The movie 'Limitless': Is it possible?

[atara]

Even if there were a drug that made you way smarter, it wouldn't help you beat the stock market the way the main character does in Limitless. Simply put, it doesn't matter how smart you are -- you still can't beat the market.

On the other hand, there already is a drug like NZT -- it's called cocaine.

 

[acidclouds]

I just saw Limitless and thought it was pretty good. It has elements of the classic drug dependance cautionary tale to it but overall its definately not anti-drug, quite the opposite really (depending to some degree how you interpret the ending).

Anyway it was better than I expected and the cool way it is shot made me really feel like taking some stimulants and running around NYC even tho I generally have very little interest in non-psychedelic drugs now

If nothing else put me off that just did. Shutter Island and Inception were gobsmackingly shite.

Wow I dont know how anyone could find Inception that bad. I loved it and wouldve thought most psychedelic users would have too because of the way it deals with the inner workings of the mind etc

 

[Shambles]

Deals with them really, really, really, painfully, embarrassingly, wince-worthily badly though

YMMV as with everything, naturally

 

[acidclouds]

haha fair enough

 

[Assphace]

The very premise is false... our entire brains get used, the "you only use 10%" line is urban legend BS... maybe only 10% at a time... like you are only using 10% of the rooms in your house at any given moment, but that doesnt mean the other 90% are unused, and it would not do you alot of good to be in all of them at once even if you could be... so the basic premise is assinine, obviously from some numbskull who is just "imagining"

well sure you may use 100% of your brain 10% at a time, but what if you could reassign the other 90% to focus on the task of hand when you need it? there's a man who can do incredible calaculations in his head because his brain somehow reassiged the part of it that does math to the part that controls walking or breathing or something

 

[Shambles]

^^ Was the disappointment that got me. They spent a fortune on it so you'd think someone at some point would notice that the script was terrible. The concept is great. It looks mighty fine. It ponderous and pretentious as fuck but so are many great films. Should have been good but just wasn't. Not for me anyway but I do seem to be in the minority maybe cos many folks with good taste seem to love it. Wanted to like it but can't help hating it. Ho-hum. Each to their own and all that

 

[acidclouds]

yeah well I cant think of anyone I know that didnt at the very least like it and most people loved it. And I hang with a pretty nerdy crowd including a few film studies students lol

 

[Shambles]

Hehe. I did three years of film and media studies at college and am possibly about as nerdy as film-nerds get. It honestly bored the shit outta me. It goes nowhere really slowly and says nothing of interest along the way. In my opinion and all that. I'm sure there are plenty of films I love with all my heart that others would find dull as ditchwater too. It just left me cold is all and I really don't see what the fuss was about. That's just me though - each to their own, obviously

 

[Vader]

well sure you may use 100% of your brain 10% at a time, but what if you could reassign the other 90% to focus on the task of hand when you need it?

I only use about 10% of the utensils in my kitchen at a time. I use them all, but not at the same time. The tasks I do with each are already being done as efficiently as possible; when I am whisking egg whites, there is no way that I can "reassign" the wok to help me whisk. See the analogy?

 

[blueberries]

ok saw this film last week and i was thinking exactly the same thing on the way back from the theatre. first off the 10% thing is bull, so they say, but we only really know we use %100 of the brain by seeing the nodes light up on a CAT scan yeh?
what if one cell lit up surrounded by 9 non lit up cells? that would still get that area to light up, but the 10% of the brain rumour is in tact.
anyway off topic, so to get that photographic memory and the ability to recall past memories like new we need the protein strand RGS-14 and boosted levels of PKMzeta (an enzyme), for the focus we need some kinds of amphetamine maybe ritalin or methamphetamine, enhancing social skills and ability to convey these new ideas: oxytocin (in small amounts) and maybe something to stimulate creativity? well shulgin found the aleph series VERY creative with out being too messed up so that in the mix and you've got something starting to resemble the drug in the film.
but you will never get the 4 figure IQ no matter how much you try!
they say though maybe 20 years time and a drug may be out there with the potential to do all this in one

 

[vibrancy3]

If nothing else put me off that just did. Shutter Island and Inception were gobsmackingly shite. Very pretty shite to look at granted but even pretty things don't excuse shite films from being shite films.

Wasn't really planning to watch this but wasn't really planning to watch those other two either so sure I will at some point. They surely can't be any worse :D

arr no really, shambles of all people, thuoght you would loved those two films, well each to the own lke i said, decaprio is good actor so that prob had something to do wiht why i loved those two films so much

its jsut the twist in lke shutter island that amazing, i wont say anything incase i ruin it 4 ppl but my god epic film 4 me

shambles dude check it out, you might enjoy it ???/

 

[interleukin]

Most of the effects (pro focus, creativity, motivation, improved memory access) of the drug in the movie were just an exagerated description of your standard dopaminergic stimulant. The things that were not (learning new languages), I dont believe will be possible using simple drugs that bind to target receptors. You would either have to take some drug as a kid to prevent the events during the critical period of language learning from happening or use gene therapy to rexepress the machinery that was responsible for that type of plasticity in those neurons.
About the 10% of the brain part - the brain is not a general purpose computer; most regions of the brain only do one thing (process vision, execute motor control commands etc). So, most of the neural pathways will be unused *at any given point* and it is also very likely that there will be some redundant circuits which will never be used. For example, if you close your eyes - a lot of the visual processing circuitry will not be used (you would be hallucinating if they were).

 

[PROZ4C]

Like Craig Ferguson said the other night, the really smart people are like brain surgeons and computer designers.... all the really stupid people end up in Hollywood simply because they are too dumb to do anything else, haha.

I think that is a very ignorant statement, seems to be routed in jealousy. Haters gonna hate etc..

If I had the acting skills and looks to be a movie star I would love to do that... it wouldn't be because I am too dumb for my current job, which happens to be respectable from an intellectual stand-point.

 

[DwayneHoover]

I think that is a very ignorant statement, seems to be routed in jealousy. Haters gonna hate etc..

It was a self-depricating JOKE. Craig Ferguson is, like, a COMEDIAN, you know, the people who tell JOKES for a living. Sheesh.

 

[Shambles]

arr no really, shambles of all people, thuoght you would loved those two films, well each to the own lke i said, decaprio is good actor so that prob had something to do wiht why i loved those two films so much

its jsut the twist in lke shutter island that amazing, i wont say anything incase i ruin it 4 ppl but my god epic film 4 me

shambles dude check it out, you might enjoy it ???/

To be fair, I did much prefer Shutter Island to Inception. Di Caprio is a good actor and I mostly enjoy his films. I found the twist was kinda predictable but the film was okay really. Also thought it was massively overrated but definitely watchable. To be honest, I'm mostly a bit of a film ponce and don't really do Hollywood stuff. Much more into independent stuff and European and Asian films really. If Inception was made in grainy black and white for tuppence ha'penny, subtitled and everybody died at the end I'd probably love it

I will most likely give this Limitless one a watch at some point but I have a feeling it'll be another case of "nice concept shame about the execution". Or maybe I'll love it. Who knows? Not I. Only one way to find out

 

[DwayneHoover]

I enjoyed both Shutter Island and Inception... just for the level of intensity and the "psychoactiveness" if I may coin an adjective.

I do agree that Inception left one feeling a little flat... I am sure that all the levels-within-levels-within-levels stuff made sense if plotted on a graph, but when made into an actual film I think it was pretty much impossible to follow, just turned into a mish-mash. But still cool ideas and interesting unique scenarios and character interactions (i.e., is so-and-so aware this is a dream?, WHOSE dream is it?, is he aware that I am aware?, etc etc). But it just turned into a roller coaster in the end and despite seeing it twice I was just still just having to trust the director that it all really made any logical sense... I still have absolutely no idea.

 

[Shambles]

Ha! I tend to agree. Massively overcomplicated and excessively convoluted plot does not make a film deep and meaningful - just confused and self-indulgent. I might watch it again at some point cos I got so bored by about halfway through I think I mostly switched off and enjoyed the scenery and special effects till it finally ended.

 

[DwayneHoover]

Yea, I disagree with "self-indulgent"... maybe.

Nolan started working on the script, what did they say like 20 years ago? So apparently it is a film student's exercise/experiment which he now could get financing to actually make... An exercise/experiment in seeing how ridiculously overcomplicated you can make a plot and have it still "hold water." Perhaps the van falling into the water at the end was a clever metaphor for that.

So it seems this is perhaps just OVER the edge of comprehensibility, which was maybe sort of the point, seeing how entertaining that can be, to be working so hard to figure it out and connect all the different story flows in your mind while it is playing up on the screen... kind of like a puzzle or a challenge for the brain which is just a little too much to actually "get," but how that is still entertaining in a provocative sort of way, like a confusing carnival ride that twists you every which way so fast you get dizzy... we still pay for those for the body so why not this for the mind? I applaud the effort actually, to deliberately make something THAT convoluted just to see what happens when you watch it... pretty cool, IMO.

Though sometimes its the really simple stories, elegantly made, that are the most truly SATISFYING. Inception was FUN like a ride but not "satisfying" like a film that genuinely means something whether mental or emotional.

Limitless sounds like it is probably pretty straightforward, and surely well done and probably quite interesting... whether there is any meaning or lesson you take from it in the end is another story. From the reviews/reports it sounds pretty muddled in this regard. If the moral is just "Be happy with what you are... don't take drugs trying to be superman because it just makes you a jerk and people get hurt, M'Kay?"

 

[PROZ4C]

It was a self-depricating JOKE. Craig Ferguson is, like, a COMEDIAN, you know, the people who tell JOKES for a living. Sheesh.

I supposed the jakes on me than...

Mah bad

(spelling errors intentional)

 

[Shambles]

Dwayne: I think the fact that it was Nolan's longterm pet project was probably the main problem. Nobody seemed to have the balls to point out that it was essentially a badly thought through student project not a film. Most directors aren't given a bazillion dollars to make the films they want to make when they're students cos those ideas just ain't that great - immature and substanceless. To me that's what Inception was - a vanity project with no real redeeming value at all.

I kinda see what you mean by the "so convoluted it's like a puzzle" idea but that would only be a redeeming feature if there was any value in solving that puzzle. Roller-coasters are only fun if they are thrilling - Inception was turgid at best. If it wanted to be an action film then get rid of all that mind-numbingly bad dialogue that made me want to beat the actors about the head and neck and scream "Get on with it for fuck's sake!" right in their faces. If they wanted an intellectually gratifying film with intriguing ideas and concepts to make you think then write some decent dialogue instead of the drivel they used instead.

Meh. I didn't like it (did I mention that? ) and others did and I doubt there's gonna be any convincing done either way so maybe I'll stop bitching about it and get back to talking about this other film even if I haven't seen it :D

Incidentally, from what I gather it sounds like a bog-standard thriller. Most interesting thing about it is probably the discussion of what kinda drugs could be used in the real world to turn folk into übermensch. The drug in the film does basically sound like what people on cocaine think cocaine does for them more than anything though :D