With that kind of power, obviously the opportunities to further yourself in the world around you would be, well, “Limitless“. Nicolas Cage taught Jay Baruchel how to use 100 percent of his brain to develop his wizard skills in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. That plot blossoms out of Brian’s encounter with film protagonist Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), who first experienced the NZT drug four years ago and has since managed to buck the tricky fatality-related side effects that a few tests ran by the FBI encountered in the past.
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To get you prepared for the series premiere of Limitless on Tuesday Sept 22 on Global, here are ten things you may have forgotten about the original 2011 film, and how they relate to the new show…
Sen. Morra, it turns out, has been watching Brian. We had a lot of conversations about the creative impulses of the show. Sure, this first episode is way more show than tell, but the finished product is edgy enough to appeal to a younger audience while still sitting comfortably beside NCIS: New Orleans.
Check out a video from Jake and Jennifer’s appearance below, and see the new Limitless character posters below… Brian escapes again by jumping onto the tracks and crawling under the train to another section. The guy catches him breaking in and invites him into his apartment.
Eddie’s financial success leads him to taking a meeting with financial hotshot Carl Van Loon (Robert DeNiro), who wants his advice on a corporate merger.
Finch finds nothing miraculous as soon as he has the pill but after a while in the bank it does. “The scales fell from my eyes”, Brian explains. There’s a maze inside everyone’s head, a labyrinth of missed connections and untapped potential.
It is a notion that has been roundly debunked, of course, with neuroscientists showing that we already use nearly every part of our brains. “You find out he’s been very much involved with NZT since we last saw him”. He’s suddenly a guitar genius and a a chess prodigy.
By the time he comes down from the NZT – with a hell of a hangover – he’s figured out that his father has hemochromatosis, a hereditary and commonly misdiagnosed disease.
To build dramatic tension, Brian learns about his ailing father (Ron Rifkin) and goes about trying to figure out what he’s suffering from. Having solved one insurmountable problem, he’s now faced with another one – which means he needs another pill, stat. Brian is smart, but lacks ambition and drive, and the pill gives him that, and then some. By the time Brian thinks back to their stoner days and remembers that Eli always keep a stash taped into the inside of his guitar, the FBI are kicking down his door.
On the plus side, the pilot is action-packed and has a big-name director at the helm, Marc Webb of The wonderful Spider-Man franchise (2012 – 2014).
What slows Brian down initially is that his mind is cluttered. However, her hunch is a tough sell to her boss at the bureau, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
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NEXT: Even more fatalities.
