An NZT pill enables its user to access all of their brain – they can recall everything they’ve ever learnt, and acquire new skills faster than anyone has ever managed to before. Sadly this drug only exists within the confines of sci-fi thriller Limitless. But the film itself does cause us to open our minds to an intriguing question: what would it be like to become the perfect version of ourselves?

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is an aspiring author plagued by writer’s block. Months after his advance, he has not a single word to show for it. Having already lost all motivation and self-respect, he then loses his girlfriend. This is the juncture at which he bumps into his ex-brother-in-law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth), an NZT dealer. After Vern offers him one clear tablet for free, Eddie is hooked. His ensuing success attracts the attention of business magnate Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro), along with several shady characters intent on stealing his NZT stash.

Enhanced Eddie

Under the influence of NZT, Eddie gains a four-digit IQ. He writes a masterpiece in four days, becomes a pianist in one, and picks up languages as easily as most do colds. ‘I wasn’t high, wasn’t wired, just clear,’ Eddie explains after his first dose. ‘I knew what I needed to do and how to do it.’ Free from fear, lethargy and ignorance, he raises his self-imposed expectations, becoming fit, cultured and productive. Once in the public eye, it quickly becomes evident that ‘enhanced Eddie’ is peerless.

In reality, a wealth of technology now promises to defy age, disability and ugliness. Cognitive enhancers or ‘smart drugs’ designed to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ADHD, are now being peddled online to all.[1] Students in particular are using stimulants to increase attention, memory and alertness. Some New Age advocates claim that psychic powers lie dormant in the unused portions of people’s brains. New Ager John Lilly has said, ‘In the province of the mind, there are no limits.’[2]

Knowledge is Power

‘Where it will take us,’ Eddie assures his girlfriend, Lindy (Abbie Cornish), ‘you can’t even imagine.’ Eddie’s new trajectory is not quite the revelation he promises. It is the power and prosperity of which all American Dreams are made. He becomes a rich and famous success story. This is the pinnacle of his life – of any life, according to Limitless. As his intelligence skyrockets, so does his career and ego. Headlines call him ‘Houdini’, ‘a prophet of our time’, even ‘God’. In a moment of clarity, Eddie sees his potential to have a significant, positive impact on the world. He resolves to take the easiest route there: money-bought power.

Bradley Cooper exemplified our uneasy relationship with power when, in an interview, he called Eddie’s pursuit ‘logical’, ‘monstrous’ and ‘fantastic’. The problem is that power and wealth are insatiable associates. Eddie can never rest: ‘If I wasn’t moving forward, I felt like I was going to explode.’ His greed threatens to consume his relationships, sanity and even his life. It forces him do pitiless, unnatural things – the ‘highlights’ include slurping a dead man’s blood and stabbing a partially blind man’s good eye.

‘We’re instinctive creatures’

James Truslow, the first to coin the term ‘American Dream’, spoke of ‘a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone’.[3] This quest is part of our humanity. But the means Eddie uses to reach this goal are inhumane. Animal instincts prevail over ethics, and self-preservation trumps the greater good. At first, Lindy likes ‘enhanced Eddie’ and their relationship is rekindled. But she breaks it off again after she tastes NZT’s influence herself. The pill saves her life, but it does so by compelling her to do things she would otherwise find morally repugnant. Blind to this side-effect, Eddie refuses to stop using.

With hindsight, we can see that both pre- and post-NZT, Eddie is plagued by what he terms, his ‘capacity for self-sabotage’. His selfishness causes Lindy to leave him twice, and his corruption brings him to the brink of his high-rise balcony. The life he pursues alienates him from his girlfriend, colleagues and even himself. He loses control over his actions, compelled by his desire to get to the top. Able to annihilate all his competitors, Eddie is untouchable. But has this afforded him a better, richer and fuller life?

‘I was blind, but now I see’

Perhaps a lack of knowledge is not our biggest problem. Perhaps it is a lack of wisdom. When Eddie visits Vern after his very first hit, he discovers that NZT is in fact unknown, untested and possibly dangerous. Nevertheless, when asked if he wants more, Eddie immediately answers, ‘Yes, definitely.’ Sometimes truth is elusive, but often we deliberately turn a blind eye to blatant truths. The easy or self-centred route is often more attractive. The truth Eddie later confronts is that, for all his knowledge, his chosen path has lethal side-effects. A king named Solomon, renowned as the wisest man in history, centred his knowledge around the omniscient God: ‘Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline’ (Proverbs 1:7).

Eddie may claim to have ‘a recipe for grandeur’, but what about a recipe for humanity? The Bible recounts a life that revealed our true potential. In Heaven, Jesus possessed unlimited knowledge and power. What did he do? He chose to limit himself and lower himself on Earth. He chose not just to risk his life, but to give it up. Jesus impacted the world by giving others the opportunity to live a full and eternal life – a life in relationship with God (John 10:10; John 17:2-3). Jesus is the truth who releases us from the confines of selfishness into partnership with the limitless God (John 8:31-32).


[1] Philippa Roxby, ‘Do ‘smart drugs’ really make us brainier?’, (BBC News, 3 April 2011)
[2] John Lilly, The Centre of the Cyclone, quoted in www.johnclilly.com

[3] James Truslow, The Epic of America, quoted in ‘What is the American Dream?’, The Library of Congress





This article was first published on Damaris' Culturewatch website (www.culturewatch.org) - used with permission.
© Copyright Holly Price (2011)