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1[[quoteright:311:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/978b42a1626e8c426f55ec11b263e992.jpg]]
2
3->''Life was given to us a billion years ago. What have we done with it?''
4
5''Lucy'' is a 2014 science fiction/superhero/action/gangster film directed by Creator/LucBesson, starring Creator/ScarlettJohansson and Creator/MorganFreeman.
6
7Lucy (Johansson) is a young woman who is forced into working as a drug mule for the Taiwanese mob. A bag of one particular drug is inserted into her abdomen, which suddenly ruptures when she is attacked, causing her own body to absorb the drug.
8
9This progressively causes her to access more and more of her brain's capabilities, granting several incredible abilities - and causing a remarkable metamorphosis...
10
11----
12!!This film provides examples of:
13
14* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: 10% is apparently baseline human. When Lucy gets exposed to [=CPH4=], she gets more and more of her brain power unlocked. The more she uses the greater her powers become. Luc Besson has said that he knows that this has long been proven false, but [[RuleOfCool you can still tell a good story]] with it.
15* AboveGoodAndEvil: The increased brain function causes Lucy to see the conflicts of humanity as "primitive." Hence, the lessening of her ethical inhibitions. However, it should be noted that while she is ruthlessly pragmatic (murdering a patient who would have died on the table anyway so the surgeon won't be busy), Lucy's intentions are actually directed towards a greater good, and she leaves even the bad guys alive if she doesn't see a need to kill them.
16* ActionGirl: Lucy is this after first absorbing the drug, as she uses guns and knives and fights physically. Later on, though, she leaves that aside and only makes use of her mental capacities to face the obstacles coming her way.
17* ActorAllusion:
18** When Lucy is in Times Square, a poster for Luc Besson's ''Film/TheFamily'' can be seen.
19** Luc Besson wrote the film ''Three Days To Kill'' - which featured an uncredited woman being tattooed. The same woman appears here as a tattoo artist, sporting a tattoo of the Mexican Lady of Guadalupe.
20* AffablyEvil: The EvilBrit who delivers the drug smugglers' sales pitch to the unwilling mules is almost excessively polite to everyone, even while he's threatening to have their families murdered if they screw up.
21* TheAlcoholic:
22** Implied in the flashback of Lucy partying when she meets her boyfriend the week prior. {{Lampshaded}} during the phone conversation with Lucy's mother, who expresses concern about Lucy's excessive partying.
23** Also lampshaded with Lucy's roommate, who is seen partying with Lucy in the flashback. As the two hug upon Lucy's brief return to their apartment, Lucy telepathically detects the roommate's liver and kidney problems. Before Lucy departs she hands the roommate a forged prescription and advises her to make significant lifestyle changes.
24* AnAesop: Delivered by Lucy in her FinalWords: "It took the universe over one billion years to give us life as we know it. Go do something useful with it."
25* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
26** Liberties taken with brain usage, primarily. Drug-induced superpowers as well, technically, but that's a given.
27** Any hormone produced during pregnancy is going to circulate through the ''mother's'' body, not just the fetus's, so if [=CPH4=] really existed, pregnant women would get a boost in cerebral function just from being pregnant.
28* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Among the less-discussed howling scientific errors in this film comes when Professor Norman states that Lucy is the name of "the first woman." This is presumably a reference to an Australopithecus fossil discovered in the 1970s, named "Lucy" by its discoverers after the [[{{Franchise/TheBeatles}} Beatles]] song. While it is one of the earliest known female hominids, calling it “the first woman” is a laughable misunderstanding that no scientist of Norman’s supposed caliber would ever make. For starters, fossils are nothing more than random snapshots in time (only a tiny percentage of Earth's organisms are ever preserved as fossils), and paleontologists have no reason to assume that any particular fossil they happen to find is literally the first member of a species, even if it's the oldest one known. Indeed, the very concept of a "first" of any type of organism is almost meaningless, since evolution is a gradual process of continuous change, and there's never any specific point when one type of organism becomes something else. In other words, there never existed any individual creature that could be definitively called ''the'' first man or woman--especially if we're defining humans more broadly than ''Homo sapiens'' (a species the Australopithecines long predated). The movie's misconception gets even sillier at the end, when [[spoiler:in her time-travel journey to the distant past, she encounters an ape-like creature implied to be the original "Lucy," with a possible implication that the encounter, like the monolith from ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', is a crucial event that [[StableTimeLoop pushes humans toward higher consciousness]]]].
29* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:Once Lucy hits 100%, she dissipates, literally becoming everything in the universe.]]
30* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Chinese writing on the wall of a room Lucy is locked up in is "keep hygienic" and random names of food.
31* AttackAttackAttack: Jang and his men don't care in the slightest if they're going up against a PhysicalGod and the entire Parisian police.
32* AttemptedRape: When she was chained up in the holding cell, one of the Triad thugs did get around to copping some feels on her and was getting ready to escalate things. The attempt stopped when Lucy resisted, which pissed off the thug and led to her getting pummeled.
33* AudienceSurrogate: Pierre Del Rio. While he is a police chief with weapons proficiency, he is literally taken for a ride by Lucy, just like the audience. He serves to remind her of her lost humanity, with him questioning some of her more morally ambiguous decisions, such as her reckless driving through Parisian streets. There are also hints that she might be attracted to him, such as the kiss she gives him [[spoiler:after telekinetically incapacitating the Korean gang to retrieve the leftover drugs]].
34* BigBad: Jang, the leader of the drug ring.
35* BlackAndGreyMorality: Although Luc Besson declared he aimed for GreyAndGrayMorality, the drug dealers are too vile to fit that. That being said, the rest are cops/security officers just doing their job, and Lucy's got BlueAndOrangeMorality (with moments of SociopathicHero).
36* BlueAndOrangeMorality: From Lucy's perspective she's not killing anyone since no one ever actually dies, it's all relative to her.
37* BodyHorror: When Lucy is on the airplane to Paris she begins to undergo a cellular breakdown due to lack of exposure to the drug. [[spoiler: First her teeth fall out, then her skin begins to rapidly shed, and finally her face ''disintegrates'' before she literally pulls herself together]]. In an intentional example, she mutates her own hand (including a pair of conjoined hands, CreepyLongFingers, and even a frog-like membrane hand) as she gives a lecture to Professor Norman and his colleagues.
38* BullyingADragon: When Lucy steals the remaining three packets from the gangsters, they witness her do such things as make an invisible wall, send all their guns to fly up into the ceiling, then send ''the gangsters flying to the ceiling''. The gangsters just get pissed, get more guns, and wage an all-out assault on the university to get their drugs back! Mind you, one of the guys ''personally witnessed'' said acts and joined the assault anyway.
39* CassandraTruth: When Lucy's roommate asks about Richard, Lucy bluntly informs her that he's dead. Her roommate figures it's just a relationship issue and doesn't take it seriously.
40* CelestialBody: The total sum of all of Lucy's knowledge regarding the entire universe [[spoiler: can be condensed to fit onto an elongated USB stick seemingly made of stars.[[note]]Which is a very oblique ShoutOut to the ''novel'' of ''2001''.[[/note]]]]
41* CharacterDevelopment: Lucy covers the whole spectrum, from DamselInDistress to ActionGirl to PhysicalGod. The same seems to be true about her morality -- after getting her powers she begins [[BewareTheSuperman treating normal humans as expendable]] (including the infamous scene where she shoots a Taiwanese for ''not speaking English''), but she becomes interested in [[ProHumanTranshuman helping humanity]] by the end of the movie.
42* CharacterFilibuster: Lucy tends to go on at length about her changing perceptions of the world and how it works once she starts getting her powers.
43* TheComicallySerious: Lucy turns into it at times, as she displays and talks about her new abilities with no concern about how weird they seem to anyone else listening at the time.
44* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Averted - Lucy does not hesitate to shoot people straight through the door or walls.
45* ConvulsiveSeizures: The first effect of the drug hitting Lucy's system. [[GravityScrew Including on the walls and ceiling.]]
46* CosmicHorrorStory: It can be seen as this, [[spoiler:especially considering the HumanoidAbomination Lucy starts to become in the end.]]
47* CreatorCameo: Luc Besson appears as a doctor in the Paris hospital, and is later among those shot by Mr Jang's gang.
48* CreepyMonotone: Not so much at the start, but once Lucy wakes up after her exposure to the drug, her actions and tone gradually become more and more low-key until by the end she is speaking and doing things very matter-of-factly.
49* CrooksAreBetterArmed: The final battle of the film involves the Paris police (armed only with pistols) trying to stop a rampaging Triad kill-team armed with assault rifles, submachine guns, a rocket launcher, suicidal fanaticism, and a complete disregard for collateral damage. Even if by the end the only bad guy still standing was Mr. Jang, the cops still technically lost ''big time''.
50* CutLexLuthorACheck: The bad guys have invented a synthetic version of a compound that aids in fetal growth. The medical applications of such a drug are endless, and that's before it turns Lucy into a PhysicalGod. They plan to market it as super crack.
51* DeadlyUpgrade: The [=CPH4=] gives one to Lucy; by her own estimates she has twenty-four hours before she's completely overwhelmed by her superpowers and becomes a god.
52* DescriptionCut: A doctor tells Del Rio he gave Lucy "a shot so big, she'll be asleep all day". The next thing we see is Lucy waking up.
53* DeusExitMachina: The only reason the gangsters get to be a threat at the climax is the film is because Lucy has to focus all of her energy on passing on her knowledge, leaving the fighting to the outgunned normal police.
54* DrivesLikeCrazy: Lucy takes the wheel from her cop friend when the gangsters are trying to get the [=CPH4=]. She's never driven before, takes the absolute quickest route, and ''undoubtedly'' breaks every traffic law known to man in the process. Thanks to her superpowers, however, she doesn't even hit a single car while doing it! [[spoiler:Rather, ''her'' car doesn't hit another vehicle. Lucy smacks other cars around like crazy though.]] For some reason, almost the entire route requires her to drive the wrong way down one-way streets.
55* DualWielding:
56** Lucy uses [[GunsAkimbo two silenced handguns]] at one point, shooting mooks through closed doorways with accuracy. In a non-weapon example, she uses two laptops at once, [[RapidFireTyping typing at lightning speed]]. Both examples are justified given her abilities.
57** The BigBad does it with two submachine guns in the finale.
58* DullSurprise: After Lucy gets the drug into her system, she expresses little to no emotion for the remainder of the film. [[InvokedTrope This seems to be a side-effect of the drug itself...]]
59* EiffelTowerEffect: The opening montage uses Taipei 101 to establish that city, as well as several shots of the trope-naming structure when it gets to Paris. Lucy and Pierre are also stopped in traffic right by the Arc de Triomphe.
60* EmptyPilesOfClothing: [[spoiler:Lucy leaves only her clothing behind when she reaches 100%.]]
61* EnhanceButton: Taken to an extreme when Lucy is not only able to probe Mr. Jang's mind, she's able to enhance small bits of memory to gather details Jang couldn't have been aware of, including grabbing a reflection off a mook's eyeball.
62* EnlightenmentSuperpowers: The drug isn't directly responsible for Lucy's powers. It just allows Lucy to access more of her brain's capabilities, leading to these.
63* EvilBrit: One member of the Taiwan drug gang speaks English as a first language. Where might he be from?
64* FailedASpotCheck:
65** Lucy can walk into the Taipei hospital with a pretty large gun in hand completely unchallenged as the staff either doesn't notice or [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight doesn't care]].
66** When the cops roll in for the final showdown, they completely fail to notice the small army of Asian gangsters arming themselves with enough firepower to take over the district ''in broad daylight only a couple steps away from them''.
67* {{Fanservice}}: Nothing says "superhuman with a computer brain" like a [[LittleBlackDress miniskirt]] and [[HighHeelPower Louboutin heels]]. (Of course, this is Scarlett Johansson we're talking about.)
68* FantasticDrug: The nootropic drug [=CPH4=]. It's a synthetic version of a fetal compound produced by pregnant mothers. In small doses, it gives quite the kick. Lucy's extremely large dose gives her superpowers but will also surely kill her.
69* FeelNoPain: Lucy tells the surgeon taking the drug packets out of her that she won't need anesthesia, and indeed has a phone conversation with her mother during the operation. Her only tears are due to the phone call, not the operation.
70* FearInducedIdiocy: Lucy begins her journey to godhood suddenly forced into a Fantastic Drug drop-off that leads to her being surrounded by corpses, guns, and An Offer You Can't Refuse. By this point, she's so terrified she can barely hiccup her refusal before one of the mobsters knocks her out since they're not asking for her help. Here, the movie segues to a large "0%", showing how she was so afraid she wasn't even using her brain (as opposed to the events that will lead her to unlocking its full potential).
71* FoeTossingCharge: Lucy getting the last packets of [=CPH4=] from the gangsters at the hospital (except it's not actually a charge, more of a Foe-Tossing Stroll).
72* FreudianTrio: Jang is the Id, he's a hedonist who loves getting his hands dirty in killing people and he's willing to gun down French gendarmes and take on a PhysicalGod because they screwed over his drug deal. Lucy is the Super Ego, her emotions have atrophied to the point where she doesn't feel fear or pain or even a sense of conscience beyond convenience and what she rationalizes. The Ego is Del Rio or Professor Norman, it's these two men who try to mitigate Lucy's actions by reasoning with her and appealing to what remains of her morality.
73* GangstaStyle: How Lucy initially holds the pistol she procures after her ShowSomeLeg ploy (see latter trope below).
74* GeniusSerum: The film runs with the premise that [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain "unlocking" more percent of your brain]] will increase your cognitive skills to superhuman levels. This is achieved by ingesting [=CPH4=], a FantasticDrug which the main character was forced to smuggle by a Korean gangster. Lucy soon acquires CombatClairvoyance, perfect memory recall, taking stock of all human knowledge in the world, and ultimately [[spoiler:AscendsToAHigherPlaneOfExistence]].
75* HandcuffedBriefcase: Lucy's boyfriend Richard tries to get her to deliver a briefcase full of drugs for him. When she is reluctant to do so, he handcuffs her wrist to the briefcase, forcing her to make the delivery.
76* HeroicSacrifice: Knowing that her existence isn't sustainable in the long term, Lucy spends her last hours accumulating knowledge and finding a way to transfer it to humanity as a whole, before disintegrating one last time.
77* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: A central trope of the film, through a PsychoSerum.
78* {{Humanshifting}}: Lucy alters her hair from slightly fluffy, chin-length, and blonde to sleek, shoulder-length, and brunette after the Taiwan authorities send out a bulletin showing her face. As her powers grow, she's able to change her entire body structure at will, which she demonstrates by morphing her hand into two hands connected to the same wrist, extending claws, producing webbing between her fingers, and other such traditionally non-human phalangeal attributes.
79* HumanoidAbomination: Lucy basically becomes this by the end. Amorality? Check. RealityWarper powers? Check. Access to incomprehensible knowledge? Check. [[spoiler: Being able to control time itself and in fact ''becoming'' existence itself?]]. Yeah, she's basically [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Yog-Sothoth]] by the end (except she ''helps'' humanity by giving them all of her knowledge).
80* HospitalSurprise: Lucy, after the scene in the airplane bathroom.
81* ImpaledPalm: Lucy stabs knives through both of Mr. Jang's palms when she tracks him down for the location of the other mules.
82* ImplacableMan: Mr. Jang wants his drugs NOW - despite being stabbed in both hands, he hops the next plane to Paris and will not be stopped until Lucy is taken care of - even when faced with obvious supernatural powers.
83* InvincibleHero: By the time Lucy gets to Paris she is completely unstoppable. The only limitation is [[DeadlyUpgrade the need to take more and more of the drug to]] [[SuperPowerMeltdown prevent disintegrating]].
84* {{Jerkass}}: Richard, who forces Lucy into the drug job by handcuffing the package to her. Karma paid him back with a bullet to the head.
85* KarmaHoudini: The man in charge of the drug-smuggling disappears after his one scene explaining the job to Lucy. Though by the end of the film his operation is in ruins, the cops are likely on his tail, and [[spoiler: Lucy, who has become God in all but name, could more than likely blink him out of his existence with a snap of her (nonexistent) fingers (assuming she still ''cared'' to)]].
86* LaserGuidedKarma: Richard handcuffs Lucy to the suitcase so that she has to face the mobsters he'd been making deals with. Seconds later, he's shot in the head.
87* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Lucy tells Del Rio that he is her 'reminder' about her humanity.
88* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: During her breakout from the Triad holding cell, Lucy was shot. Her only reaction is amusement, as she pulls the bullet out of her shoulder and drops it on a table. Later, she also undergoes abdominal surgery and has a big bag of drugs removed from her without anesthesia. She doesn't even pay attention as she's too busy talking to her mom. In both cases justified, she no longer feels pain and she's starting to develop some mental control over her body including altering her hair length and color. So it's not improbable that she's developed a HealingFactor as well.
89* MeaningfulName: It is lampshaded early on that "Lucy" is, besides the name of the protagonist, the name of the Australopithecus considered to be a human ancestor [[spoiler: which she mentally visits at the end]].
90* MindOverMatter: From early on, Lucy uses her psychokinetic abilities like a seasoned [[Franchise/StarWars Jedi]]. However, she appears to be using them through the control of neuronal impulses and electromagnetic activity rather than traditional methods.
91* MindRape: {{Subverted}} somewhat when Lucy gets the mules' flight information from Jang. She just extracts the information without inflicting any mental anguish (of course, at the same time she's pinned his hands to a chair with knives).
92* MindScrew: Given how the director [[JustForFun/XMeetsY described the movie as]] "one part ''[[Film/TheProfessional Leon]]'', one part ''Film/{{Inception}}'' and one part ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''", you know he will aim for something to make audiences scratch their heads. [[spoiler:The GoingCosmic ending in particular shows the ''2001'' influence in "WTF".]]
93* MoodWhiplash: As usual for Luc Besson, very dark scenes will suddenly have a laugh abruptly shoved in, usually thanks to Lucy's deadpan explanations of what she's doing to the shock of whoever she's talking to.
94* MoralityChain: Lucy keeps Del Rio around, even though he himself acknowledges his own uselessness because it helps keep her focused on helping people.
95* NeverTrustATrailer:
96** If you've seen the trailer, you've seen almost all the action sequences in the film. Unfortunately, this is part of why the film received bad reviews and disinterest from some audiences, as the trailer portrayed the movie as a high octane action-packed sci-fi adventure when in fact, the movie has more to do with philosophy than anything else, so those who thought they were getting a summer blockbuster left the film disappointed.
97** Some trailers give the impression that Morgan Freeman's character is the villain of the film, or at least is the man behind Lucy gaining her powers. He isn't at all.
98** On some level, it seems like Lucy might be the threat of the movie...but much of the moral is based around [[TranshumanTreachery transhumanism is bad]] being [[DeconstructedTrope a fundamentally flawed premise]], as Lucy actually becomes more altruistic as she develops her superhuman sense of others (in general, mind, she does find ''individuals'' a bit of a non-issue).
99* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
100** Mook No. 7 kicked Lucy in the stomach, opening the bag of FantasticDrug, and kicking off her transformation into a RealityWarper.
101** Richard suckered Lucy into the situation in the first place.
102* NoFullNameGiven: Lucy never states her full name. [[http://i.imgur.com/FhPAtCs.jpg Though a shot of her passport]] suggests her surname to be Miller.
103* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: The thug kept kicking Lucy in her barely sewn-up belly, to the point that the drug bag ruptured. He would have kept on doing so if his partner didn't restrain him.
104* NoHuggingNoKissing: There's very little romance in the movie, and even when it is brought up it doesn't last long. The only times it's mentioned is when Lucy's' boyfriend Richard whom she's only been seeing for a week [[spoiler: and dies in the opening scene of the movie]] and Lucy kisses Del Rio and tells him he's the MoralityPet. And even then, her lack of affect pretty much eliminates any kind of romantic angle - it's almost as if she's seeing if she ''can'' feel emotion.
105* NoInfantileAmnesia: Exaggerated after Lucy is exposed to the [=CPH4=]. Lucy can not only flawlessly remember every detail of her life all the way to the womb, but can remember details she couldn't possibly have been consciously aware of, such as the sound of her own bones growing.
106* NoKillLikeOverkill: The Koreans bring a rocket launcher to assault... a Parisian university. The defending police forces are woefully outgunned as it is, but that thing is the final nail in their coffin.
107* NominalHero: Lucy. After being exposed to the drug, any restraint she might have goes right out the window, in favor of resolving the situation in the most expedient way possible, such as shooting a cab driver in the leg who didn't speak English to bully another cab driver to drive her to the hospital and once there waltzing into a surgery room, noticing the patient being operated on, figuring out through SherlockScan the patient wasn't going to survive anyway and casually blowing the poor patient away, telling this fact to the doctor and forcing him to suture her at gunpoint.
108* OhCrap: The surgeon and the nurse make this expression when Lucy told them the drug bag that burst in her body was [=CPH4=].
109* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: The surgeon whose operation Lucy interrupts plays MrExposition about the chemical Lucy has absorbed, which has little to do with his visible field of work aside from being something humans produce.
110* TheOmnipresent: [[spoiler: Lucy at 100% diffuses into the universe as a sapient thought that touches everything. She uses this to communicate the knowledge she's gained to the world.]]
111* TheOmniscient: By the time she reaches the Taiwanese airport, Lucy can see Del Rio's office in perfect detail from ''halfway around the planet''.
112* OnlyAFleshWound: During her breakout from the Triad prison, she got shot in one shoulder. Not only did this not slow her down, but she reached into the wound and dropped the bullet on the table where the thugs were eating.
113* OrganicTechnology: [[spoiler: When Lucy taps into 90% of her brain at the film's climax, she creates what Morgan Freeman's character describes as a "new generation computer" from her own body's mass... It looks like something straight out of ''{{VideoGame/Prototype}}''.]]
114* PhysicalGod: Lucy is this near the end of the film. [[spoiler: Then subverted when she ultimately becomes an immaterial godlike entity intertwined with all of existence.]]
115* PlotTriggeringDeath: Things all go down once Richard is shot.
116* PoorCommunicationKills: If Lucy told Del Rio why exactly they were racing to the hospital, he could have called ahead and warned his colleagues about the Triad hit squad. She probably knew what was going to happen but did not care.
117* PowerFloats: Lucy first realizes the effects of the drug when she wakes up on the ceiling.
118* ProductPlacement:
119** Panning up Lucy's backside as she's walking through the Taipei airport conveniently allows us to see the trademark[[note]]Literally[[/note]] red soles of the Louboutin heels she's wearing.
120** Also, there are an awful lot of Samsung products featured prominently in the film...
121* ProgressiveEraMontage: It happens while Lucy [[TimeTravel time travels all the way to the Big Bang]].
122* ProHumanTranshuman: Lucy wants her newfound knowledge to be preserved for the benefit of humanity.
123* ProtagonistTitle: Lucy is the protagonist, and lends her name to the title.
124* PsychicNosebleed: Lucy inflicts a very minor one on a flight attendant to buy herself some time to finish working on her twin laptops.
125* PsychoSerum: The [=CPH4=] gives Lucy amazing powers, but deadens her emotions to the point that she at best marginally cares about other people.
126* RealityWarper: Lucy's powers seem relatively limitless, described in the plot synopsis as "a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic."
127* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Del Rio. He's initially freaked out at the idea that Lucy has surveillance on him while tipping him off about the three drug mules, but not only does he alert the authorities in Germany and Rome, but goes to the one in France personally. Fortunately, the drug mules are all caught.
128* RedShirtArmy: The Parisian police don't fare too well against the much heavier armed Korean mobsters. When the dust has settled, [[spoiler: Del Rio seems to be the SoleSurvivor out of at least a dozen cops]].
129* RevengeBeforeReason: Jang will have his drugs back and his vengeance on Lucy making a fool out of him, even if he has to spend all of his goons in a running gunfight expanding two continents and leaving behind enough collateral damage to be classified as a terrorist.
130* RightNowMontage: The film opens with [[{{Undercrank}} sped-up]] scenes of the day beginning in Taipei.
131* RubeGoldbergDevice: The computer's lengthy extension to hand over the USB key.
132* ScienceIsBad: [[SubvertedTrope Nope]]. Lucy is terrifying, but the film also shows her developing the moral and mental maturity to use her power responsibly and becoming a more altruistic person (if rather more uncaring of individuals) as a result. The overall theme seems to be the idea that power is a mixed bag; there's wonder with the horror.
133* ShapeshifterShowoffSession: Towards the end of the film Lucy shows off her expanding powers to a group of fascinated scientists by warping her right hand into new shapes; at first merely sprouting a sixth finger, she then grows a perfect replica of her hand alongside it, then reabsorbs it to shape her hand into a giant set of claws, then shrinks it back down again and gives herself webbed fingers.
134* ShoutOut:
135** During the Paris car chase, a man is reading a newspaper with an article on ''Film/PacificRim''.
136** The Australopithecus "Lucy" is a ringer for Moonwatcher, and the featureless black USB stick at the end looks to have dimensions proportionally 1-4-9. Cue up Richard Strauss' "Also Spach Zarathustra" please.
137** Lucy sitting in a chair having tendrils grow out of her arm and across the floor is very reminiscent of the start of Tetsuo's mutation towards the end of ''AKIRA''.
138** The USB stick being extended off of a long arm is reminiscent of the stick of gum in ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''.
139* ShowSomeLeg: After first being exposed to the drug, Lucy tempts her guard with the implication of sex to get him to come within arm's reach, at which point she easily beats him up and frees herself.
140* SistineSteal: Done in first person, no less, when [[spoiler:Lucy begins mentally traveling back in time after unlocking 99% of her brain and meets what is implied to be an ancestor to humanity [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus) (who also happens to be named Lucy)]] and touches fingers.]]
141** Echoed at the end, when the supercomputer Lucy becomes extends a projection to Morgan Freeman with the USB drive.
142** {{Lampshaded}}. The actual painting was shown during a montage.
143* SociopathicHero:
144** {{Lampshaded}}. As Lucy acquires more and more powers, she feels less empathy and concern over killing others, beginning right when she first wakes up after she gets dosed with the drug. The key moment of this is when she [[KickTheDog kills a patient who she knew would die while in the middle of surgery and pushes him off the operating table so she could get treatment herself]]. She tells Del Rio that she's keeping him around just to keep herself grounded.
145** She actually used to be even more of one, with the cab driver she shot saying "Ow, my leg" clearly being dubbed in post.
146* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: Lucy the superhuman goes back in time and touches Lucy the pre-human (see SistineSteal, above), starting the process of evolution that will lead to the society that creates Lucy the superhuman.]]
147* TheStoic: Lucy, after being affected by the drug. Justified, as the more powerful she becomes, the more emotionally detached she is.
148* StupidEvil: Mr. Jang and his gang. Starting with producing a cutting-edge drug that could revolutionize medical technology and only being able to think of using it as "super crack", and then following up with going on destructive rampages through two different continents [[CrooksAreBetterArmed with enough firepower to look like a literal act of war]]. Even if he wasn't having the bad luck of pissing off a PhysicalGod, how long would Jang's gang would actually be able to keep functioning, with his attempt to piss off ''governments''?
149* SuperpowerLottery: Shape-shifting, telepathy, time travel. Just for starters.
150* SuperpowerMeltdown: Lucy's powers make her unstoppable, but her cells now consume so much energy that she literally disintegrates if she doesn't have a supply of [=CPH4=] to fuel them.
151* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Played with. Lucy's perspective becomes increasingly alien as her power amplifies, to the point that she thinks little of killing an already-dying patient or causing hundreds of traffic accidents just to get to her destination faster... but she also comes to appreciate life in general more, even once going out to admit she never truly understood how much she cared for her mother until she developed a perfect memory of her childhood.
152* TimeTravelersDinosaur: When Lucy's traveling through time she briefly stops somewhere in the Mesozoic era and gets charged at by a dinosaur, before resuming her travels.
153* TookALevelInBadass: Lucy goes from being a naive and helpless victim to becoming a PhysicalGod.
154* TookALevelInJerkass: After being affected by the drug, Lucy becomes a borderline sociopath.
155* TooStrangeToShow: What Lucy becomes at the end. [[spoiler: She disappears from our plane of existence, sending a message to Del Rio's phone:]]
156---> '''Lucy's Message:'''''[sic]'' I am everywhere
157* TreasureChestCavity: Lucy is operated on and has the wonder drug sealed in her stomach. It ends up breaking open because of one of her captors stupidly kicking her in the stomach, exposing her to the drug and kicking off the plot. [[spoiler: Lucy then goes after the other three mules to get the drugs they carry.]]
158* UhOhEyes: One time Lucy wakes up and has her eyes flashing through [[EyeColourChange different sets]] of {{animal eyes}}; she also gets [[GlowingEyesOfDoom glowing]] (or just really intense) {{creepy blue eyes}} during and shortly after [=CPH4=] doses.
159* UnmovingPlaid:[[spoiler: The flash drive that Lucy's computer gives Professor Norman in the end might have a familiar USB connector, but the drive's shell is this trope. The outer space shown on the shell follows this trope.]]
160* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: The drug lord is shown working closely with a British man when Lucy and the other men receive their "assignment". He appears to be the "brains" behind the drug. He also states that if the mules are caught or go to the police, their families will be killed. After his one scene, this character is never heard of nor referenced again. Also, no reference is made to any of the mules' families actually being in danger after they are caught and Lucy speaks to her mom, who appears to be safe after she goes off the grid. Apparently, it was an empty threat.]]
161* WhiteVoidRoom: Lucy creates one of these at 80% and it remains there at 100%...
162* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: {{Averted}}. Lucy actually becomes ''more'' rational with her developing power, and more mindful of using it for good ends. Unfortunately, this [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil has its detriments to her morality when it comes to individuals]].
163* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Lucy comes to believe this as she transcends normal limits of perception and comes to truly appreciate how vast and complex the world is.
164* TheWorldIsNotReady: Professor Samuel Norman asks this of Lucy, but she rebukes him; knowledge in and of itself is not dangerous, only acting in ignorance - and knowledge makes ignorance a very easily treatable condition.
165-->'''Professor Norman''': But all of this knowledge, Lucy... I'm not even sure if mankind is ready for it. We're so driven by power and profit. Given man's nature, it might bring us only instability and chaos.\
166'''Lucy''': Ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge.
167----

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