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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 he writes his book that he has been working
on for months from start to finish in 2 days. As Eddie is coming off of the drug he wants more
and goes to get more from Vernon but discovers that 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. As 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, they should consider the effects upon using a drug, and
see how resorting from that drug will affect their relationships with others.

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Furthermore, with all the success that comes with 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 you 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 body’s but even know current smokers are
aware of this it doesn’t stop them from smoking. 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.
Lastly, some safer resorts that Eddie could take besides using the NZT-48 drugs to bring
him success. Obviously the first resort for the NZT-48 would be to not take it in the first place,

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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?” Eddies 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. So should those people with problems with sustaining focus be
given Eddies medication? Clearly, the safer medication would be a prescription to adderal due to
its minor side effects as 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 your 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 drugs being 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 being successful in this world is a great goal to have, someone
shouldn’t gamble their life with a drug, they should consider the effects upon using a drug, and
see how resorting from that drug will affect their relationships with others.

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