Limitless Ending Explained & Film Analysis

What Does The Ending Of The Movie Limitless (2011) Hint At? Limitless: Plot Analysis, Meaning Of The Film, Explanation Of The Ending

Country: USA, Mexico

Genre: Thriller, Drama, Fantasy

Year of production: 2011

Directed by: Neil Burger

Actors: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish

The film by Neil Burger Limitless tells about a superman who can and knows absolutely everything, but at the same time does not understand how he should dispose of his gift. The meaning of the film Limitless is quite unsteady: those for whom the glass is half full, and those for whom it is half empty, perceive the picture differently.

Plot Summary

Limitless is based on the novel of the same name by Alan Glynn. By the way, the original title of the book and movie is Limitless, which translates as “Infinity”.

Brief summary of the picture. Eddie Morra is a failed writer suffering from the syndrome of an unrecognized genius. He is broke, everything is bad at his job, and his relationship with a girl is extremely uncertain. In short, Eddie has a lot of problems, and he has no idea how to solve them.

Frame from the film.

One day, he meets a friend who offers him a miracle pill, NZT. After taking this drug, says a friend, Eddie’s life will improve.

There is a theory that the human brain is able to function at ultra-high power, using the resources of intelligence and energy to the fullest. But in everyday life, we use only one-tenth of the brain’s capabilities.

Thanks to NZT, Eddie was able to use his brain to 100%. His abilities quickly reached a whole new level. He quickly went up the career ladder and began to earn millions. His relationship with the girl went smoothly. It seemed to him that everything had finally become perfect, and then everything would only get better.

Eddie was sure that he had found a panacea for troubles. However, all drugs in the world have side effects, and the miracle pill was no exception. Eddie did not know that the infinite mind acquired for money with one careless movement is capable of summoning real darkness as a retribution for all the pleasures received. This darkness became the side effects that began to affect the hero’s brain.

Frame from the film.

Suffering from the drug’s ominous side effects, he tried to find other NZT geniuses to figure out how to deal with his addiction. Having met with one of them, he learned the terrible truth.

Limitless Movie idea

Neil Burger’s film Limitless is based on a typical magic wand plot (in this case, it’s a magic pill). There is no hidden meaning in the film. This movie is about our understanding of reality and our capabilities, and, consequently, about the impact on it. All this revolves around one thing – our mind, the ability to work with it and correctly reveal its potential.

One of the main problems of our interaction with information is the extremely low amount of memory and the low speed of processing its contents. This problem is solved by a wonderful pill. It seems to provide the brain with “cloud storage” in an unlimited volume, where all the information gets. In addition, the pill improves the “search box” built into the brain.

NZT-48 tablets pump not only the brain, but also control over thoughts, and this is logical: you cannot be free from someone who affects you without your will and is not controlled by you.

The protagonist of the movie Limitless Eddie is an ordinary “gray” person, without money, without a goal and without a mood. Having swallowed wonderful pills, Eddie turned into a “brain superman”, for whom nothing is impossible.

The main characters are Bradley Cooper as Edward Morr and Robert De Niro (Carl Van Loon). Frame from the film.

The idea cultivated in the film comes to Eddie’s mind when he jumps into the water and takes a dip in it. Immersion in water is a religious procedure, meaning purification or liberation. In films, such scenes are used to show a global change in the mind of the hero. The voice-over says that, having plunged into the water, Eddie understood what to do.

What is happening with Eddie can be called a new step in evolution. For such thinking, the goals should be relevant – more global. But we see Eddie, who is only interested in money and politics: he is aiming for the governor’s chair.

At the end of the film, it becomes clear that Eddie has not become a truly great man. This is, in fact, a layman, an egoist and an egoman who, with all his “superpowers”, never realized his nature, did not answer the question about the purpose of his own existence, and, more importantly, did not even think about it. He didn’t realize anything.

That is, this film tells about a lucky man who found access to incredible abilities, but at the same time remained a primitive person who just wants to take his place under the sun and satisfy his basic needs.

“That’s what we all want” – says the film Limitless, telling a beautiful tale about the American Emel.

The meaning of the ending Limitless

The ending of the movie Limitless is different from the book. At the end of the book, it was revealed that Eddie was an “experiment” that was being watched all the time. After he got too close to the makers of the wonder drug, the system destroyed him. He died after writing a story about himself.

The end of the film is much more positive. The authorities found out about the illegal experiment, and the laboratory for the manufacture of miracle pills was closed. At the end, Eddie reveals that he hasn’t taken his pills for a year. But all the skills remained with him, that is, he pumped his brain.

And the meaning of the ending of the movie Limitless is that Eddie still took the chance that fate gave him – albeit in his own way.

But there is also a darker explanation for the ending. According to this interpretation, Eddie found a chemist, and he improved the drug – improved the formula so that there were no side effects. That is, he continues to use “wheels” without fear of side effects.

Perhaps this can explain the look of Eddie’s girlfriend at the end, when he suddenly spoke in the language of a waiter.

This ending is quite natural, and its clue lies in the fact that the United States is a country of pharmacology: there are pills for every occasion.

Alternative versions

There is another way to look at the content of this picture. In many reviews and reviews, viewers notice that the picture “Realms of Darkness” raises an important issue of drug addiction – albeit in a veiled form.

In the center of the plot is a mysterious medicine that people take to expand their consciousness and enhance their mental abilities. But free cheese is only found in a mousetrap, and sooner or later you will have to pay for everything.

Abbie Cornish as Lindy. Frame from the film.