History YMMV / Limitless

* Eddie described his ex-wife Melissa as the smartest woman he knew who dumped him immediately. High intelligence and impulsive behavior. Those sound like indications that she was already on NZT when he met her.

* {{What An Idiot}}: Eddie's new and improved life is interrupted when he finds all his NZT-48 is gone. For the month he's been taking those limited supply of drugs (including double doses), did Eddie not think to ration them properly? That's a mistake that anyone, with or without heightened intelligence, wouldn't overlook.
** "[[{{Handwave}} Feelings of invincibility]]", remember?
** It was stolen. He didn't run out. If you're thinking of the scene when he calls in sick before the big meeting, he deliberately didn't take more because he thought he killed that woman while under NZT's influence.
*** He didn't find out about the dead girl until after we went to the meeting "sober". He didn't take them because he didn't like that he kept missing time.

* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack
** Well, he does remember everything she likes and dislikes about him and can probably convincingly present himself as having "reformed" to be exactly the guy she wants him to be.

* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeThemBack

* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack

** Eddie described his ex-wife Melissa as the smartest woman he knew who dumped him immediately. High intelligence and impulsive behavior. Those sound like indications that she was already on NZT when he met her.

* FridgeBrilliance: The film uses some common scientific myths, such as Vernon's statment of NinetyPercentOfYourBrain and when Eddie mentions his ImprobablyHighIQ of four digits. Vernon is a drug dealer with no scientific credentials at all, and was simply explaining things in a simple, if inaccurate, manner. Eddie never took any IQ tests, and just pulled some random number out of his ass.
** The movie discuss his own plot when Eddie talks with others about the Portuguese Empire: The story of mankind could be resumed in: [[FromNobodyToNightmare Some guys that nobody noticed earlier discover a new technique and take over the world]].[[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair Some centuries later, they lost everything and become just another anonymous country]].

* FridgeLogic: Why didn't the police search Eddie at the murder scene? If he was a prime suspect, which he would be having found the body, they would have cuffed and searched him before taking him to the police department to make a statement and therefore found the NZT pills ''he shoved into the small of his back.''

* {{Squick}}: Not just the aforementioned EyeScream but what comes shortly before that, to which everyone in the audience went "Oh, EWWW!"

* OneSceneWonder: Johnny Whitworth as the delightfully sleazy Vernon Gant, the man who introduces Eddie to NZT. [[spoiler:He is killed fifteen minutes into the movie.]] Also, Eddie's bodyguards [[spoiler:who also last only two scenes.]]

** Any other user hooked on NZT is willingly enough to torture or kill for another dosis.

** He actually states that [[spoiler: he realized the weaknesses of NZT, so he just made it so the effects became permanent.]]

* BrokenAesop: "Drugs are bad for you, but you'll never be successful without them, so you should take a bunch and earn a shitload of money while high so you can pay a bunch of private pharmacists to reverse-engineer the drugs in a way that lets you gradually wean yourself off of them while still permanently keeping their positive effects."
** FridgeBrilliance: There are plenty of legal drugs on the market used for activities such as studying.

* TooDumbToLive: The Russian, for hiring a bodyguard ''who is blind in one eye.'' Which Eddie of course takes advantage of in the final scene.
** And as a reminder, the Russian is also on NZT.
** Eddie could have avoided a lot of problems by paying back the Russian as soon as he could. Which was like 48 hours later.

* WritersCannotDoMath: Eddie was quadrupling his money every day. He started off with 800 dollars the first day, got 2 grand the second and had 7.5 grand the third. He said that this was going "too slow" so he went to borrow $100,000 from a loan shark the next day. However, if he just kept doing what he was doing, he would have quadrupled his 7.5k and gotten 30k the next day and then 120k the day after that. He saved himself ''one day'' by taking out that loan. If he kept his head down the whole time and played the stocks by himself, he would have earned 120 million dollars in a week from the day he decided he needed to take out a loan, without actually needing to take the loan out. Apparently no one on the writing staff understands exponential growth.
** I think the point was he couldn't keep that exponential growth going for very long. It's easy to turn 2 grand into 7.5, just only need to make another 5.5, but to turn 30k into 120k, that's a bit harder.
** More still, by the time Loan Shark comes after Eddie, he's already made at least a few millions. How hard is it to remember to pay a 100k debt?

intelligence feats is discovering "this thing called Google."

** Why there is not any local or federal investigation following the numerous deaths caused by NZT? Because all the users got AcquiredSituationalNarcissism that alienated his true loved ones to be InWithTheInCrowd, leaving them LonelyAtTheTop: To initiate an investigation, you must be missed by someone. When the NZT user dies, he’s DyingAlone: literally ''nobody cares''.

** When Lindy takes NZT to escape from an assassin, she uses a little girl as an ImprovisedWeapon. When she is free of the effects, she doesn’t want anything to do with NZT or Eddie.

** I think the point was he couldn't keep that exponential growth going for very long. It's easy to turn 2 grand into 7.5, just only need to make another 5.5, but to turn 30k into 120k, that's a bit harder.

** [[spoiler:The alternate ending of the movie is far more ambiguous in regards to whether he's telling Van Loon the truth.]]

** The movie discuss his own plot when Eddie talks with others about the Portugese Empire: The story of mankind could be resumed in: [[FromNobodyToNightmare Some guys that nobody noticed earlier discover a new technique and take over the world]].[[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair Some centuries later, they lost everything and become just another anonymous country]].

* EightDeadlyWords: Eddie is a directionless slacker with a single aspiration, to finish his high-minded book on the human condition. Thanks to NZT, he accomplishes this in four days. He then devotes himself not to improving the lot of his fellow human beings, or even to helping his friends and family, but a shallow life of unearned wealth, jet-setting fame and numerous sexual liaisons with attractive women. Basically, he uses the lyrics of a GlamRap song for his life plan. Like a common street junkie, he commits crimes and gets involved with shady characters to maintain his fix. And somehow he's the most sympathetic character in the film.
** Well, actually, he originally wanted to make money to help him fulfill some grander ambitions, and wonders just how far he could go and how many of the worlds problems he could solve, but he gets lost on the way, particularly after the side-effects started to kick in. By the end of the movie, [[spoiler: he has gotten back on track, on his way to be a Senator and with aspirations to be President.]]
** This AudienceReaction is not because BadWriting: The whole point is to show that Eddie ethical decisions alienate him from likable people (like Lindsey, who drops him as soon as she realizes Eddie has become TheMillstone) and left him with unsavory people (CorruptCorporateExecutive, TheMafiya). TruthInTelevision for anyone with an addiction.

** The movie discuss his own plot when Eddie talks with others about the Portugese Empire: The story of mankind could be resumed in: [[FromNobodyToNightmare Some guys that nobody noticed earlier discover a new technique and take over the world]].
[[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair Some centuries later, they lost everything and become just another anonymous country]].

* Why there is not any local or federal investigation following the numerous deaths caused by NZT? Because all the users got AcquiredSituationalNarcissism that alienated his true loved ones to be InWithTheInCrowd, leaving them LonelyAtTheTop: To initiate an investigation, you must be missed by someone. When the NZT user dies, he’s DyingAlone: literally ''nobody cares''.

** The movie discuss his own plot when Eddie talks with others about the Portugese Empire: The story of mankind could be resumed in: [[FromNobodyToNightmare Some guys that nobody noticed earlier discover a new technique and take over the world]]. [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair Some centuries later, they lost everything and become just another anonymous country]].

** The movie discuss his own plot when Eddie talks with others about the Portugese Empire: The story of mankind could be resumed in: Some guys that nobody noticed earlier discover a new technique and take over the world. [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair Some centuries later, they lost everything and become just another anonymous country]].

** The movie discuss his own plot when Eddie talks with others about the Portugese Empire: The story of mankind could be resumed in: Some guys that nobody noticed earlier discover a new technique and take over the world. Some centuries later, they lost everything and become just another anonymous country.

** Well, actually, he originally wanted to make money to help him fulfill some grander ambitions, and wonders just how far he could go and how many of the worlds problems he could solve, but he gets lost on the way, particularly after the side-effects started to kick in. By the end of the movie, [[spoiler: he has gotten back on track, on his way to be a Senator and with aspirations to be President.]]
** I felt that if they would dared to film the DarkerAndEdgier DownerEnding they planned, this very undeniable defect would have been the very strength of the movie: Eddie was a [[TheLoad harmless loser]] when he began, and when he got Super Intelligence he becomes a [[TheMillstone Dangerous Loser]]: At the end of the day, being a smarter JerkAss doesn’t change anything in your life.