With the help of a mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100 percent of his brain abilities, a struggling writer becomes a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with lots of dangers.

Eddie Morra: Well, in order for a career to evolve, I'm gonna have to move on.
Carl Van Loon: And you would even think that, would only show me how unprepared you are to be on your own. I mean you do know you're a freak? Your deductive powers are a gift from God or chance or a straight shot of sperm or whatever or whoever wrote your life-script. A gift, not earned. You do not know what I know because you have not earned those powers. You're careless with those powers, you flaunt them and you throw them around like a brat with his trust-fund. You haven't had to climb up all the greasy little rungs. You haven't been bored blind at the fundraisers. You haven't done the time and that first marriage to the girl with the right father. You think you can leap over all in a single bound. You haven't had to bribe or charm or threat your way to a seat at that table. You don't know how to assess your competition because you haven't competed. Don't make me your competition
[first lines]
Eddie Morra: Obviously I miscalculated a few things.
Man: [banging door] Eddie! I know you're in there.
Eddie Morra: Why is it that the moment your life exceeds your wildest dreams, the knife appears at your back? Well, I'll tell you one thing... I will never let them touch me.
Eddie Morra: [to Carl Van Loon] No scenario? I see every scenario, I see 50 scenarios, that's what it does Carl - it puts me 50 moves ahead of you.
Eddie Morra: What was this drug? I couldn't stay messy on it, I hadn't had a cigarette in six hours, hadn't eaten, so... abstemious and tidy? What was this? A drug for people who wanted to be more anal retentive?
Eddie Morra: For a guy with a four digit IQ, I must have missed something. And I hadn't missed much. I'd come this close to having an impact on the world. And now the only thing I'd have an impact on was the sidewalk.
Lindy: Since when do you speak Italian?
Eddie Morra: Oh, self-improvement month.
Eddie Morra: I don't have delusions of grandeur, I have an actual recipe for grandeur.
Eddie Morra: A tablet a day and I was Limitless...
Eddie Morra: [at a party] ... Well sure, you'd get a short-term spike, but wouldn't that rapid expansion devalue the stock completely in two years?
Kevin Doyle: No, 'cause there are safeguards!
Eddie Morra: Against aggressive overexpansion? There aren't because there are no safeguards in human nature. We're wired to overreach. Look at history, all the countries that have ever ruled the world - Portugal, with its big, massive navy... All they've got now are salt cods and cheap condoms.
[crowd laughs]
Eddie Morra: And Brits? Now they're just sitting in their dank little island, fussing over their suits. No one's stopping and thinking, 'Hey, we're doing pretty well. We got France, we got Poland, we got a big Swiss bank account... You know what? Let's not invade Russia in the winter, let's go home, let's pop a beer and let's live off the interest.'
[while Eddie is distracted by news report]
Carl Van Loon: You're not one of those types of people are you Eddie? Where we lose you if there's a TV screen in the room.
[last lines]
Eddie Morra: [to Lindy after ordering in Chinese] What?
Carl Van Loon: Have you been talking to anyone?
Eddie Morra: No, I haven't been talking to anybody, Carl. I'm not stupid.
Carl Van Loon: I know you're not stupid, Eddie, but don't make the classic smart person's mistake thinking no one's smarter than you.
Lindy: Eddie, I know how it's going. I'm your... I was your girlfriend.
Eddie Morra: That word doesn't even begin to describe what you are to me.
Lindy: Partner? Squeeze?
Eddie Morra: Paramour. Inamorata.
Lindy: Cleaning lady. Bank.
[pays for meal]
Eddie Morra: I wasn't high, I wasn't wired. Just clear. I knew what I needed to do and how to do it.
Eddie Morra: You see that guy? That was me not so long ago. What kind of guy without a drug or alcohol problem looks this way? Only a writer.
Eddie Morra: Why is it when your life exceeds your wildest dreams, a knife appears at your back?
Eddie Morra: Hotel rooms were no longer an option. What I needed was a bunker.
Eddie Morra: [parting ways with Carl] You should really be glad about this, because you know, me working for you, you'd end up being my bitch.
Carl Van Loon: You don't really live here, do you?
Eddie Morra: Well ah... the Spartans weren't really big on amenities.
Carl Van Loon: Yeah, and they eventually got their asses kicked.
Eddie Morra: I was blind, but now I see.
Carl Van Loon: Your powers are a gift from God or whoever the hell wrote your life script.
[Gennady is shoving Eddie Mora around in his apartment hallway when the NZT pill falls out of his pocket]
Gennady: What is that?
Eddie Morra: [panicking] Nothing. Just aspirin.
[desperately tries to get it]
Gennady: [steps down hard on Eddie's arm preventing him from getting it. He then picks it up for himself and examines it] Don't look like no aspirin I've ever seen.
[takes pill out of little bag and holds it up to light]
Gennady: It's something good, ain't it?
[pops pill in mouth and swallows it]
Gennady: [Scene sort of wobbly shifts a bit as Gennady massages his throat and then lightly slaps cheeks]
[cut to bank where Eddie is getting Gennady his money. He exits the bank and gives it to him]
Gennady: [glowing] I feel good man. What's in this stuff?
Eddie Morra: [lying] Just vitamins and stuff.
Gennady: [knowing Eddie's lying] You're so full of shit.
Eddie Morra: What if I don't like your idea?
Carl Van Loon: Then we'll say, Godspeed. And your candle will have shed a brief, but lovely light.
Eddie Morra: [Talking about himself] You see, that guy was me not long ago. What kind of guy without a drug or alcohol problem looks this way? Only a writer, strangely enough.
[voice over]
Eddie Morra: In the end, how much worse could it get.
Carl Van Loon: So, Eddie Morra... And you do know you're a freak? What's your secret?
Eddie Morra: Medication.
Eddie Morra: Just finish your story.
Melissa: Well, I didn't take any more. And I didn't die. But after awhile I realized that I couldn't concentrate on anything for longer than 10 minutes, that I, uh, I missed deadlines, got lazy, slow, so slow, that was two years ago. I haven't been the same since.
[while being lectured by land lord's wife]
Eddie Morra: [thinking] I was suddenly aware that I had extra reason to get away from her. I had thoughtlessly ingested a substance.
Gennady: [effects of NZT-48 take their toll on Gennady] I feel good, man!
Eddie Morra: What's the asking price?
Realtor: $8.5 million.
Eddie Morra: I'll take it.
Eddie Morra: [Speaking to her in the park behind on rock] Okay, I need you to go into the bag and take one of the pills.
Lindy: Why?
Eddie Morra: Because you'll know what to do. You'll take it and then you'll know.
Lindy: [Panicked] He's got a knife, Eddie! I can't think my way out of a knife!
Gennady: In the old days I would fillet you. Fillet. It's such a nice word.
Vernon: So do you want some more?
Eddie Morra: Yes, definitely.
Vernon: You know how they say we can only access 20% of our brain?
[Vernon points out the NZT pill on the table]
Vernon: This lets you access all of it.
Eddie Morra: What's it called?
Vernon: Doesn't have a street name yet, but the boys in the kitchen are calling it NZT-48.
Eddie Morra: The boys in the kitchen? That doesn't soud very FDA approved.
Eddie Morra: I'm sick.
Carl Van Loon: You don't get sick. You are playing at this level and you get hit by a fucking car, you don't even die.
[Voice over]
Eddie Morra: Information from the odd museam show, a half read article, some PBS documentary was all bubbling up in my frontal lobes, mixing itself into a sparkling cocktail of useful information. She didn't stand a chance.
Kevin Doyle: [to Eddie about meeting Van Loon] Now be warned - he's mercurial - one minute your best friend, the next you're a leper.
[Describing NZT-48 to Eddie]
Vernon: They've done clinical trials and it's FDA approved.