Unleashing Your Potential : A Review of Limitless

Just finished the movie Limitless by Bradley Cooper and have found out it has much more of a

following than I originally thought.   The story is about a burned-out writer who can't seem to focus on his writing.  He is kind of sloppy and very unmotivated.  Then he starts taking an experimental drug that allows him to use 100% of his brain rather than the 10-20% that normal humans use on a day-to-day basis.   After he starts taking this, he realizes his potential and begins to write and become an amazing individual due to his tremendous focus and expertise even though he is the same person.  The problems begin when he relies on this drug to do anything meaningful in his life and dangerous people start to want to control this drug so that they can be limitless as well as controlling of others.

This movie definitely had some twists and surprises and I was kind of puzzled by the ending.  Turns out the ending is open to several interpretations as to what happens and that sets it apart a lot from other movies.  After googling Limitless and endings, there are several ideas of what really happened,  but I won't go into spoiling it for you.  Here is what I thought the movie did well:

1. Showed how productive someone can be with complete focus using all resources we've been given.

Granted this is fiction, but it was an interesting story because his drugs didn't make him superhuman, so much as optimized human.  We all want to be intelligent and focused to do amazing things,  and this movie creates a hero role who can do just that.

2. Showed the dangers of addiction to any substance that is relied on to live life to the max.

The main character quickly learns that success has some high costs.  The miracle drug in this story caused others to want a piece of the action, and it creates a very strong addictive tendency in those that use it on a regular basis.  However, once the main guy experienced the perks, he became more and more willing to take chances to have the experience again.  Over time it changed him and his character went to crazy length to experience the high it delivered.   This is a great modern day parable for the dangers of addictive substances to live life above average.  Everyone needs to accept who they are and strive to grow without legal or illegal substances determining the outcome.

3. Great modern-day parable about the dangers of dependency on anything/anyone besides your Creator.

The writers may not have intended for this - but I found it a great modern-day fable/parable with a strong moral lesson.  Don't allow anything or anyone control you except the God who created you.  The second part of this lesson didn't come across so clearly, but the first part was very clearly shown in this movie's tale.  Crime/violence and crazy things begin to happen when the main hero gets to a point where he can't live without this untested drug.    Jesus says quite clearly in John 15:5 (NIV) "If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." That is the truth - if we aren't relying on God we will try to lean and rely on others and end up messing up in major ways.

Conclusion

This was a very thought provoking movie.  I didn't realize until after viewing it that it even spawned a TV series of the same name.  It was definitely entertaining to watch and made you consider the dangers of dependency on substances to function.  However, that being said I felt the writers went a bit too far in showing the gruesome, violent outcome of this hazardous journey.  The movie stuck with me for a while,  but in some ways I think it was because it was a bit shocking.  In other ways I think it was because the ending is open to interpretation and debate.  I liked how they did the ending. It wasn't tied up with a bow, but it made you think about the choices of the characters.    If you like good science-fiction/fantasy movies that make you think - you may want to try watching Limitless.