Why does Edward Morra of the Limitless movie look like an addict even if he is not one? It’s not what you think.

Hopefully you have watched the movie Limitless. Otherwise, beware of the spoilers. If you have already watched it, reading this piece might give you a new perspective and with this new perspective you might want to rewatch it.

The movie Limitless presents Edward Morra (Bradley Cooper). A writer who spends his days trying to write his book but having a writer’s block, he can’t. His girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) who is a newly promoted editor, leaves him because of his lack of motivation in his life and career even though she is in love with him. She says she is not a girlfriend but a cleaning lady and a bank to him. This ending that occurred between them gives him the wake up call.

Eddie needed money further into the movie when he decided to invest. He took a loan from a guy who made sure, based on his instincts, he didn’t like him already when they first met. Gennady, the bad guy, gave him the money he needed to make more money.

With this more money, Eddie made his way up the ladder in investing and the tycoon Van Loon (Robert De Niro) wanted to meet him to know his secret. After the meeting he was impressed with Eddie and gave him a father’s approval that he is good at this.

After he broke up with Lindy, he cleaned his house and wrote the book. He did the things Lindy does for him before. After Gennady gave him the money, he did things that didn’t make sense to the people in investing, his decisions were more instinctual not rational. After Van Loon gave him the approval, he said Wall Street would be his nest for the other possibilities he could become. Van Loon gave him his nest.

These were the things Edward Morra was addicted to in the first part of the movie. He was actually dependent or addicted to people. In the second part, after the skip, we see how and why these people are dependent or addicted to Eddie. In this first part, Eddie got the NZT and we watched his experiences with the drug. Now, in the second part of the movie, we watch other people getting the drug and their experiences with it.

After the skip, Eddie meets Van Loon for the second time to restructure the merger deal. The first thing he asked Eddie was what he knew about Atwood. Van Loon said he wasn’t even on Forbes radar two years ago. Similar to Eddie. What Van Loon was after is the how. How these two men became so successful in such a short time? In his dialog with Eddie after the merger meetings, he told him the things he had to do and the roads he had to walk to become “The” Van Loon. He is the Saturn. He is the experience. However Eddie is the talent and youth.

Gennady wanted his money back obviously and I wonder why Eddie didn’t pay him sooner to avoid all this drama. Without Gennady’s money, Eddie wouldn’t have made this much money. His now superb brain would be useless. In this meeting, Eddie actually paid him back not only the money, but also the brain he desperately needed. Because without the brain Gennady’s money is also useless. 

Lindy, who is also in love with Eddie, in a life threatening situation, asks Eddie what to do. Eddie tells him what to do and she does things she would never do if it was up to her. She says she felt invincible. However, she didn’t like it. She refused this power Eddie was so keen on having.

For Van Loon, Eddie is the talent and a son. For Gennady he was the brain he never had. For Lindy, he was the kind of power maybe only men have. 

So where is NZT in all this? What about Vernon and Melissa? Read my perspective on the Symbolism of the Limitless movie here to tie it all together.