Continuity mistake: When Eddie is hiding with the golf club, there is a blue chair which got knocked over during the murder. But a few minutes later when Eddie is peeking round the corner to check for intruders, the blue chair is magically standing upright again.
Limitless (2011)
1 review
Directed by: Neil Burger
Starring: Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish
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Average rating
(2 votes)
I watched this movie on Sling TV.
I got mixed feelings on this film, but really I'm coming down hard on it.
The acting is good and all, but with how this movie plays out and then how it ends really sours it for me.
The movie is about this guy who gets some special drug that unlocks more of the mind. Which is already bunk and based on wild baseless science that has been debunked years ago. It's really nonsense.
But... that can be fine for a movie if used right. Which I think this movie does not.
somehow just taking a pill unlocks more of the brain and makes Bradley Cooper's a sudden super genius. The whole thing around how he gets the pills, the dealer and the other pills being out in the wild is never really explained and makes no sense. Especially with not more people having it or after it.
And then there's how the film plays out and the apparent lesson of the story that just really doesn't work. He goes from being a struggling author and bum to taking drugs and suddenly he sleeps with all the girls, fixes the stock market and makes himself millions and then figures out how to alter his brain permanently by the end to be always turned on higher, now a politician and talking about running for president.
A power fantasy sure, but what's the lesson there? Take drugs to be a better person?
he didn't earn anything he achieved on his own.
sure you can argue the drug let him use more of what was already there... but that's still a crutch. It changed who he is and it's still down to, take pill, get smart, profit.
It's a bad lesson that, if taken to heart, would make people believe they need help with drugs and chemicals to achieve your full potential. That you are held back and can't get anywhere in life without being able to magically unlock more of your brain. It's a recipe for more victimhood mentality and always wanting more. Blaming others or a lack of what you have for your own inadequacies.
From struggling bum author who can't focus long enough to write and struggling with writers block. All the way to about to run for president by the end.
I would even say the story of this movie is evil.
Earn your keep. Earn your lot in life. Self improvement and become the better you through hard work and God. Not drugs and cheap tricks. Earn your place in life.
2 of 5 stars.
Mistake Status: N/A. I have no desire to return to this film.
More mistakes in Limitless
Carl Van Loon: You do not know what I know because you have not earned those powers. You're careless with those powers, you flaunt them and you throw them around like a brat with his trust-fund. You haven't had to climb up all the greasy little rungs. You haven't been bored blind at the fundraisers. You haven't done the time and that first marriage to the girl with the right father. You think you can leap over all in a single bound. You haven't had to bribe or charm or threat your way to a seat at that table. You don't know how to assess your competition because you haven't competed. Don't make me your competition.
Question: How does Eddie get away with the apparent murder of the blonde woman in the apartment? I gather that even he doesn't know whether it was him or not but surely the Police would want to at least call him in for questioning at some point? And if it was him, surely, in that situation, it would be difficult to get away without leaving any evidence?
Answer: There was no mention of physical evidence like hairs or fibres, the only evidence the police had was an eye-witness placing Eddie at the scene at the time the murder occurred; the eye-witness failed to I.D. Eddie in the line-up he was called to at the police station so Eddie was released, as the police had no case.
Answer: It was mentioned that the room was wiped clean after the murder. It was probably Atwood who set it all up because he was on NZT and needed some more.
Answer: Did you watch the movie? Lol... Eddie was called in and questioned about the murder. He was able to beat the case because the eyewitness couldn't pick him out of a line-up. Remember, his lawyer arranged to have a line-up full of men that looked just like Eddie.
The point of a line-up is to make everyone look similar to the actual suspect. So, the lawyer didn't do anything shady, and it would have been the police's job to have similar-looking people. A line-up of a mix of people is kind of a movie/TV trope, and the film implying the lawyer rigged the lineup fits into that trope.
Answer: Although there is no definitive proof, I believe the killer to be Atwood's henchman. During the trip scene we see him following Eddie and the Blonde to their room and although it comes off as an illusion there's no reason it cannot be real. This alone is not enough to say for certain but the main reason I point to the henchman is because of how the story plays out following the murder. Eddie is by an eyewitness (probably someone working for Atwood if not the actual killer) who tells the police about him and as a result he is called into questioning. Because of the inquiry Eddie hires "the best lawyer in the city" who as we know is under Atwood's thumb. It is during this line of questioning the lawyer is able to go into Eddie's jacket and steal his NZT. None of these things would have happened had the Blonde never been killed.
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