No Really, Limitless Is A Bonkers Franchise

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Oh boy, I sure do have a lot to say about the 2011 movie, Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper. In this video, at how Eddie Morra is a strangely timely figure and the hypocrisy of elite philanthropy.
Music:
“Electric Mantis - Daybreak | Majestic Color”
ow.ly/G7gg30iypqm

[@hectorh.micheos.1717]

Can't wait for "You know Limitless? Bonkers franchise?: The Reveangence".

[@itizzano8233]

Can’t wait for you to get out of my face and shut up.

[@ericainspace]

I feel like spamming Alan Glynn to get him to respond.

[@Pyraticalpunk]

The revolution

[@youwaisef]

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

[@Alfareon]

that's fucking batshit insane

[@willmulligan3896]

What's weird about the Limitless franchise is that 3/4 of the installments are just called Limitless.

[@clintholmes2061]

There are limits to making titles.

[@AlexA-il3xb]

actually, the first novel was originally published with a different title

[@logancox6548]

It's like a horror movie franchise, at this point.

[@BigMac8000]

There are no fractions of infiniiiitttyyyyyy. No infinity 2, or infinity 3 just..... INFINIIIITYYYYY

[@nickv1212]

The naming department seems pretty limited.

[@greyfox4838]

imagine writing a social commentary novel about capitalism only so that hollywood and big television studios can pick it up and make it about how good capitalism is and how much valor smart, rich individuals have

[@markparkinson6947]

Was the commentary against capitalism? If so, then that’s pretty ironic.

[@vitocorleone3764]

What’s so funny is that the movie isn’t even recuperation. It’s straight up capitalist propaganda now.

[@markparkinson6947]

@@vitocorleone3764 Limitless massacred your boy, Godfather!

[@master0fthearts894]

Yeah, it would be worse than a bad adaptation. It would be a movie that tries its best to directly contradict the original message and intent of the book, completely disregarding the soul of the story and then stealing its name, characters, and plot. It’s practically book identity theft. And yeah, I know that if it were me, I would be absolutely *triggered* that a bunch of people massacred my story. That’s why as an aspiring author, I intend to overlook and handle adaptations first hand.

[@master0fthearts894]

@@vitocorleone3764 Capitalist propaganda thats sequels revealed to be capitalist propaganda and called it out on it while making the themes and points better, just like the original novel, and then to weirdly contradict some of the novel’s sequel/prequel themes in the final stretch out of fear of not getting a second season and a bunch of weird reasons, yeah, it’s definitely a bonkers franchise.

[@ellentheeducator]

Eddie Morra being a villain just makes me want a Death Note-style story. He's still a brilliant power-hungry bastard with nebulous goals, but this time - have him go crazy with it

[@darrelwilliams8376]

I don't understand where the narrative of Eddie Morra being a power hungry bastard stems from. The movie and tv show make it clear what he thinks and how he feels about things. It is clearly shown in the movie that during his trip with those rich friends he made he realized what he could do with the pills, and began setting out on the road to change the world. That's all you need to know about Eddie. Nothing else is stated or hinted at, not even in the tv show. However, despite what's being clearly stated and shown It seems to me that the person who wrote this video had a theory in mind for the type of guy Eddie is, then cherry picked things in the movie that could be misconstrued as meaning something else. He took Eddie's inner monologue about changing the world and interpreted it as an attempt to convince whoever the fuck that there's a plan in all this. He took Eddie's cure for world hunger as some attempt by Eddie to try to seem like the good guy. For the latter I'd understand if he'd said he wanted to change the world but ended up selling those foods for an extremely high price, but nothing of that sort has even happened. All he's done is thought to himself he's going to do something then actually do what he said he'd do.

[@KhanhNguyen-vz4rx]

@@darrelwilliams8376 a little late here, but you can get a much clearer idea behind this video if you look into the Gates foundation, or many others philanthropic endeavors. I specified Gates' here because they sponsored many videos from content creators that I personally follow, and words have circulate around that they are very specific and rigid in what you put out. They want their message stamped and clean cut. Is the Gates foundation goal noble? I do believe so, and I would say it is doing more goods than harms, but by forcing a standard message, with little room for personal opinion, in essentially became propaganda/advertisement where their solutions to the world's problems is the only solutions without any critique ou alternatives, and establishing a monopoly of sort. It is a flaw of capitalism, like the book author criticised. Even with a noble cause, operating in a framework where profits is the greatest objective will eventually run into constraints of the system, and your goals can be imprinted on. Eddie Morra does no inform us on how he plans to deliver his solutions to the world, and the only thing we know that he said has the solution, and more power will help him realizing it.

[@ames-inthe-grass]

@@darrelwilliams8376 you realise he’s using the book, the movie’s based on for reference right?? lmao

[@fightcinema3917]

@@ames-inthe-grass guess what

[@harrybudgeiv349]

@@ames-inthe-grass Yeah, and he's putting his own spin on the depictions of show and movie. Everyone does it, doesn't mean it's the sole view of how to interpret it.

[@laurathecreature870]

Fun fact: "Morra", the movie character's last name, means "die" in portuguese, so when I saw that poster telling people to re-elect him it took me a few seconds before I got over the fact that a poster was telling me to drop dead.

[@GusmaoPedro]

eu não sabia que era escrito assim, eu so escutei e imaginei que era "Mora", interessante

[@AlexisDouFlo]

Hahaha that cannot be a coincidence

[@raiorai2]

Eddie Morra sounds like "Die, Eddie"

[@laurathecreature870]

@@raiorai2 oh god, it does! 😂😂

[@lilyovalle7254]

"Morra" in spanish is how sometimes we call young girls, so there's that

[@ClockworkGearhead]

Leaving Eddy's motivations undefined is lowkey genius, because it just makes him look exceptionally vain if you interpret it as he has none.

[@d1t183]

I absolutely adored the tv show. I thought it was unique and took risk, had a cool visual style, I loved the universe, and the characters had chemistry. I even liked the underlying plot, and was super excited for season 2. Super disappointed other people didn’t see it this way. Loved this show.

[@alanpennie8013]

I know. Still at least what we did get was great.

[@SaitoGray]

It's was great, i'm still SO salty about the cancellation...

[@Nukestarmaster]

Yeah, I haven't seen the movie, nor have I read the books, but I love the tv show.

[@topfloorbossopium]

The show is great I love it

[@gamertagboakan7417]

From what I had thought, the show was dropped due to rumours (idk if proven) is the amount of Drugs the writers were on.

[@thatonedudea]

I always had this idea that the movie, was kind of his retelling of events, so he acts like this Is all for the greater good. But that's just a lie he tells himself to justify his actions. Despite what he says, he never does anything unless it's for him

[@Horatio787]

I think Limitless is an unintentional deconstruction of its main idea, a super smart man will save the world and do everything perfectly. Eddie is the "smartest" being who's ever lived, and has a 4 digit IQ. He borrows money from a murderer, he has the money to pay him back and never does, he has to then murder him (self defense but he started it), he gets his bodygaurds murdered, he almost gets his girlfriend murdered, he probably gets those lab techs who were producing his drug arrested, and he still thinks he's smart.

[@florinivan6907]

You can view Limitless as a deconstructed superhero movie. He gains new powers and suddenly he wants to change the world. He even has a arch nemesis that started out as a friend.

[@alanpennie8013]

@@florinivan6907 Very much so.

[@NoBreakz]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

[@Tholen3]

@@NoBreakz to bad hell doesnt exist and "good" is based on ones own perspective.

[@BalkanSpectre]

How I get it: Book: Criticism on the vanity of Capitalism Movie: Neo-Liberal power fantasy

[@OpqHMg]

ugh how disappointed but not surprised

[@rooracleaf561]

Checkmate liberals

[@Hayanomie]

As a leftist I hate to say I still drew inspiration from it and it got me into trading stocks. I hate capitalism but to be honest I think anybody not invested (even if they're able to set aside $10/month, $120 a year or any small installment) is missing out on too much for their own good. Esp after corona the market bottomed out and it was a great time to buy in.

[@Tenebrousable]

Money is not the root of all evil. Government money is.

[@BalkanSpectre]

@@Tenebrousable Sure thing mate. Let's see... In our outopia i guess corporations are good?

[@m.g.9468]

I never had the impression that his "Plan" was inherently altruistic. He just wanted a high profile big impact on the world. His vision was whatever would make him important and grand. Basically a narcissistic pursuit of power. In the show he gave me major Darth Plagueis vibes. I never saw him as a hero, more an anti-villain. A Thanos. A Griphith. A Sozin.

[@alanpennie8013]

I think the show could have made him a good guy in the end. But the clues did point in the other direction.

[@drewkroeker]

I agree. He got ahold of this miracle pill and started turning his dead-end life around for his own gain, not to help others. I really liked the Faustian bargain of how the pill lets you fulfill your utmost potential while also eventually killing you horribly. If it was just a pill that made you awesome, there would be no conflict or inner turmoil (I guess there would be conflict between characters fighting over the supply but it wouldn't be the same).

[@russetwolf13]

To be fair it's almost impossible for a single person to save the world, so a smart person wouldn't even try... He could have helped out some people on the street for shits and giggles but hey, he was only making huge fucking piles of money for most of the film.

[@m.g.9468]

@@russetwolf13 Thats a fascinating question. Intuitively I would say that it would be possible for one extremely intelligent entity to solve most of the current problems if given enough data. But since Eddie was not even able to forecast that going in bed with the mob was idiotic or thats he should live more healthy, he was definitely not that person. In the show he is slightly smarter and does share his power with some people to gain more computing and input power, but he choses those individuals poorly, since literally EVERYONE he gives direct or indirect access to NZP betrays him. So ENOUGH people (100s), with the RIGHT mindset (idealistic, altruistic, humanitarian, pragmatic), and an HIGH enough degree of integrity and trust too each other (maybe a family or close friends) COULD be able to steer the world around most problems we currently face. But the moment they split up and have to maneuver around each other, or get corrupted or loose their trust in each others integrity, we have a situation much worse then before. So basically I agree. It is ALMOST impossible. But a smart person would still try ;)

[@anadice9489]

The ambiguity gives me the impression that it's left as a blank to be filled in by the audience, making him right no matter what. "What would you do in his position? Well he's super smart and [possibly therefore] wouldn't do wrong, so that's what he would do." Like it won't give his stance on something like abortion, because having an actual explicit stance might alienate audiences who no longer consider him likeable and now can't as easily self-insert as him. He's supposed to be that change-the-world power fantasy, so he can't be shown changing or wanting to change it in ways that would conflict with that fantasy.

[@GoFidoGo]

In hindsight, I never really thought critically about the plot or motivations in the first film. It seemed kind of understandable in a creepy way. At the time it was pure power fantasy but now it just mirrors an ugly part of our culture.

[@maltemuller4062]

Same for me, kind of shocking if you think about it. That those assumptions are aparently that deeply ingrained.

[@JustKrin]

I see it as "how far are you willing to go now that you are here and can't turn back" "I'll never keep using a drug that can kill me" you say, but you already started and is working so why stop? "I would never ask a mobster for money" well you are short on cash and is a quick way to gain it. "I would never kill a person" and so on. Is the best example of Crossing the bridge when you get to it. For how smart Eddie is, he hardly thinks about the negative consequences

[@carolsimpson4422]

That's why I liked the one season of the tv show based on the film. Because morra is the bad guy, in opposition to the shows hero- and we explore what might happen if a truly moral person were to take nzt.

[@iche9373]

It’s a neoliberal porn

[@Lurklen]

Haha, I always thought of Limitless as the movie where the bad guy wins. I love that everything can be a procedural. Also I love how the guy is at the highest level of human intelligence, but can't figure out how to work around lobbyists and ant-gmo rhetoric.

[@ArsyaUtomo]

i thought it was all bad guy, lesser evil wins

[@eze1196]

Whay is ant gmo rethoric

[@Lurklen]

@@eze1196 Do you mean "What is anti-gmo rhetoric?" If so, it's the collected arguments against growing genetically altered food.

[@patronofsaints2062]

@@Lurklen it's funny because every single food that anyone eats now unless you're in the wild IS genetically altered by thousands of years of selective breeding.

[@ouss]

This is in the early 2000's where everybody assumed you had to be smart to be president

[@NoGoodNik1]

Certainly the country wouldn't elect someone so stupid to be president in the early 00s. Let alone for two whole terms

[@Anthonycheesman33]

I mean we had ronald Reagan and george bush we knew you just had to be rich and white to president lol.

[@RavagingTiger]

Right? Who think of smart and president hello Bush Clinton 😆

[@davinci3478]

@@Anthonycheesman33 George Bush looks like a freaking genius now days lol which is saying a lot

[@Anthonycheesman33]

@@davinci3478 bush is still way worse then trump we had to deal with 8 Years of that clown lol.

[@JRHainsworth]

"Let's take this movie and turn it into a detective show" Well, it worked for Snowpiercer.

[@markparkinson6947]

Shame the Limitless TV show only had one season.

[@jliller]

I guess it had a limit after all.

[@markparkinson6947]

@@jliller The tragic irony. Everything has a limit to some capacity, but this show was unfortunately short-lived in relative terms.

[@alexwr]

It's a shame it followed a similar formula to so many other cop/crime/superdetective shows... It'd have been better if it hadn't done what Numb3rs or White Collar or hell, even Sherlock hadn't already done.

[@carolsimpson4422]

I'm still sad it ended. It was just getting interesting! Nzt had just reached critical mass and spilled into culture. People were making crazy intricate straw art and psycho spiritual society was evolving based on sharing the experience. Massive amounts of people are about to get very sick and die. It's so intense! And then it ended.

[@thomaswilliams3948]

@@jliller DEAD!!!!

[@Moxyval]

“This is back in the early Two-Thousands when people thought you had to be smart to be the president” Too true bro

[@Zvox]

i really love the limitless series. brian is an infinitely more relatable character than eddie was, and the show was basically psych but more grounded.

[@alexanderwales7870]

I really liked the show, though most of that was the lead, and the rest was how weird it was willing to get. Glad to see someone talk about it.

[@AxxLAfriku]

SUPRISE! I am the funniest YTer evah!!!! Just kidding, it was no surprise. Everybody knew already. HAHAHHAHA!!!! That was an amazing joke (it was real talk though). WAWAWAWAWA!!!! Good afternoon, dear ben

[@alanpennie8013]

The show was barely noticed, but it was very entertaining and inventive.

[@Eric-yj5xg]

You just dont understand how one's mind can adapt to different perspective ungrasped by your creativity

[@_quirky_3617]

I really enjoyed the Limitless TV show and it upset me that it didn't get a season 2. Brian Finch was a such a good protagonist

[@ElMoShApPiNeSs]

They had all the right ingredients except they decided to make it another fucking cop show. There's too many. Come up with something original FFS. Same thing happened with Lucifer.

[@HOTD108_]

Meh. It's was mostly just like any other cop show, pretty boring imo.

[@lastword8783]

@@ElMoShApPiNeSs same thing happened to a show called 'almost human' i was there for a live showing of the pilot in Toronto and it seemed so promising but the networks turned the actual show into a generic cop show with science fiction as a backdrop. It was terrible and didnt get a 2nd season

[@User24x]

@@ElMoShApPiNeSs I'd be too much work, too risky...

[@alanpennie8013]

@Novem's Natural Roll I think this is true. They actually used the procedural format as a vehicle for absurdist humor, which would probably have got old quickly, but was fun over the short run of this show.

[@abigailblackmon1144]

I remember really enjoying the Limitless tv series, but this is just such an interesting perspective I hadn't thought about

[@roycebracket]

Yeah I thought it was pretty great, a decent subversion of the usual police procedural that had some decent humour. Quite a fan actually

[@HebaruSan]

That Lex Luthor looked exactly like Scott Manley, "uncanny" doesn't begin to cover it

[@ianforsure]

The ending to the movie always terrified me as a kid. This dude who was so smart he could do literally anything he wanted, who had power and wealth, and was easily ready to obtain more after the movie ends. Like hell no did I find him likeable, do was scary as hell

[@slomnim]

The show basically expands on that fear you felt, with Morra being the main villan

[@AlexReynard]

Why would that scare you, instead of inspiring you?

[@Munnmaista]

I'm pretty sure the Limitless show was the most watched show to ever be cancelled by that network at the time so I don't think it was a minor cancellation. In the UK a lot of people I knew were annoyed it got cancelled too so I think it had a fairly wide audience

[@SpirusOfH]

"Self-appointed saviours who pledge to use the wealth they've hoarded to fix the problems the hoarding of that wealth created" - damn, well said.

[@wardkerr2456]

Why should peasants have to suffer hunger while the Kulaks horded their wealth?

[@De34thl1v3s]

That line is way too corny. Obviously from someone who doesn’t know anything about economy trying to sound cool. They literally cant just give away money that shit would wreck the economy. Causing actual damage. It is inevitable, someone will collect it. Problems were there and will be there forever. Capitalism has nothing to do with that. Its just arrgoance and it is sad that you think it was well said.

[@SpirusOfH]

@@De34thl1v3s he didn't say they should give away their money or even that they shouldn't hoard it in the first place. He's just pointing out the fact that the very act of gaining that wealth has caused or exacerbated the problems these philanthropists billionaire claim to want to solve. "Someone has to change the system so it might as well be me" - it's literally why people are corrupted by the One Ring, everyone thinks their actions are justified since they can solve all the problems, yet the very act of gaining the power causes the problems.

[@__D10S__]

@@De34thl1v3s yes... someone will collect that wealth... a whole lot of people will. It will go from the hands of 1 to the hands of many. That is not as nebulas as you are trying to portray. The problem isn't wealth, inherently. It is the accumulation of disproportionate wealth in the hands of an increasingly small group of people who consequently control the mechanisms of our government that is the problem

[@cornfednebraskaneer]

@@__D10S__ redistribution by force is tyranny.

[@johnstevens5722]

"[...] the smoking industry killed Ned Sweeney in the 50s because he discovered that; in addition to making you smart, NZT also cures nicotine addiction." So, NZT is basically a psychedelic mixed with some kind of speed? Well that's not realistic! It's not like large corporations have suppressed scientific research on the medical applications of psychedelics... Right?

[@krystofon]

what???

[@patronofsaints2062]

Surely not...

[@joshuaridley48]

I used to fell like no one talked about limitless enough and Just Write breaks it down twice in an informed opinionated discussion. Great Video keep up the good work

[@JKPippa]

I absolutely adore the show and have watched it several times and cried when it was cancelled. I wanted five more seasons of it, it was so creative and fun, I still adore it. It was great.

[@jbftcmof]

Am I the only one who noticed; Hey, that's' a Tim's box... wait a second - those aren't TimHorton's donuts inside!

[@markparkinson6947]

I don’t know why, but I read this comment in Sage’s voice. 😂

[@nebulatteproductions3433]

Didn’t know you were Canadian! As a group of Canadian filmmakers it’s great to see more folks like us passionate and successful! Keep it up and here’s to 2021!

[@aetherfukz]

I absolutely loved the Limitless series, such a shame it was canceled way too soon.

[@Fredjikrang]

Interesting video, but I feel like you mischaracterized some things from the show. The first is "FBI Good Actually". There are several examples of crimes committed by various members of the FBI throughout the series. The FBI as a whole is shown not exactly as a complex organization, but at least as having good, bad, and complicated people working in it, which is certainly more accurate than being fully good or bad. The second is where you say that there is a magic drug that gets rid of all of the side effects of taking NZT. I feel like you are missing one of the most emphasized themes of the show by saying this. What makes Finch special isn't the immunity shot he gets from Mora, but that his personality and desires are good enough that taking NZT doesn't drive him to do terrible things. Counter examples are Mora himself, as well as the FBI team that take the drug. I think that you covered Mora's situation well, where he is frequently doing terrible things supposedly for some altruistic reason. But the case of the FBI team is the more interesting example I think. One of the team members, after taking NZT, believes that his wife is cheating on him with another member of the team, and then kills him. This also leads to the whole team making some other bad decisions and one of the other members getting killed as well. The idea is that NZT doesn't just make someone smarter, it also tends to dampen empathy and often leads to tragedy, even without the direct side effects of the drug. This change in personality is mentioned by Rebecca throughout the series as well in her interactions with Finch. It is a simplification to think that such a drug would wholly improve humanity if only there weren't side effects, and that is something that the show at least tries to explore.

[@MaxIronsThird]

The show is much better than he's giving it credit for.

[@Roger_Smith]

I think the fact that Brian spends most of his first pill helping people but everyone else spends it helping themselves and showing off is interesting and striking

[@DrPotatoPerson]

I loved the limitless movie, watched and re watched it. Never occured to me that he was meant to seem heroic. Always seemed like someone who mostly wanted to get as powerful as possible and figured he'd try to make good change with it because he had nothing else to do.

[@sassycaterpillar6631]

I don't think the reason for cancellation was appeal. That's what CBS exec conveniently says, since it's believable: "Ultimately we had to look at the show; it was a very good show, but I don't think it connected with the viewers as well as other shows had," Glenn Geller, President, CBS Entertainment, said during the network's Television Critics Association panel. "Yeah, we could have brought it back. But we also have to put on new shows and give other things a shot. It could have come back, but we have to do better; we want to improve time periods. That's why we put on new shows." He doesn't think it connected with viewers despite the fanbase it was shown to have? Sure. I guess we could believe that for CBS. So they decided to shop it around to other networks: www.inquisitr.com/4778622/limitless-season-2-heres-why-its-impossible-for-jake-mcdormans-cbs-series-to-be-renewed/ Apparently Netflix didn't like the appeal of glorifying drug use and "found the show too complicated," after releasing the first season on it's platform. Back when Netflix had a rating system, Limitless the series had a 5 star rating, but I guess we can ignore that and say it's not popular or was just synthetically made popular in that rating system. At this point you could criticize the article from the inquisitr, or bring into question what are the sources to anything that was supposedly said for the deals on netflix, but idk, i call shenanigans.

[@officialnoria]

Wow, he really did delete his poorly researched Attack on Titan video

[@alexsolomons2996]

Well technically it was copyright claimed, but yah that video he made was shit. He doesn't provide context to any of the scenes and all I got from it was "military bad".

[@markparkinson6947]

I love the premise of Limitless, the prospect that a character can be at their best when taking the NZT drug, so when the antagonists use the drug, it allows for the protagonist to be incredibly smart in their endeavors and also resourceful at the same time, usually without NZT!

[@martinovallejo]

This is a very surface reading, but the feeling I got from the first movie was that Morra's 'plan' was intentionally left untold not only because it avoids dealing with the inherent contradictions in his actions, but also because it makes a place for the viewer to insert whatever he thinks is 'helping the world'. That's makes it pallatable to a greater scope of audience (still within a mostly capitalist mindset) than it would have if it actually tried to make a statement about what it means to improve the world.

[@AlexReynard]

It might also be a factor that, sometimes in my own writing, I'll leave a scene about politics as vague as possible, because I want people to focus on what happens in that scene, instead of descending into nitpicks about whatever subject matter I would have used as an example.

[@hyperscion5749]

If only netflix picked this up for season 2 it will be good rivaling lucifer

[@JainaSoloB312]

This reminds me so much of Mary Poppins Returns. It is thematically diametrically opposed to the original film. It ends with (spoilers) the villains of the original, the bank, bailing out the main characters because the antagonist of the original, the father, wisely invested that tuppence in the bank instead of letting his children give it to the old bird woman. Mary Poppins, our moral arbiter, describes the saints and apostles looking down and smiling upon this old woman and the people who altruistically donate to her so she can feed the birds of St. Paul's Cathedral. You'll be hard pressed to find a film which so unambiguously declares which character is the most righteous. And in its sequel, Disney completely rejects the ethos of the classic film, in favor of a "rich old white man savior" narrative which goes so far as to imply that the reason they're saved at the end is because they Didn't altruistically donate to the poor old woman. It is such a blatantly corporation-friendly retcon that I'm astonished more people didn't talk about it.

[@ivocorte1580]

Idk, but maybe that's why i didn't even know there was a sequel to mary poppins?

[@AJ-lo5dr]

I loved the franchise... i cant even understand why

[@benamos2878]

Serial hugging?

[@alanpennie8013]

@@benamos2878 And there were equally good jokes in other episodes.

[@specialknees6798]

Wish fulfillment probably

[@unoriginaljames]

I was like 10 minutes in and was like "This reminds me so much of Winners Take All, I bet he'd love that book." Happy to see you had already read it! Thanks for the video!

[@KeithBallardA]

Anticapitalist messages get repurposed as pro-capitalist adaptations so reflexively that I'm not even sure the creators of the adaptations are aware of what they're doing. It's like how I reflexively think that red barrels explode after years and years of video games. They just uncritically start with the base assumption that capitalism = good and filter out anything that contradicts that, even if it means that have to make a movie where the greedy scrooge man is secretly a good person because 'reasons.'

[@AlexReynard]

Maybe it's that, when you set a smart person down to write an anticapitalist adaptation, and they think about it, they realize that it's the least-harmful economic system we've ever produced, and that more people out to be grateful for it. Seriously, the problems with capitalism tend to be caused by universal human failings like greed and lack of empathy. Capitalism doesn't cause us to be that way, it just makes it so that sometimes wealth and goods come out of it, instead of the much-worse outcomes of communism or having one king and a kingdom of slaves.

[@Hipurchase]

When I watched it I always saw eddy as one of those guy who justified all the shit he does in hes own head as for a good reason so he doesn’t seem like a bad person to himself this type of person is way more common then I’m comfortable with

[@dragon_slayer-xh5pt]

The movie, I liked. The show, I LOVED. I liked the premise and characters, and the specter of Eddie was very interesting. It's a shame it wasn't renewed for future seasons.

[@greensoplenty6809]

“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed." i dont know much about barry goldwater but think he said it well.

[@stillasp]

I'm sorry to be that guy. But besides survival isn't a lot of pursuit in life a pursuit of power. When or where is the cutoff point.

[@russetwolf13]

I wouldn't phrase it that way. A better, more useful way to look at the pursuit of power is: Power does not corrupt, but the corrupt will always seek power. And more often then not, the very pursuit of power requires corruption to acquire it. Basically if I gave you power you'd probably use it to try and help people, and probably would do a good job of it. You know the danger of what you're doing because you've been on the ground and seen how it can fuck up. But the guy who goes out of his way to get power is probably a fucking crazy person, because who the fuck actually wants power? You want money because of what it can get you, you want the idea having enough money to not worry about money anymore. But the guy who actually wants money for it's own sake, the guy most likely to actually get it, is inherently a disturbed individual. No one builds a Kill Sat unless they have a person they want to use it on.

[@stillasp]

@@russetwolf13 Okay I guess I’d phrase it more like- what can be done with power, are you corruptible or are you yourself corrupt, what would you be willing do with power. Idk maybe that’s poorly expressed or too vague.

[@jumooglie6119]

Once again, thank you for this fascinating video and your intricate view of this franchise ! Thank you so much for making your videos. I always eagerly wait for your next one, and I am never desapointed ^^ Thank you for this small present and contribution to mankind. Also, it's insane how I am discovering so many of my favorite youtubers are actually Canadians, haha. You guys make awesome persons :D

[@joaovitorreisdasilva9573]

At the end of the movie the guy has a better version of the drug, that isn't addictive and it has all the benefits. If he truly wants to make a good impact in the world... Why find a way to distribute the drug to everyone on the planet? '-' Like the definition and concept of intelligence the story uses is kinda... "bad", but even within the limitations of this story, he could have made such a monumental impact in the world '-' Oh neat, it was a point raised somewhere in the video.

[@PalimpsestProd]

Why would you need to "convince" the producer of the show to act in the show thereby increasing it's ratings because he's a movie star? I would assume it was Bradley's idea.

[@alanpennie8013]

Fair point.

[@radioactivepotato2068]

Reminds me of my experience of being diagnosed and medicated for ADHD at age 41.

[@matthewmcneany]

Fun fact, they did some trials and stocks picked by cats and babies did just as well as those picked by expert stockbrokers. There are so many bad assumptions which underpin this series.

[@alanpennie8013]

The cats and babies were obviously on NZT.

[@jonwheeler75]

Also, being a "super genius" would not make stock-picking any easier. Stocks don't follow logic and smarts. They follow the masses, and the masses are inherently dumb. So unless being smart helps you think like you're dumb, NZT would not help at stock picking. PS This statement is a simplification. Stocks are much more nuanced than "do what a dumb guy would do". But many times a company reports record earnings only for the stock to drop 14% minutes after reporting those record earnings.

[@ExNihil0]

@@jonwheeler75 trend analysis is a thing.

[@jonwheeler75]

@@ExNihil0 no denying that, but every prospectus ever legally has to include "past performance doesn't infer (i know they use a different word but I'm tired) future success" for a reason. Trends mean nothing without understanding the underlying sociological factors and even then it only helps maybe 5%. What i mean is even with all the time and data analysis a "professional" will only have a 5% greater chance of beating an index over a non-educated "stock-picker" who throws a dart at the daily stock ticker to pick their investments. Being "smart" has almost ZERO (that's not hyperbole) impact on future performance in the stock market. It's just a rough estimate, I'm not saying that number is exact, but it is very small whatever the actual number is.

[@whateverreally1347]

@@jonwheeler75 Woof, there is a LOT wrong with your comment. Stock picking is about modelling human reaction. It's essentially constructing predictive psychological models applied to the stock market. Stocks don't follow logic, but they do follow patterns. Saying "NZT would not help at stock picking because stocks follow the masses who are dumb" is like saying you don't need to be smarter than a bird to mathematically model how flocks of birds migrate. By the way, the "masses" have had almost no impact on stock prices. Retail traders represent such a microscopic part of the market compared to institutional traders that their opinions and reactions will have no impact on a stock's price. Unless you have a super unique situation like GameStop where a bunch of retail traders coordinate to manipulate the price of a stock that institutional traders are ignoring. Modelling human behaviour is useful and you do need some smarts to do it. Also the stock market never reacts to news. It reacts to the difference between the news and the expectation. There's absolutely no reason why a stock's price should increase after a company reports record earnings if the market was predicting those earnings. If the market was expecting the company to have bonkers earnings and they just ended up being amazing but not as good as expected, then it's completely normal for the price to drop, because it was overvalued based on assumptions of greater performance.

[@Cal94]

i loved the tv series, and was crushed when it was cancelled...

[@OdysseyHome-Gaming]

It's strange... The myth of the evil genius. It's an oxymoron since to be completely evil requires great stupidity. So speading fear about smart people sounds like something stupid people would do to make themselves look smart to other stupid people. 🤔 Does this pill make people smart or just makes them stupid like a computer? 😂

[@LucasDimoveo]

Can you do a video analyzing the "no transhumans allowed" trope in entertainment media? Most times in movies or books if someone augmented shows up they are the bad guy. One of the big exceptions here is the Limitless movie

[@The.Nasty.]

Define “augmented” in this instance please?

[@LucasDimoveo]

@@The.Nasty. cybernetic parts, genetic engineering, "limitless pills", etc. Often times if stories want to give the protagonist superpowers it is accidental. If someone intentionally seeks that ability, they are generally considered evil.

[@jcunningham8041]

Furiousa?

[@itgaam]

@@LucasDimoveolike iron man? Or Captain america?

[@LucasDimoveo]

@@itgaam Cap is a big exception. Iron man isn't really augmenting his body, but that is a good point

[@pauseunpause22]

are you aware that bradley cooper was an executive producer of the TV Show right, he was fully behind it and didnt just make "4 cameo's" the way that he is portrayed in the show and lack of screen time is very intentional in my opinion the way he is used. if he were a main staple of the show i think it would degrade from his effectiveness as a character

[@NilesBlackX]

Well that was a surprisingly in depth piece of social commentary for a video about Limitless, of all things

[@NelsonStJames]

Because smart entertainment that is subtle in it's messages is extremely rare today, and the entertainment that wears it's messages on it's sleeve and hits you over the head with it tend to not be as smart or deep as it thinks it is.

[@user-si3gu8pm6j]

Just realized Limitless is a Flowers for Algernon inspired tale

[@specialknees6798]

Fuck man I really need to read that. I keep putting it off

[@user-si3gu8pm6j]

It’s definitely worth reading

[@ruthielalastor2209]

Thoroughly interesting video. And what a time to discuss this franchise. You got a good one. Happy new year! ✨

[@wjzav1971]

The book character reminds me of Frank Underwood from House of Cards. He doesn't want to make the world a better place, he doesn't follow a certain ideology, he doesn't have a policy in mind that he wants to make happen, he has no vision of how America should be and he has nothing but contempt for humans or humanity. He simply wants power for the sake of it.

[@boredphysicist]

Tbf tho that did happen to golden rice. It was going to help poor countries surivive and 1st world GMO haters banned it

[@spazzyshortgirl23]

The Limitless TV series was great. I wish it had gone forward.

[@beny874]

I never looked that deeply into Limitless, I was one of the guys who just laughed and perhaps fantasised as you suggested in the first video. It was a film where my mind decided to switch off the part that detects any allegories. In other words my subconscious categorised the film into the same box as Michael Bays films or the Fast and the Furious franchise. Looking at it now I can't help but think what a wasted story it was. The neo-liberal ideal for me personally has never held much salt. I'm Australian, come from divorced parents, and grew up observing how money destroys relationships and dominates lives with little discretion between on who has more of it. I'd like to have enough money to play my video games, read my books, go to uni and buy a newer car that doesn't have rain leak through the firewall and has a few bells and whistles. I'm not the only one with this belief. Its also becoming more prominent. However very few people who share this belief accumulate any noticeable wealth or end up in positions of power. I've made a few different career changes. I'm a huge plane nut and was in the aviation industry but I found myself jaded and a fish out of water since everyone who chose to be in that industry didn't actually want to know a fucking thing about aircraft. Everything my peers "knew", the knew because they "needed" to know it. Because it was a required piece of knowledge to get ahead and make money. No one knew anything because they "wanted" to, because it was "cool". The industry as a whole is like that now and those type of people are the ones that are valued. It's full of ambitious robots. These robots are the ones that climb through the ranks in our society. Ironically you often see job positions stating they're looking for a "passionate" love for the industry. I don't know where I was going with this comment. Just that the various themes of Limitless that you described seem pretty bang on to me. Society is indeed stuck in a neo-liberal delusion and the fact that people still dress themselves up as being passionate and driven to change instead of openly admitting that they're a greedy fuck who just wants money is laughable. Its almost as if everyone who has the power and those who want it are all lying to eachother on why they're there. Employer wants employee who works their ass off to make the company money. Employee wants employer to give them money. Yet saying that when asked "why do you want to work here?" is the wrong answer. Go figure.

[@LuRobot15]

this is the perfect evolution of the video essay

[@rlr5048]

2:28 Wasn't _Bush_ in office during the early 2000's?

[@TeddyBearAssassin]

G.W. Bush didn't sound intelligent and wasn't a great speaker but he graduated from both Yale and the Harvard School of Business. He was also in the Air National Guard. Trump... well. Filed for bankruptcy 6 times for his businesses and allegedly cheated hardcore in school.

[@ledafrost]

You bring up so many good points, wow. Excellent essay and video!

[@LungsOutJem]

"A superhero story." That right there absolutely nails it. Have you ever read Reign of the Superman by Jerry Siegal? It was absolutely amazing, like if Flowers for Algernon had a plot. I have no doubt that the Limitless book was heavily "inspired" by it. But unfortunately, just like the last video on the franchise, you've again shown that you just don't do your research. No one had to convince Bradley Cooper to show up for cameos. Limitless was his baby. He loved it. He campaigned to get the movie made and the tv series, and as an executive producer on the show, he had most of the control over its story. He was the one doing the convincing.

[@nathandrake5544]

I read Limitless years ago and I never realized that there is a sequel. Now I have to read it!

[@alanpennie8013]

Your winter is instantly cheerier.

[@domoshea4104]

“This was back in the early 2000’s when most people assumed you had to be smart to be president.” Really? You mean the early 2000’s when George W Bush was president & the constant running joke about him was that he was stupid?

[@randomizer1227]

stupid but not deranged like trump, you have to admit that even though bush did far horrible things than trump, he was atleast competent.

[@user-fq4hj8yv2z]

@@randomizer1227 Cosmetically speaking. Though trump is just... sad to know and see.

[@domoshea4104]

@@randomizer1227 sure he was competent. Competent at ignoring warnings that led to the biggest terrorist attack on US soil in history. Competent at using the fear from that event to institute authoritative laws (the Patriot Act). Competent at constructing lies to validate invading Iraq & starting a war. Competent at allowing financial practices to flourish that led to a global financial crisis. Sure, he was super competent

[@ClearAsCrystal823]

I feel that GW Bush’s “image” was that he was kinda gullible, kinda slow on the uptake, kinda being driven by larger forces within the GOP (whether this was accurate or not is kind of secondary), versus being willfully and maliciously stupid.

[@spinakker14]

I remember a joke about Ronald Reagan: the president's library burnt down. Unfortunately, both his two colouring books were lost

[@171QA]

Happy (Almost) New Year!

[@TeamBevontation]

I worked with a guy that said the high in limitless is portrayed like your first time doing meth.

[@ThatBeePerson]

I actually watched the tv spinoff of limitless. I had no idea there was anything that came before it, i loved the series.

[@LucasDeziderio]

Turns out that eating the rich is the true way to making us all Limitless.

[@rutessian]

Are you a cannibal?

[@LucasDeziderio]

@@rutessian Well, yes, but actually no.

[@alanpennie8013]

@@LucasDeziderio Be careful the rich don't give you indigestion.

[@cornfednebraskaneer]

Yeah, whatever, Robespierre...

[@loremipsum2408]

I love how the scene from the show with him talking to his Dad seems like it was surgically removed from Boiler Room and transplanted to a show about Adderall addiction. I just want you to be proud of me Daaaaaad

[@jujucatjuca]

I have been waiting so hard for this

[@pistolen87]

"If we had the political and economical willpower to do so" Your analysis is so LIMITED.

[@10cody7]

I enjoyed the movie but the show was completely unwatchable for me...one thing that bothers me from both is the whole 100% of the brain thing lol like ok try and take out the 90% you think we dont use

[@Twillight1234]

There are People who use 100% of their brain at once. It's called epileptic seizures!

[@nomadfc4342]

This video was amazing dude! Really well made, good work!!

[@3rdeyelife234]

...this is possible...however, it comes with it negative side effects. Can you imagine being given EVERY answer to every question you've EVER had? "The tree of knowledge is a metaphor for the two states of mind that a human being can experience." Namaste.

[@kashutosh9132]

What does that mean?

[@3rdeyelife234]

Stoic philosophers of the past would have Expressed this more eloquently.🤔 Spend decades contemplating the nature of your soul,your place on this tiny blue ball in the COSMOS,while always wishing you had chose never to come here,then you too may see this world from the prism of a third EYE...even if only for 2 years. I have more to read & learn, this I am painfully aware. Namaste during these.....interesting times.🙏🧘‍♂️

[@brionbee]

Because his ambitions and plans never got specific, it demanded me to try to figure it out, and this led me to dream about what I would do to change the world. And this is why I love the movie better than the book.

[@sarafagin3967]

I actually really loved the movie. Mainly because, the main character isn't the 'good guy'. He's a selfish character, and right at the end where you expect him to have his selfishness punished, they instead just let him win. I feel like the average person watches superhero movies and think if they had superpowers that's what they'd do, but so many of them are more likely to end up using those powers selfishly like Eddie, good intentioned or not.

[@lostwizard]

Under the right show runner operating with minimal interference, a reboot of Limitless has a lot of potential. But it's got to be the right show runner with the right team. And it probably needs to be a complete reboot. If it ever happens, it will probably benefit from the common streaming service story structure which I view as basically a "long form episodic movie". I get why they went with a police procedural given when it was made and it mostly worked as a framing device. (The problem being the "mostly".) If they were making it now, it probably would be an actual superhero structure, probably along the lines of detective adventure since that really works for "super smart guy helps people". But doing that right now is probably still too soon on the heels of Elementary.

[@JohnBainbridge0]

That rice thing is based on a true story. Golden Rice is a GMO originally developed by the Rockefeller Foundation to feed the world, but it's faced numerous scientific, financial, and political roadblocks.

[@badsongcovers.mp4738]

I reaaaaly wanted the show to continue on, it was fun.

[@shazzatulanam6680]

Why the aot video was taken down?i get that a lot of people disagreed and disliked it but they were not angry about it.

[@JustWrite]

Wasn't my choice. The video has been copyright claimed. Currently trying to get it back up.

[@leftboxanderson5361]

It’s really encouraging to get your thesis through your meditations on this media. Thanks for sharing.

[@prpr8904]

The trope of fixing world hunger with some special plant or something is kinda hilarious when one remembers how much food is just trown away

[@ThePipton]

Limitless basically displays how it feels when you finally get rid of your depression

[@Hayanomie]

Or ADHD.

[@fandomgaming9072]

I think my view of the franchise was greatly altered by the order in which I consumed it. I watched the tv series, then movie (never got to the books tho). I enjoyed the show, cause I look those simple cop shows with a genius formula, and whne I watched the movie I already had eddy framed as a villain in my mind, which makes the whole film an interesting villain origin story as we watch him be corrupted by capitalism. Really wish the limitless show had gotten a 2nd season. Would've liked to see where they took it.

[@thocher]

Yes! I was waiting for this

[@khalidjohnson5523]

It’s not just money, it’s power. We will always step on each other for the pursued of power no matter what form it comes.

[@turtletitan5483]

Did he delete the attack on titan video?

[@Revenge-of-Peace1992]

He had to I came to check it out & I can't find it

[@gilgamesh_9119]

You need to make another video explaining your AOT video! That was so bad dude! How did you F up that bad?

[@g_aware_nerd]

Ty for the management of resources point. this has been one I've championed for years!

[@DOGMA1138]

The rice scene was based on a real event,, which also ironically (or unimaginatively) involved rice - 'Golden Rice' was a GMO crop developed through funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to be rich in beta-carotene which we humans metabolize into vitamin a. The idea behind golden rice was to produce a crop that would improve the nutrition of many developing and underdeveloped nations to reduce night blindness and real blindness as 300,000-500,000 children go blind each year due to vitamin a deficiency and tens of millions of adults suffer from night blindness and other vision impairments due to it as well. However in the late 2000's and early 2010's there was massive manufactured protest against Golden Rice in many developed nations which pretty much tanked the entire project.

[@cps22001]

Sorry to point this out, but the mere act of earning money through the means in which Eddie did does in fact help other people. Investing in the stock market to give companies a boost to their development essentially helps everyone. Why does the intent need to be "altruistic" if the outcome is the same?

[@jdtv50]

Nailed it..

[@Alex-cw3rz]

You don't know how the stock market works, unless he was buying the original sale he isn't giving any company a boost, he's buying a share of another random on wall street, in fact probably a dozen or so, who are selling and probably bought it off someone, then someone else a few times more before you get to the original selling of the shares. Everyone should want to help out humanity, if you don't have that drive you are a husk of excuse for a human.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

@@jdtv50 how did he nail it, the dude doesn't even understand how the stock market works.

[@cps22001]

@@Alex-cw3rz Any fair trade in the market is beneficial to everyone.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

@@cps22001 this is just factually not true, the great depression was caused by trading and speculation something the main character does. Not just is what you said wrong, but it's a goalpost shift from your original misunderstanding of how stocks work.

[@florinivan6907]

Limitless can be analysed as a deconstructed superhero tale. Possibly one of the closest to a genuinely realistic one. Our character is a hero in name only and his main heroism is to not be as bad as his enemies but otherwise he's pretty much a jerk.

[@bookwu5133]

You should watch the boys

[@florinivan6907]

@@bookwu5133 The Boys is still obviously a comic book world. This is sorta believable in the sense that the powers given don't at first glance break the laws of physics.

[@janefkrbtt]

Even the smartest man only likes the sound of helping the world. Never doing the actions but something that SOUNDS like you are saving the world. "I have this rice but there's no way I can get it out, without the big bad fda and those evil rich." Sounds like some tunnels by some other guy or something idk.

[@smileyp4535]

What's interesting about the movie version is, if there was just a line where he says something like "the best way to be the best me, is to have the best world to live in. How do have the best world to live in to invest in myself? Hmm... Well by investing, of course." And then boom, make money for altruistic reasons and actually make him seem smart

[@sandeepaweerasinghe120]

Heyyyyyyy !!!! Where's that Attack on Titan video ?

[@sandeepaweerasinghe120]

@@theshamrockdolls9909 oh boy!

[@charcoalangel7536]

@@theshamrockdolls9909 Oh! That makes sense.

[@aztektheultimatewoman]

Yes! The sequel is finally here!

[@jliller]

From the title I wasn't sure if this was a sequel or a reupload.

[@willerwin3201]

One irony of the show is that GMOs actually can solve a lot of food insecurity and malnutrition issues, but they are widely restricted for no valid scientific, medical, or nutritional reason.

[@bm8594]

Fascinating. Partway through the video I wondered if you'd read Giridharadas and was happy to see it cited - otherwise I was going to suggest his work. Are you aware of any other fiction that addresses the concept of the charade of elite philanthropy? I think it could be made into a very engaging story on top of addressing the issue.