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Grant Burton
English 101
Professor Alicia Bolton
February 15, 2012
Is Being Limitless Really Worth It?
The film Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper, is set in New York as he plays the part as
Eddie Mora exploring that his life as a writer is getting him nowhere fast. Towards the start of
the movie, Eddie Mora is portrayed as an average New Yorker that is enduring a very tough time
in his life until he gets reacquainted with an old brother-in-law. The brother-in-law, Vernon
Gant, invites Eddie back to his house where he introduces a new drug to him called NZT-48.
This drug is supposed to maximize the brain’s thinking process, making it easier to learn and
achieve great heights. Eddie decides to try this miracle drug and it helps him finish writing his
book that he has been working on for months in 2 days. As Eddie is coming off of the drug, he
wants more and goes to get more from Vernon but discovers he has been shot dead in his
apartment. As Eddie calls the police in great fear, he checks the secret spot in Vernon’s
apartment to see if the shooter took the NZT-48 drugs, but he didn’t. Now that Eddie has a great
supply of the drug, he starts taking it once a day to help him learn how to become a successful
investor. He meets a big time New York investor and is offered a job; before he knows it, he
rapidly becomes the top investor of his company. The film demonstrates a person’s dependence
upon a drug in order to achieve success. Although being successful in this world is a great goal
to have,someone shouldn’t gamble their life with a drug, consider the effects upon using a drug
that may help improve your thinking process, and if there could be any safer options to resorting
from this drug.

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Although, there can be a lot of success that may follow the use of this drug I disagree that
it is worth having to go through all the hardships of coming down off of it? As Eddie first starts
using the drug, he gets a physical high on his achievements, and this is where his dependence of
the drug starts becoming very apparent. Many people in this world are very addicted to
possessing power, and with this drug,any person could have that power. I think that if this drug
was available to the public many people would use it even know the side effects could lead to
death. I mean tobacco users know what the effects of smoking can have on their bodies, but even
thoughcurrent smokers are aware of this, it doesn’t stop them from smoking.Cigarettes may not
help people to be successful but it does help most people cope with some type of stress and I
would consider that kind of the same concept as Eddies dependency. With Eddie being limitless
on this drug, he gains power over things and makes more money than he ever thought would be
possible, which eventually conditions him into becoming even more dependent upon the drug.
Although I agree with the purpose of using a drug to improve the thinking process of the
brain, I disagree with using NZT-48 mainly because of it being illegal and the side effects could
be deadly. The effects to the body as a user comes off of this powerful drug are catastrophic and
it pretty much makes the user’s body shut down. I consider a drug to be any mind-altering
substance,and when Eddie states,“My mind is skipping time, I have no memory of the last 4
days,” clearly;the drug is greatly altering his memory. This is a tell-tale sign of what effects that
drugs can have on the mind and body of a user.Drug users not only hurt themselves but also can
become abusive to other people while using drugs. When drug users are coming off of the drug,
they become very irritable and short tempered as they fight the realities of life’s hardships,
without being able to rely on a high that might be what they use to even out their frustrations. I
think this is another reason where I would have to ask myself as a user if they are really worth it.

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Lastly, what are some other type of methods of resort that Eddie could take besides using
the NZT-48 drugs,that may not have such a strong effect on his life and to also bring him
success. Obviously the first resort for the NZT-48 would be to not take it in the first place, but
another resort could be a prescription to Adderal or any other generic prescription that increases
focus. In the movie a famous big time business man that is impressed with Eddie’s work as an
investor states upon their first meeting, “So Eddie Mora, you do know you’re a freak, what’s
your secret?”Eddie’s response was “Medication,” but I wouldn’t exactly call the NZT-48 a safe
medication. In the world today many different children and adults suffer from ADHD or lack of
sustained focus affects.Should those people with problems with sustaining focus be given
Eddie’s medication? Clearly, the safer medication would be a prescription to Adderall due to its
minor side effects compared to the NZT-48 that could possibly cause death.
As Vernon said to Eddie in the movie, “You know how you can only control 20% of your
brain.Well this drug allows you to control 100% of it and it has been tested and is FDA
approved.” I think I would be slightly drawn to the drug due to the positive things that would
come out of it but after discovering the side effects my mind would quickly change. It’s amazing
how all the technology in the world could make a synthetic drug that amazingly allows 100%
control of a person’s brain. I think that technology is great resource for many pharmaceutical
companies and I think that there are many great benefits for users of these products with the
exception of NZT-48. Although I agree with the main aspect for the drugsbeing to help stimulate
the user’s brain, I disagree with the use of this drug because of side effects on the users. Also
with a safer option at hand I would have to say I would resort to the option that wouldn’t
possibly lead to death. Although great goals such as being successful a good to have, a person
shouldn’t gamble their life with a drug, they should consider the effects upon using this drug that

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may improve their thinking process, and realize that there could be safer options to solving this
problem.

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Works Cited
Limitless.Dir. Neil Burger.Perf. Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Anna Friel, Abbie
Cornish. Twentieth Century Fox, 2011. Film