Having just re-watched some scenes, I can dispense with one of my own criticisms:
It shows very clearly in the opening scenes that the “fortress” building’s electronic security has been compromised when Gennady is breaking in - computer monitors are flashing “error”. And the building’s black-suited security staff have been killed. I’d forgotten about that.
And about the cell-phone loss of signal, I’d ask you to re-watch that scene and look at the confusion and disbelief in Eddie’s own eyes at the “No Service” message on his Blackberry. It’s clearly not a case of “Damn, there’s no signal here”, but more of “What the fucking fuck???”. But I agree with you, there’s no explanation actually given in the movie for the lack of signal, and there should have been.
I just finished Irish author Alan Glynn’s novel, originally published in 2001 as The Dark Fields (a quotation from The Great Gatsby - very apropos) and republished as a movie tie-in this spring with the same title as the movie. The book is quite a bit darker and grimmer than the movie, and I actually liked the movie better in that sense. Still, worth a read.
Major differences:
The protagonist is Eddie Spinola in the book, Eddie Morra in the movie.
The drug is MDT-48 in the book, NZT in the movie.
There’s a private investigator, looking into a cult started by an NZT user, who helps Eddie.
There’s a major but somewhat vaguely-described crisis in Mexico that’s referred to several times on TV and by the characters.
Eddie has no girlfriend in the book, although Carl Van Loon (the billionaire played by Robert De Niro in the movie) has a cute daughter with some of her characteristics. In one scene she’s so hyperarticulate I thought maybe she was taking the drug, too, but that’s never specified.
Eddie never hires bodyguards, and his final confrontation with Gennady, the Russian gangster/loan shark, is quite different in the book. Eddie doesn’t have to drink his blood to get a drug boost to his intellect.
There’s much more detail on Eddie’s day trading.
The blonde whom Eddie might or might not have killed in the hotel room during his drug-induced memory gap is, in the book, the brunette wife of a visiting famous Mexican artist, and her death is much bigger news because of the international situation.
The book has quite a bit more detail on the development of the drug, including the fact that the CEO of the secretive, powerful drug company is the brother of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, who’s in the news a lot because of the Mexican crisis.
Eddie meets with a lawyer who’s suing the drug company for two deaths allegedly caused by another of its drugs, and who warns Eddie that the company is dangerous.
On the other hand, there’s no scheming lawyer involved in Van Loon’s deals, nor the thug in the tan coat.
Eddie is, we learn by the end, under surveillance by the drug company.
Van Loon doesn’t make a power play to control Eddie.
Eddie makes no attempt to hire anyone to reverse-engineer and then synthesize more of the drug, but does consider studying biochemistry and actually buys some books to figure it out himself.
Eddie doesn’t have a fun vacation with a Lear jet, cliff-diving or driving a sportscar with a pretty girl.
And the ending is very different:
At the end, Eddie isn’t on his way to becoming a U.S. senator and eventually President, but is holed up in a Vermont motel with a splitting headache, no more of the drug left and considering suicide. Eddie sees the President come on TV, probably to announce the impending invasion of Mexico, and realizes from the appearance of his eyes that the President is an NZT user, too. Eddie’s hastily-written account of how he ended up in the motel is the book we’ve just read.
Hats off to gutsy producer/screenwriter Leslie Dixon for storming the fortress. There may be no second acts in American lives, but proving she “gets” movies much better than Hollywood itself would be a helluva parting shot.
[spoiler]Eddie is neither on the drug anymore (or his girlfriend for that matter) or surprised in the least at anything that happens in the last 10 minutes of the film:
Aide: “They’re your biggest contributor, give them their crappy two minutes.”
Eddie: (acting surprised) “Ivan Chemcorp? Pharmaceuticals (right?).”
Van Loon: “Bought Ivan a couple months ago. I’m surprised you didn’t hear.”
Eddie: (acting surprised) “No, no. Well…they really keep me hopping here.” (Yeah, my political handlers call the shots and I wouldn’t have time to keep up with stuff like financial markets…)
Van Loon: “I wish you’d come to me at first. I could have bought Ivan at 33 a share. We could have been partners.”
Eddie: (acting surprised)“So, Ivan makes NZT?” (Presumably Ivan Chemcorp stock had been rising before Van Loon bought in. What might have caused that? Eddie sure seemed to know a lot about Van Loon’s business dealings later out on the street beside the car.)
Bright political future firmly established.
As for the tower fortress trope, it may require a teensy bit of suspension of disbelief, but this is Lee Marvin in Point Blank on a super drug we’re talking about. The opening sequences (before the zoomy-thinger/Fight Club/Burn After Reading opening credit montage) show guards killed, security features methodically disabled, maybe more shots were needed to explain that the cellphone had been jammed and the door had been opened according to Hoyle. If this is a sticking point, you must have really hated The Limits Of Control.
RE: “It works better if you’re already smart.”
I’ll bet there’s a lot more subtle stuff going on, but it’s pretty clear Leslie Dixon is already smart.[/spoiler]
Very good film. Surprised me how much I enjoyed it.
Although…
Bradley Cooper’s character sleeping with his landlord’s wife made him less likeable to me. I would have liked the film better if the protagonist had seemed a better person at heart.
I understand the point they were making with the scene, but wish they had found a better way to make it.
I just watched the DVD a few days ago, and the director’s commentary is quite interesting and worthwhile. Among other things, I learned:
[spoiler]There was a dialogue in the original draft of the script that “they” (presumably Gennady and his mooks) were jamming cell reception in the apartment.
The director and Bradley Cooper were concerned that Eddie on NZT was too perfect or even robotic. One of the ways they wanted to keep him grounded was by showing his enduring love for Lindy, his girlfriend. But he’s only human, so of course he (after she dumped him while he was still a schlub of a writer) took advantage of NZT to hook up with some fabulous babes a time or two before they reunited.
I believe it was Eiben, and not Ivan, Pharmaceuticals that Van Loon (DeNiro) bought.
There’s also an alternate ending on the DVD that’s frankly not nearly as good as the theatrical version. They made the right call on that, IMHO.[/spoiler]
Even the director, in his DVD commentary, acknowledges that the “We only use 20% our brain” meme is jive. That’s why Eddie’s ex-brother-in-law phrases it as, “You know how they say that we only…”
I saw this on Netflix last night and liked it more that I expected.
What happened to the chemist he hired for 2 million to produce the drug? When he got that box delivered to him (the one with the hands in it!)? I thought it was going to be the pills and was surprised to see chopped off hands!
Also, he should have known the guy he and Robert DeNiro were making that deal with was on the drug because that guy had the same limp as he and his old girlfriend had.
[spoiler]Either the chemist is able to synthesize and tweak NZT for Eddie, and Eddie has secret backup labs because he foresees that Van Loon is going to try to cut him off and gain that leverage over him, OR Eddie weans himself off it but, as he tells Van Loon curbside at the end, has had his brain changed for the better by then.
The director, in his DVD commentary, notes the grim humor of the box which Eddie is given being labeled “Hand delivery.” And what’s in the box? Hands.
And did you notice the tattooed hand of the white bodyguard giving the Russian mooks the middle finger in the apartment’s safe at the end? Oh, snap![/spoiler]
And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further… And one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Alan Glynn’s book The Dark Fields, which takes its name from that passage of The Great Gatsby and inspired Limitless, itself gets a tip o’ the hat near the end of the movie, when we see Eddie’s bestselling book on display: Illuminating the Dark Fields.
I just streamed this on Netflix with the wife yesterday morning. It was a lot of fun. I like slightly brainy thrillers like that, and all the acting was really good. One of De Niro’s better performances in the last ten years.
