed in fast pace, with Bradley Cooper's character experiencing ups and downs while using the experimental NZT in a permanent mouse-and-cat game.
The film tells the story of a down on his luck writer who takes a secret drug which enhances the level his brain is able to function at, making him 'super smart'.
It's directed by Neil Burger and written by Leslie Dixon (based on the book 'The Dark Fields' by Alan Glynn).Cooper plays Eddie Morra, a New York City writer who's recently been dumped by his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish, who has also recently been seen co-starring in 'SUCKER PUNCH').
I also think Cooper isn't quite cut out to carry a film like this and makes the character even a little less likable.
Well then, don't expect to have a movie made about your life.Director Neil Burger (The Illusionist) brings a wonderful visual touch to Cooper's mind and an awesome telescoping zoom rush through the streets of NYC.
the film Is basically a disaster of 100 never ending sub plots that start and don't end (completely pointless)...there are so many questionable scenes where you stop and think "am I stupid enough to watch this", the characters are all boring and cliché, you really wouldn't care if they live or die...
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Scruffy looking out of work writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) takes his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) giving him the boot as the final straw in his life heading down the pan.
So it's always encouraging, in one way or another, for a film like Limitless to spring up, with producers taking a gamble on a new idea that could work wonders.
If you can throw this in with other mind-bending fantasy films with tinges of sci-fi reality like "Eternal Sunshine of the Everlasting Mind" or "Momento" you'll see both its strengths and intentions and maybe how it falls a little short of those rather startling and full-blooded films.The idea here is simple--a pill makes you use your brain to its full capacity, so you can learn and perform at astonishing levels.
But when you are on the pills, you do things that the rest of the world notices.So our leading man played by Bradley Cooper (normally a secondary actor) takes it on.
The parallels to all kinds of illegal drugs are everywhere, promising one thing and leading to another.There are some very nice filming techniques going on here--some tracking shots that go on for blocks in fast motion (probably contrived with CGI), some brief distortions (when the drug kicks in), and lots of careful use of filters on the lens (the world takes on a saturated golden hue when under the influence, and is otherwise believably gray).
A lot of my friends wanted to see this, and I had no idea this movie even existed (I don't watch TV).Right off the bat, the film opens much in the same vein as Kick-Ass, where we see a skyscraper and someone standing up on top of it: this time being our main protagonist Edward Mora.
Soon he's cleaning his apartment, finishes his book, and the next day the effects wear off.Without giving the rest of the movie away, Edward gets a huge supply of the drug and people are after him.
What I mean by that is this film had various camera angles not usually seen in movies and a tight narration that is hard to come upon.This film is about a author who is in a downturn but when he discovers a drug that unlocks full use of the brain, his life immediately starts to get better.
I liked this movie in the concept, and that Robert De Niro is in it, but, i really was expecting something more, substantial, i just wished, that it wasn't the typical history, where everything turns out PERFECT for the protagonist.Yes, like we all know there's a pill, a genius pill, there's a guy, and there's a whole 2 hour story written all around that 2 things.
But, for me, there was no point, everything turns out amazing, perfect, for the main character, everything, although he makes every single bad thing possible, everything turns out amazing, like i supposed.Yes there is action, Bradley Cooper delivers, and well he has the weight of the whole movie over his shoulders, but, he manages to give a really good and believable performance...
Limitless is a great movie with an amazing story line,which is well thought out,clever and very different,and also a very talented cast,with fantastic performances from people such as Bradley Cooper,an actor I never treated seriously before because of movies like The Hangover and The A- Team,but today he has showed that he really can act,even being nominated for best actor this year at the Academy Awards for Silver Linings Playbook.I also thought Abbie Cornish,Andrew Howard and of course Robert De Niro all did a fantastic job.Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) starts taking illegal pills from his ex-wife's brother,which keeps you very concentrated and focused,and lead to him becoming very successful,but come with side effects..
Something like NZT-48 could probably be made using today's technology, although it clearly wouldn't be quite as awesome.Anyway, Limitless was an enjoyable ride from the very start of the movie to the very end.
This is why the movie isn't a 10 in my book, but I can gloss over some of the movies "mistakes" because the overall package was still great.There are some really trippy areas, specifically the parts where the camera "walks" dozens of blocks across New York City, that drew me into the awesome perspective of Eddie Morra (the main character)on NZT-48 too.
Everything about the film sings, the characters, the acting, the plot all expertly crafted, guiding the audience through an incredible rags-to-riches story that is far more entertaining than the cliché might seem.Eddie Mora ( Bradley Cooper) is a writer, well he wants to be one anyway.
However, even these low expectations did not save me from brutal truth: you have to turn your brains off to watch this movie.The whole topic of the super-drug and super-powers is so over-used, that to come up with something new is virtually impossible – probably this is the reason why authors took the book "The Dark Fields" as their inspiration.
Limitless is one heck of a great idea for a movie: a pill that instantly makes you super-smart - and the film is, as others here note, fast, fun, and all-in-all not bad per se.My objection may seem irrelevant to the finished film but why take such a brilliant idea and reduce it to a) a thriller and b) a movie where the hero does nothing except satisfy his own selfish ends.Seriously this film lacks all sense of moral vision, really given super-intelligence would you not see some of the bigger problems and how to cure them would you really just go give me money, lots and lots and lots of money....All in all, an OK thriller, but given the elegance and brilliance of the concept a lightweight effort indeed....
It's a good premise for a sci-fi thriller and the first hour is great as Cooper embarks on his rags to riches trip, discovering the potency of the drug in his everyday life.Unfortunately, it gets too silly from there on as he gets involved with a Slavic gangster who wants in on the act taking the last third into sub-Terminator territory with too much violence and gore and letting down the promise of what had gone before.
If Alan Glynn's novel "The Dark Fields" is anything at all like "Limitless," the feature-length movie directed by Neil Burger that was adapted from it, then I can hardly fathom why anybody thought it was worth making into a motion picture.
So, according to "Limitless" and the screenplay written by Leslie Dixon, what would happen if some bum novelist (Bradley Cooper) got a hold of some pills that allowed him to use all of his mind at the same time?
When he takes the pill, Mr. Cooper's vision turns into a yellowish glow, he smiles a whole lot more often, speaks a lot of mumbo jumbo, slicks back his hair, has sex with the landlord's wife, writes a novel in a few days, contends with a loanshark who later gets hungry for the pills, and goes to Wall Street.How anticlimactic.At a certain point, things almost start to look up for "Limitless" in what later turns out to be one of the lamest plot twists in recent movie history.
The cast shows some talent, including Robert De Niro who looks tired and bored throughout the picture, but there is no energy in "Limitless." It takes such an incredibly interesting premise with so many open doors (so many that frankly, to make a movie this dull out of it regardless of budget restraints is inexcusable) and yet it does not do a single interesting, thought-provoking, or exciting thing at all with it..
Primarily, it's clear that the book is written in the first person as their is an ongoing narration throughout the film of the main character commenting on events and giving exposition - which does the job in telling the story effectively, combined with the visuals (which are amazing), it does become irritating and at times unnecessary.
The plot also lacks an overriding goal - a destination, it seems as if Eddie (Bradley Cooper) just takes things as they come rather than have an overall game plan, and it leaves you a bit dissatisfied in places as it feels it lacks direction, where in the book it would be more spread out and natural.
But to me it is a film that a win for style over substance.Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a struggling writer suffering from writer's block and girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) broke up with him.
He gets to work for a powerful businessman, Carl Von Loon (Robert De Niro) but slowly Eddie becomes more addicted the drug, suffering side-effects like confusion and memory loss and gets in deep with Russian gangsters and running into trouble with business rivals and the police.Neil Burger certainly made a great effort to make what could have been an internal story into a visual experience.
Spill.com claimed that Limitless was a lot like Fight Club: but I think it's a long way from matching that film.Cooper's character joked to his two bodyguards never wear the same suit: this is not The Matrix, I certainly agree with that statement.
Limitless, was released in 2011, directed by Neil Burger and starring Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish and Robert De Niro.
In addition, it has a solid story line which supports the fast pacing of the film in a logical way.The movie starts in an old, messy room which is in the poor area of China Town in New York, where one poor looking man, Eddie, played by Bradley Cooper, is writing a novel but it seems to be going badly.
An original story idea following a yummy Bradley Cooper as Eddie; an aspiring author who overcomes his writers block with the aid of a new drug that unlocks the full potential of his brain.
So in this movie you could deeply think of good and bad sides of drugs like making your brains work 100%.
With the help of the mysterious pill Eddie becomes a financial wizard but it also puts him in a new world with lots of dangers.Limitless is an American thriller film directed by Neil Burger and starring Bradley cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert de Niro.
Abbie Cornish also performed well by adding a romantic aspect to the movie.Eddie (Bradley Cooper)'s attempts to write a novel and his inability to push himself to seek refinement is evident with his apartment, his relationship with his otherwise focused girlfriend and his dependent finances.
I have to say that this movie panders to my particular taste, which is to say it has a well crafted story for our times, good acting and just the right blend of New York atmosphere mixed with a sci-fi feel.
I have to say that this movie panders to my particular taste, which is to say it has a well crafted story for our times, good acting and just the right blend of New York atmosphere mixed with a sci-fi feel.
Limitless tells the story of a disorganized, poor, wannabe-writer loser Bradley Cooper who stumbles upon a drug that makes him super-smart.
Based on the novel "The Dark Fields" by Alan Glynn, Limitless is an American thriller film about an aspiring author Eddie Morra(Bradley Cooper) whose life changes in a couple of minutes when an old friend introduces him to NZT, a new pharmaceutical drug which allows him to access full potential of his brain.
But he has discovered that he's not the only one in high circles who know about or are on the drug.Limitless is a fun, entertaining, and intriguing movie.
However, it is no drug movie either - the main emphasis is on other issues than drug trafficking or miserable life of addicts.Director Neil Burger has splendidly exploited the values of the book (The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn) as well as contemporary technical opportunities, but the real star/gem is Bradley Cooper whose character changes are performed in a great and trustworthy manner.
Good Fun. Though not perfect, and a bit of waste of an interesting concept that put to better use could have been a far more wide reaching sci-fi about the power of human consciousness and ambition in a society without limits, Limitless is a perfectly enjoyable thriller.
I have never seen anything quite like it this film takes you on a ride limitless is so fast paced you won't even find time to blink.
But imagine what it would be like if we could use 100% our brain all the time.Edward Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a down and out writer having failed to meet a deadline in handing in his new book.
Bradley cooper is a great actor and he is pretty good in this film, he brings humanity to his character in certain situations.
I think Bradley Cooper does a great performance as Eddie who takes the drug.