Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi, Amr Waked, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Pilou Asbæk, Analeigh Tipton, Nicolas Phongpheth, Jan Oliver Schroeder, Luca Angeletti
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Sci-fi action thriller written and directed by Luc Besson. The story centers on an innocent drug mule, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), who’s working for the mob. After she’s threatened Lucy agrees to transport an experimental drug which is surgically inserted into her stomach by the drug dealers. However when one of the drug dealers attacks and kicks her in the stomach the drug leaks into her system which then enables her unlock the full potential to her brain’s capacity transforming her into a metahuman, evolving beyond human logic with superhuman abilities such as being able to instantaneously absorb knowledge, moving objects with her mind and mind reading. Then in order to gain 100% of her brain’s capacity Lucy starts to search and round up any remaining supplies.
Our Favorite Quotes:
Best Quotes
Lucy: [voice over] Life was given to us a billion years ago. What have we done with it?
Richard: Lucy, it’s easy as pie. In and out, all done and dusted.
Lucy: Then why don’t you do it yourself?
Richard: The last thing the guy is expecting is a total tramp turning up to deliver the case. It’ll blow his mind, come on.
Lucy: What’s in it?
Richard: Sweetheart, don’t get paranoid on me, alright? You trust me, don’t you?
Lucy: Richard, I really do like you. But I have to take care of myself right now. I got to, I don’t know, I got to concentrate on so many things.
Richard: You know what, the other day I was in this museum, and you know what I found out?
Lucy: What?
Richard: The first ever woman was named Lucy.
Lucy: Is that supposed to make me feel better?
Richard: Yeah. No.
Lucy: What’s in the case?
Richard: I don’t know, it’s just some paperwork.
Lucy: Yeah, well let’s see it then.
Richard: It’s locked, and no one but Mr. Jang has the code. I’m just the delivery boy.
Lucy: How much do you get paid? I want to know, how much?
Richard: A thousand dollars.
Lucy: You get paid a thousand dollars for delivering paperwork, really?
Richard: I don’t know, it takes me ten minutes, and they pay me a grand and the rest is none of my business.
Lucy: Well, it’s not my business either, I’ll tell you now.
Richard: Lucy, honey, I’ve done this a dozen times. It’s paperwork. It’s probably some designs so they can copy them, that’s how it works in this country. Even my Stetson was made here, look.
Richard: [referring to his hat] It says so on the label, “Made in Taiwan.”
Lucy: So long, Cowboy, with the fake Stetson.
Richard: [stops her from leaving] Baby, please.
Lucy: Richard, I got to go.
[suddenly he handcuffs Lucy’s wrist to the handle of the briefcase]
Lucy: I can’t believe you did this to me.
Richard: I’ll be right here, you have my word.
Lucy: You’re word isn’t worth s**t!
Richard: It’s worth five hundred bucks, upfront.
Lucy: You’re an a**hole.
Richard: And you’re wonderful.
Lucy: Lucy. Yes, I’m Lucy. Please, there’s just been a terrible mistake. I’m just supposed to deliver this case. If you lost the key, you don’t have to chop off my hand, you can just cut the chain, okay?
[Jang wipes his hand with towel then looks at Lucy, who’s in tears]
Lucy: Please. I’m begging you, please.
Phone Voice Royal Suite: Mr. Jang wants to know what’s in the case?
Lucy: No, I don’t know what’s in the case.
Lucy: What’s really in here?
Phone Voice Royal Suite: Nothing dangerous.
Lucy: [referring to Jang] So why won’t he open it himself?
Phone Voice Royal Suite: He doesn’t trust Mr. Richard.
Lucy: Well, I don’t trust Richard either. I only dated him for a week.
Phone Voice Royal Suite: [as Lucy opens the case] Can you describe the contents of the case?
Lucy: It’s four plastic pouches filled with a blue powder. Like a, maybe a purple powder. I don’t know. Looks gross.
Phone Voice Royal Suite: Mr. Jan wants to offer you a job.
Lucy: A job? I don’t want a job!
[suddenly one of Jang’s men smacks her]
Professor Norman: If life starts approximately a billion years ago we will have to wait four hundred thousand years to see the aberration of the first nerve cells. This is where life as we know it begins. Brain’s in formation of only a few milligrams, it’s not possible to determine any sign of intelligence yet, it acts more as a reflex. One neuron and you’re alive, two neurons you’re moving. And with movement interesting things begin to happen.
Professor Norman: Animal life on earth goes back millions of years, yet most species only use three to five percent of its cerebral capacity. But it isn’t until we reached human beings at the top of the animal chain that we finally see a species use more of its cerebral capacity.
Professor Norman: Ten percent may not like seem much, but it’s a lot if you look at all we’ve done with it.
Professor Norman: Now let’s discuss a special case. The only living being that uses its brain better than us; the dolphin. It is estimated that this incredible animal uses up to twenty percent of its cerebral capacity. In particular, this allows it to have an echo location system that is more efficient than any Sonar invented by mankind. But the dolphin did not invent the Sonar, it developed it naturally. And this is the crucial part of our philosophical reflection we have today. Can we therefore conclude that humans are concerned more with having than being?
Lucy: What did you do to my stomach?
The Limey: Nothing. Just a little horizontal slit. It’s very well done. And, oh, you’ll find within a month, the scar is practically invisible too. You’ll be able to show your tummy off on the beach next summer.
Lucy: I don’t care about the scar.
The Limey: Is it why we opened you up, yep? Rest assured we didn’t harvest your organs, or anything. We merely slipped a little package into your lower tummy. It’s a new drug that kids in Europe are going to love, believe me.
Lucy: What is it?
The Limey: Well, the scientific term is CPH4, which is not very sexy from a sales point of view. So we’re still working on something with a bit more pop. Any suggestions?
The Limey: [to Lucy and the three men] Right. First of all, many thanks for taking part in this enterprise. Which I’m sure will go off flawlessly. These lovely passport and tickets will enable you to return home in the next twenty-four hours. Now upon arrival you will be taken in hand by our people so that we might recover our merchandise. And you might rediscover the freedom, which you so richly deserve. I’m sure there’s no need to remind you that for any of those who may be tempted to warn, or turn themselves in to the authorities, we have the names and addresses of the families of every one of you, down to the distant cousins.
Professor Norman: For primitive beings like us, life seems to have only one single purpose: gaining time. And it is going through time, seems to be also the only real purpose of each of the cell in our bodies. To achieve that end, the mass of the cells that make up earthworms and human beings, has only two solutions. Be immortal, or to reproduce. If its habitat is not sufficiently favorable, or nurturing, the cell will choose immortality. In other words, self-sufficiency and self-management. On the other hand, if the habitat is favorable, they will choose to reproduce.
Professor Norman: That way, when they die, they hand down essential information and knowledge to the next cell, which hands it down to the next cell and so on. Thus, knowledge and learning are handed down, through time.
Lucy: [to herself] Okay. Okay. Keep calm. You just have to wait, just pray for time. You have time to think it through on the plane. Just take the flight. Take the fight and get out of here. Okay, that’s the main thing right now. Just save time. Don’t try anything. Keep your cool. You’re alive. You’re alive. You’re alive. That’s all that matters. Just wait. Save time. Save time.
Professor Norman: Let’s imagine for a few moments what our life would be like if we could access like, let’s say, twenty percent of our brain’s capacity. This first stage would give us access to and control over our own body.
Male Student #1: Has it been proven scientifically?
Professor Norman: Well, for the moment, it’s just hypothesis, I confess. But if you think about it, it’s troubling to realize that the Greeks, Egyptians and the Indians had notion of cells centuries before the invention of the microscope. And what to say about Darwin, whom everybody took for a fool when he put forth his Theory of Evolution. It’s up to us to push the rules and laws, and go from evolution to revolution.
Professor Norman: One hundred billion neurons per human of which only fifteen percent are activated. There are more connections in the human body than there are stars in the galaxy. We possess a gigantic network of information to which we have almost no access.
Female Student: And what would be the next stage?
Professor Norman: Well, the next stage would probably be control of other people. But for that, we would need to access at least forty percent of our brain’s capacity. After control of ourselves and others, would come control of matter. But now we’re entering into the realm of science fiction and we don’t know any more than the dog who watches the moon.
Male Student #2: But, what would happen if for some reason we ignore, somebody unlocked one hundred percent of the cerebral capacity?
Professor Norman: One hundred percent?
Male Student #2: Yes.
Professor Norman: I have no idea.
“Forgetful Lucy, she’s got a big Jacuzzi.” Wrong film and lyrics. Luc Besson is back! Not that anyone in America noticed. Luc is the main go-to guys for European action thrillers. He hasn’t been as active directing in recent years. He’s written more, lending scribes to not so well received films like Lookout, 3 Days to Kill and the sequel to Taken aptly named… Taken 2.
Luc is back in the chair for the story in which a normal woman finds herself in a terrible situation that has her life on line. An unknown synthetic drug named CPH4 is put into her system and it well takes effect. It allows her to access more of her brain, which makes her think quicker, react quicker and as the percentage rises, she’s gets super powers.
I thought the film was going to be like Limitless to 11, but Lucy is more like Limitless to 11,000,000. It goes so far beyond than what I thought it would. Scarlett Johansson has had a great year, but this could have so easily been the bump. She is very likeable and also believable in many ways in the film, most certainly in the action scenes. Her acting isn’t brilliant, however she does manage to restrain some emotions from her character.
Apart from Scarlett, Morgan Freeman is his usual delightful self in the film. He’s such a loveable actor. His character has done research into the capacity of the brain and how much access is available to use and Lucy asks for his help to understand what’s happening to her more.
The film is bright and colorful. Its visuals definitely aren’t groundbreaking, but for only a budget of $40 million, they don’t look bad. The set pieces throughout are well done from shootings and there’s one car sequence that was really well put together, the time was definitely taken to make it work.
At one point I thought that Lucy was getting so powerful and smarter than anyone could ever be that, I honestly didn’t know whether Luc could honestly wrap things up. The climax goes very crazy to the point where I thought it was stupid, but then creative, then stupid, then imaginative then my only reaction was just to laugh.
My score for the film is 74%. The plot is so very ambitious (understatement of the year!) but even though you might think it’s stupid, realise that it’s very entertaining. It’s very fast-paced and also quite funny. Good job from Besson from his retrospective shots to past times and creative imagery. Lucy is a true phenom even though she took drugs to become it.
A somewhat sci-fi thriller that depicts the origin of life.
You could say it starts off as a bit of a joke. Or just a really bad version of a 007 wanna-be-badass replica. Even Johansson’s acting starts off like a joke; literally, she seems to be laughing more than crying herself through the first ten minutes of the film.
However, Lucy transcends with every passing minute – as if the quality of the film and its acting were corresponding to the percentage of brain capacity that the protagonist female-gone-super-human android is using.
It is one of those films, whose idea clearly surpasses cinematographic capabilities – time, space, gravity, and the origin of cells that build life and our reality – it is one of those films that you watch skeptically, but are patient and open to giving it a chance. You watch, learn and enjoy, but after that start are all the while still deciding whether this is total guff, whether you have been ripped off at the theatre counter, and served quantum-physics starters-pack drivel with some Scarlett glitter on top to cover it up?
About midway through, I decided to give it a chance. A real chance. A chance at blowing me away and taking my mind to places unexplored, allowing my brain synapses to dance and go wild, tying together all my theories about life with what I was learning whilst fixing my eyes upon the screen. It worked.
The key is, to see film as art. To take what you can get from it. Not to criticize (and believe me there was a lot of moaning and dis-missing going on in the seats around me) but to make the most of it. Yes you CAN.
Once this happens (and there have been a lot of films where it just doesn’t happen, let me just say The Counsellor) you are free to go and experience that wonderful world of time, intelligence and purpose of life that is Lucy. Maybe I am an optimist who was fed cyborg-bullcrap and went off on it – maybe I fell in love with the idea of being – and playing Scarlett’s part, but in any case, I am glad to have seen this film, as it let me exit that cinema with sharpened senses and let me glide into the night feeling alive, thirsting for knowledge, finding life intelligent and beautiful. Each step was beautiful.