Back to trending
Limitless

Limitless

Thriller · Mystery · Science Fiction · 2011

The life of an unsuccessful writer is transformed by a top-secret 'smart drug' that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract shadowy forces that threaten his new life.

Movie details

Limitless

“What if a pill could make you rich and powerful?”

2011 Thriller · Mystery · Science Fiction 1h 46m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.2 / 10

Community rating

The life of an unsuccessful writer is transformed by a top-secret 'smart drug' that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract shadowy forces that threaten his new life.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Limitless?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Get Out

Get Out

Mystery · 2017

Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window

Crime · 2021

An agoraphobic woman living alone in New York begins spying on her new neighbors only to witness a disturbing act of violence.

Three Days of the Condor

Three Days of the Condor

Thriller · 1975

When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.

Flashback

Flashback

Thriller · 2021

Frederick Fitzell is living his best life—until he starts having horrific visions of Cindy, a girl who vanished in high school. After reaching out to old friends with whom he used to take a mystery drug called Mercury, Fredrick realizes the only way to stop the visions lies deep within his own memories, so he embarks on a terrifying mental odyssey to learn the truth.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Mystery · 2008

Mulder and Scully are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly

Animation · 2006

An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

Stonehearst Asylum

Stonehearst Asylum

Thriller · 2014

An Oxford Medical School graduate takes a position at a mental institution and soon becomes obsessed with a female mental patient, but he has no idea of a recent and horrifying staffing change.

Prodigy

Prodigy

Thriller · 2017

Jimmy is a committed child psychologist who uses his own playbook, but when he is brought in to work with Ellie, he is completely unprepared for his subject—a 9-year-old psychopathic genius with nothing to lose. As he begins to understand the extent of her capabilities and the fate that has been planned for her, he struggles to overcome her defenses before it is too late for them both.

Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon

Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon

Mystery · 2022

A young woman with psychokinetic powers breaks out of a Louisiana asylum and makes her way to New Orleans, where she falls into the city’s netherworld of misfits and miscreants.

Altered States

Altered States

Horror · 1980

A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of human consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from Native American shamans, he explores these altered states of cognizance and finds that memory, time, and reality itself are states of mind.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Neil Burger

Written by

Leslie Dixon

Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper

Edward Morra

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro

Carl Van Loon

Abbie Cornish

Abbie Cornish

Lindy

Andrew Howard

Andrew Howard

Gennady

Anna Friel

Anna Friel

Melissa

Johnny Whitworth

Johnny Whitworth

Vernon

Tomas Arana

Tomas Arana

Man in Tan Coat

Court is in session

Put Limitless on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Big-Idea Head

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.