Limitless

For other uses, see Limitless (disambiguation).

Limitless
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Neil Burger
Produced by	Leslie Dixon Ryan Kavanaugh Scott Kroopf
Screenplay by	Leslie Dixon
Based on	The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn
Starring	Bradley Cooper Abbie Cornish Robert De Niro
Music by	Paul Leonard-Morgan
Cinematography	Jo Willems
Editing by	Tracy Adams Naomi Geraghty
Studio	Virgin Produced Relativity Media
Distributed by	Rogue Pictures
Release date(s)	March 18, 2011 (2011-03-18)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$27,000,000(estimated)[1]
Box office	$156,949,455[2]

Limitless is a 2011 thriller film directed by Neil Burger and starring Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert De Niro. It is based on the 2001 novel The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn with the screenplay by Leslie Dixon. The film was released on March 18, 2011.

Plot

Edward "Eddie" Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a writer who lives in New York City. He has recently been dumped by his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) in addition to failing to meet the deadline to turn in his new book, which he hasn't started yet. One day, Eddie comes across Vernon Gant (Johnny Whitworth), the brother of his ex-wife, Melissa Gant (Anna Friel). Vernon is a drug dealer, and he offers Eddie a sample of a new nootropic drug, NZT-48, claiming it has the ability for humans to access 100% of the brain's power, as opposed to the normal 20% (which, in reality, is a myth). Eddie accepts, and, much to his surprise, the drug does indeed work, allowing him to write the first 40 pages to his book, which excites his publisher.

Eddie asks for more of the drug, but when Vernon asks him to go pick up his dry cleaning, he returns to find Vernon murdered and his apartment ransacked. Eddie calls the police and deduces that Vernon was probably killed by someone who wanted his stash of NZT. He finds the drugs and a wad of cash, and uses them to turn his life around. After finishing his book he focuses on trading stocks, initially financed with a loan from a Russian mafia thug, Gennady (Andrew Howard).

Eddie becomes rich at an incredibly fast pace and is soon employed by the powerful businessman Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro). Eddie also gets back together with Lindy. However, he is constantly followed by a man in a tan coat (Tomas Arana). Eddie also starts increasing his dose of NZT, causing side effects including lost time, frenetic activity, and heart palpitations.

Eddie fails to accomplish a task assigned by Van Loon because of an NZT hangover and fears that he might even have killed a woman (Caroline Winberg). He is contacted by his ex-wife Melissa and learns that she had been an NZT addict. Worse, he learns that withdrawal from the drug causes major health and mental problems, possibly resulting in death. She warns Eddie to gradually taper off his NZT usage before it is too late.

Suffering severe withdrawal symptoms due to his post-hangover attempt to quit NZT cold turkey, Eddie begins to feel sick, and he turns to Lindy for help, revealing his addiction to NZT. Reluctantly, Lindy agrees to retrieve his stash, hidden in her apartment and returns it to him at her office.

On her way back to Eddie, Lindy is intercepted en route by the man in the tan coat, and it becomes obvious that he is dangerous, as he gives chase to Lindy, killing two would-be saviors as she flees. By phone, Eddie convinces her to take the pill to enable her to know what to do to survive. Doing so, Lindy makes a bold escape. Though Eddie is saved, Lindy is convinced that he will destroy himself because of NZT and breaks up with him again. Gennady returns to collect his money from Eddie. In the ensuing scuffle, Eddie loses one of the NZT pills which Gennady promptly ingests. The Russian enforcer realizes the effects the drug has and threatens Eddie until he agrees to give him more NZT. Despite Melissa's warnings, Eddie manages his consumption of the drug down to an acceptable level, and uses his fortune to hire a scientist to work on reverse engineering NZT.

Meanwhile, he assists Van Loon on a major corporate merger deal with rival businessman Hank Atwood (Richard Bekins). Before the deal can take place, Atwood falls ill. Noticing the man in the tan coat working with Atwood, Eddie realizes the man's true mission to steal Eddie's stash of NZT for his boss, whose real illness is NZT withdrawal. The stash is stolen by Eddie's lawyer, Morris Brandt (Ned Eisenberg), who is revealed to also be working for Atwood.

Eddie is followed home by the Russians but manages to kill NZT-driven Gennady by surprise. Then, knowing he needs intelligence to overcome the other two thugs in the house, he laps up what he believes to be the last of the NZT from the deceased Gennady's spilled blood, then blinds one thug, and tricks him into shooting the other one.

In a following scene, Atwood dies, Brandt having kept the NZT for himself. Eddie agrees to work with the man in the tan coat to retrieve his stolen NZT at Brandt's house.

One year later, Eddie's book has been published (titled Illuminating the Dark Fields, a reference to the novel on which the film is based), and Eddie is running for the United States Senate. In the midst of his campaign, Carl Van Loon approaches Eddie with the revelation that he has bought the company secretly producing NZT and that the backroom lab Eddie was financing has been shut down.

Carl offers him an unlimited supply of NZT (admitting that they both know he is headed for Presidency); however, Eddie must use his political position to push Carl's agenda in return. Eddie refuses, claiming that he no longer needs the drug, apparently having had the foresight to have multiple labs working on the NZT, refining it so that he could quit it without experiencing side effects, while permanently retaining its mental enhancements.

By touching Van Loon's chest, Eddie can tell that he has a serious cardiac problem. Van Loon looks stunned. Eddie lets him know that with his enhanced thinking, he is already 50 moves ahead of Van Loon, having thought of every contingency, which wraps up their relationship.

The movie ends with Eddie meeting Lindy for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, their relationship apparently renewed. When the waiter walks by, Eddie stops him and orders in Mandarin. Lindy looks at him, surprised, and Eddie asks (with a questionably guilty smile) "What?" as the film cuts to black, and credits.

Cast

• Bradley Cooper as Edward (Eddie) Morra
• Robert De Niro as Carl Van Loon
• Abbie Cornish as Lindy
• Anna Friel as Melissa Gant
• Johnny Whitworth as Vernon Gant
• Robert John Burke as Don Pierce
• Tomas Arana as the Man in a tan coat
• T.V. Carpio as Valerie
• Patricia Kalember as Mrs. Atwood
• Andrew Howard as Gennady
• Ned Eisenberg as Morris Brandt

Production

Limitless is based on the 2001 novel The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn. The film is directed by Neil Burger and is based on a screenplay by Leslie Dixon, who had acquired rights to the source material. Dixon wrote the adapted screenplay for less than her normal cost in exchange for being made one of the film's producers.^[3] She and fellow producer Scott Kroopf approached Burger to direct the film, at the time titled The Dark Fields. For Burger, who had written and directed his previous three films, the collaboration was his first foray solely as director.^[4] With Universal Pictures developing the project, Shia LaBeouf was announced in April 2008 to be cast as the film's star.^[3]

The project eventually moved to development under Relativity Media and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Produced with Universal distributing through Relativity's Rogue Pictures. By November 2009, actor Bradley Cooper replaced LaBeouf in the starring role.^[5] Robert De Niro was cast opposite Cooper by March 2010, and The Dark Fields began filming in Philadelphia the following May.^[6] Filming also took place in New York City.^[4] For a car chase scene filmed in Puerto Vallarta, filmmakers sought a luxury car. Italian carmaker Maserati provided two Maserati GranTurismo coupes for free in "a guerrilla-style approach" to product placement.^[7] By December 2010, The Dark Fields was re-titled Limitless.^[8]

Scientific accuracy

At the start of the film a marijuana dealer says that we can only access 20% of our brain (and that NZT lets a person access all of it), referring to a common myth. The mechanism of how the drug actually works is never scientifically explained in the film. Neurologist Barry Gordona describes the myth as laughably false, adding, "we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time",^[9] and neuroscientist Barry Beyerstein has set out seven kinds of evidence refuting the ten percent myth.^[10]

Physics professor James Kakalios said it was plausible that medical science could improve intelligence, but that neurochemistry is not advanced enough for it to be achieved currently. Kakalios also said the notion used in the film that human beings can only access 10% of their brains is a myth: 100% of it is used at different times. Kakalios said if such a pill existed, a person running out of the supply could actually experience a rebound effect^[11] This is alluded to in the movie, as the protagonists' ex-wife explains that she can't concentrate for more than 10 minutes at a time after coming off the drug.

Release

Limitless had its world premiere in New York City on March 8, 2011.^[12] It was released in 2,756 theaters in the United States and Canada on March 18, 2011.^[2] It grossed a $18.9 million on its opening weekend to rank first at the box office, beating other openers The Lincoln Lawyer and Paul as well as carryovers Rango and Battle: Los Angeles.^[13] Limitless was released in the United Kingdom on March 23, 2011.^[14]

Before the film's release, Box Office Mojo called Limitless a wild card for its box office predictability, highlighting its "clearly articulated" premise and the pairing of Cooper and De Niro but questioned a successful opening. The film opened at number one in its first week in the US. The film did well at the box office, earning some $79 million in the U.S. and Canada as well as some $157 million worldwide against its $27 million budget.^[15]

Critical reception

Limitless received mostly positive reviews from film critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 70% based on reviews from 168 critics, and reports a rating average of 6.4 out of 10. The site reported a consensus that, "Although its script is uneven, Neil Burger directs Limitless with plenty of visual panache, and Bradley Cooper makes for a charismatic star."^[16] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 59 based on 37 reviews.^[17]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 and 1/2 stars and said it was "not terrifically good, but the premise is intriguing" and also stated that director Neil Burger uses "inventive visual effects." Lastly he said, "Limitless only uses 15, maybe 20 percent of its brain. Still, that's more than a lot of movies do."^[3][18]

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Limitless should be so much smarter than it is," believing that it took conventional plot turns and stuck closely to genre elements like Russian gangsters and Wall Street crooks. Honeycutt reserved praise for Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Anna Friel. He also commended cinematographer Jo Willems' camerawork and Patrizia von Brandenstein's production design in the film's array of locales.^[19]

Variety's Robert Koehler called Limitless a "propulsive, unexpectedly funny thriller". Koehler wrote, "What makes the film so entertaining is its willingness to go far out, with transgressive touches and mind-bending images that take zoom and fish-eye shots to a new technical level, as the pill enables Eddie to experience astonishing new degrees of clarity, perception and energy." He said of Cooper's performance, "Going from grungy to ultra-suave with a corresponding shift in attitude, Cooper shows off his range in a film he dominates from start to finish. The result is classic Hollywood star magnetism, engaging auds physically and vocally, as his narration proves to be a crucial element of the pic's humor." The critic also positively compared Willems' cinematography to the style in Déjà Vu (2006) and commended the tempo set by the film's editors Naomi Geraghty and Tracy Adams and by composer Paul Leonard-Morgan.^[20]

Limitless received the award for Best Thriller at the 2011 Scream Awards.^[21]

See also

• Nootropic
• Intellectual giftedness
• A Scanner Darkly (film) similar movie set in the near future, about Substance D - a drug similar to NZT but without as strong a Nootropic effect.
• Charly, a 1968 American drama film also featuring increase in human intelligence
• Flowers for Algernon, a 1958 short story, later extended into a novel of the same name, which is the basis for the movie Charly.
• Understand, a novelette published in 1991 by Ted Chiang
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a similar story of character-changing chemicals.

References

1. ^ Kaufman, Amy (March 17, 2011). "Movie Projector: Matthew McConaughey, Bradley Cooper and an alien battle for No. 1". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/03/movie-projector-paul-limitless-the-lincoln-lawyer.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Limitless (2011)". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=darkfields.htm. Retrieved February 11, 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Siegel, Tatiana (April 13, 2008). "Shia LaBeouf visits 'Dark Fields'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117983960. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Macaulay, Scott (Winter 2011). "Possible Side Effects". Filmmaker. http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2011/01/possible-side-effects/. 
5. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (November 5, 2009). "Bradley Cooper 'Fields' film offer". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010945. 
6. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (March 3, 2010). "De Niro to star in 'Fields'". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118016026. 
7. ^ Miller, Daniel (March 11, 2011). "How Maserati Landed Spots in 'Limitless' and 'Entourage' for Free". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-maserati-landed-spots-limitless-166655. 
8. ^ Puente, Maria (December 17, 2010). "First look: 'Limitless' power comes in the form of a pill". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-12-17-limitless17_ST_N.htm. 
9. ^ "Do People Only Use 10 Percent Of Their Brains". Scientific American. 7 February 2008. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=people-only-use-10-percent-of-brain. Retrieved 2008-02-07. 
10. ^ Beyerstein, Barry L. (1999). "Whence Cometh the Myth that We Only Use 10% of our Brains?". In Sergio Della Sala. Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain. Wiley. pp. 3–24. ISBN 0-471-98303-9. 
11. ^ Bahn, Christopher (March 7, 2011). "'Limitless' brainpower plot isn't all that crazy". MSNBC. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41953704/ns/today-entertainment/. Retrieved March 13, 2011. 
12. ^ Schaefer, Stephen (March 9, 2011). "'Limitless' bow reaches full potential". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118033648. 
13. ^ McClintock, Pamela (March 18, 2011). "Friday Box Office: 'Limitless' Pulls Ahead of Crowded Field". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/friday-box-office-limitless-lincoln-169251. 
14. ^ "New Limitless UK Posters". Empire. February 21, 2011. http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=30226. Retrieved March 2, 2011. 
15. ^ Subers, Ray (March 2, 2011). "March 2011 Preview". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3099&p=.htm. Retrieved March 13, 2011. 
16. ^ "Limitless Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_fields/. Retrieved March 20, 2011. 
17. ^ "Limitless". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/limitless. Retrieved March 20, 2011. 
18. ^ "Limitless". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110316/REVIEWS/110319983/1023. 
19. ^ Honeycutt, Kirk (March 15, 2011). "Limitless: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/limitless-film-review-167424. 
20. ^ Koehler, Robert (March 14, 2011). "Film Reviews: Limitless". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117944818?refCatId=31. 
21. ^ Associated Press (2011-10-16). "Pee Wee, Potter, Vader honored at Scream Awards". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Pee-Wee-Potter-Vader-honored-at-Scream-Awards-2221236.php#photo-1675608. Retrieved 2011-10-16. 

External links

• Official website
• Limitless at the Internet Movie Database
• Limitless at Rotten Tomatoes
• Limitless at Box Office Mojo
• A 'Limitless' memory? It may not be a good thing at MSNBC
• Pseudo Web site about NZT as if it was a real product