PR in the Philippines

(SeaPRwire) –   The idea that humans only utilize 10% of their brains isn’t factual, but this absurd urban myth has likely inspired over 10% of our pop culture by now. It’s cropped up to justify plotlines in films like Inception and Flight of the Navigator, as well as countless classic novels, comic books, and television series.

Most notoriously, this silly cliché is central to 2014’s Lucy, where Scarlett Johansson finds that the remaining 90% of her brain allows her to dominate everyone around her. But three years prior to Lucy—15 years ago today—Limitless featured Bradley Cooper unlocking his hidden mental potential, then using his newfound smarts to live the life any Red Bull-guzzling fraternity guy would envy.

Similar to Lucy’s protagonist (whatever her name was), Cooper’s Eddie Morra comes across an experimental drug called NZT-48 during a random run-in with his sleazy ex-brother-in-law. Instead of becoming a telekinetic superhero who can perceive time like Johansson’s character, Morra’s first move is to wow his landlord’s sharp-tongued wife so much that they end up hooking up.

Though NZT-48 is depicted as a general mood and motivation enhancer, its most significant advantage is perfect memory retention—if you half-watched a PBS documentary while washing dishes 25 years ago, you could recite every detail Ken Burns shared about jazz (the unfaithful wife is charmed by Morra’s sudden eloquence when he helps her with a law school paper). After their encounter, Morra uses his new abilities to finish a novel he’d been stuck on quickly, and then, in Limitless’ most grounded twist, he gains enough sense to realize writing isn’t a viable career and switches to finance.

The result is a thriller that’s surprisingly simple for such a ridiculous concept, but it’s so self-aware and fun that it’s easy to enjoy. Morra’s instant success as a stock market genius catches the eye of telecom mogul Carl Van Loon (played by Robert De Niro), who hires him to manage a merger that makes Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. seem trivial. Just days after we meet Morra as a deadbeat in a run-down apartment, he’s delving into corporate history.

However, Morra’s NZT supply is scarce, and the drug has dangerous side effects—including possibly deadly withdrawal symptoms. Additionally, Morra’s wealth came from a loan from a shady gangster, who finds one of Morra’s pills and demands more. These factors lead to action, suspense, and a disappointingly simple ending that suggests “substance abuse is great and will turn out okay.” The film teases a message about overconfidence and unexpected outcomes but shies away as if deep themes are intimidating.

The fact that the world’s smartest man only uses his intelligence to party, hook up, and drive fast cars is a lack of creativity, making Limitless feel like it should’ve been titled Axe Body Spray for Algernon (its original source, Alan Glynn’s novel The Dark Fields, is much darker). On the other hand, there are plenty of modern young men trying to find shortcuts to easy money and romantic attention—if Morra were a current character, he might start by using ChatGPT to write his pickup lines and finish his book. The idea that Morra is given the world but only cares about his own place in it could be Limitless’ most clever observation.

Regardless, Limitless has enough small, creative touches to be worth watching for the moderately discerning sci-fi fan. When Morra is on the IQ-boosting drug, his world is vibrant and glossy, but when he crashes, the color scheme fades with him. Cooper brings a confident charm to his intelligent bro character, and his frantic energy helps make the film’s unexpected funny moments work. Most appropriately, Limitless has an action sequence that’s so silly yet brilliant that it’d be wrong to give it away here.

Fifteen years later, is Limitless the best story about using drugs to unlock incredible intelligence? Definitely not (that title goes to Ted Chiang’s “Understand,” which Gus Van Sant is said to be turning into a TV series). But is it the most fun? Likely. In 2011, some critics rightly pointed out that Limitless could have been more intelligent. But at least we got a movie that’s stupid in the right way.

Limitless is streaming on Prime Video.