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Eddie Morra’s (Bradley Cooper) life is falling apart as everyone around him seems to be moving forward and he finds himself single after his girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) get a promotion. After her rejection he feels its confirmation that he has zero future. He has a chance encounter with his ex brother-in-law Vernon (Johnny Whitworth) whom he confides his struggles with. Vernon offers him a new experimental designer pharmaceutical called NZT that promises to unlock that 80% of the brain we never use. Initially Morra refuses but relents when assured that it has FDA approval and is coming to the market soon.
As he evolves into the perfect version of himself while on NZT he completes his book and sees the potential locked inside him and must have more. He visits Vernon to get his next fix but finds that he has been beaten up and in reality the drug is very much illegal. Vernon sends him on an errand for breakfast and dry cleaning but when he returns he finds Vernon’s apartment ransacked and Vernon very dead.
He calls the police but as he waits he realizes that maybe they didn’t find what they were looking for and begins searching for the stash of NZT. Exhausting his options of where to look he realizes that Vernon doesn’t and can’t cook so what better place to hide the drugs then in the stove.
He discovers the stash only moments before the police arrive. Narrowly escaping the murder of his friend and questioning by the police he decides this is his chance to get his life on track. He pops the clear tiny pill and begins his journey.
Now on an NZT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie's read, heard or seen is instantly organized and available to him. With success doubling his money he goes to Gennady (Andrew Howard) a Russian mobster for a loan. To make more money faster.
As the former nobody rises to the top of the financial world, he draws the attention many people including business mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro), who sees this enhanced version of Eddie as the tool to make billions. He also reunites with Lindy when she sees he has cleaned up his life.
Just before a big meeting with Van Loon he parties hard the night before and enjoys the good life only to forget what happened and awakes to find the socialite he was with the night before is dead and he is suffering from withdrawal.
After a conversation with his ex, Vernon’s sister tells him about the side effects of not taking NZT he begins to try to figure out where NZT comes from and realizes that he is being chased for the stash he stole.
He has an unfortunate encounter with Gennady who roughs him up and takes the one pill he has with him. He is then forced to withdraw the money he owes Gennady.
Suffering from withdrawal he is forced to confide in Lindy that he is on NZT and sends her to her house to retrieve his stash. She is followed and chased by by the same man chasing Morra and she narrowly escapes after taking a pill.
The following morning Lindy awakes sober and leaves Morra wanting nothing to do with him or NZT.
Gennady returns for more pills and threatens Morra if he doesn’t provide them. To avoid trouble he relents and gives him more pills.
He hires a chemist to reverse engineer the NZT pills in 6 months
To keep the drugs safe he has custom suits made with a hidden pocket to keep them with him at all times. For protection from thieves and Gennady he purchases a fortified penthouse and hires two body guards.
He narrowly escapes the grip of the police when he is accused of being seen with the dead socialite and must submit to a line-up. He leaves his custom made jacket with his lawyer only to discover that the pills are missing and had been taken by his lawyer who is really working for the sick business man.
While watching TV in his apartment Morra discovers that the person chasing him is none other than the limo driver of the business man Carl Van Loon is in the middle of a huge deal with but has fallen ill. Morra realizes that the sickness is a result of his lack of NZT.
Gennady returns again looking for more drugs but Morra doesn’t have any and narrowly escapes being killed by the Russian mobster’s who he is forced to kill in the apartment.
Hearing that the business man is dead he realizes that the drugs never made it to him or he would be recovering. He reaches out to the driver for help getting to the lawyer. The driver kills the lawyer and he recovers his stash and begins taking the pills again.
The deal is completed for Van Loon and Morra decides it’s time to work for himself. 12 months go by and we find Morra is now running for Governor and Van Loon visits him in his campaign office. Van Loon tells Morra he knows how he has done it all. Van Loon thinks he has him in his pocket when he shares that he purchased the company that produced NZT and has closed down his chemist supplier. He offers him an unlimited supply in return for some future inside information. Morra reveals that he doesn’t need the drug anymore and wouldn’t be his puppet. He shares that he modified NZT to eliminate the side effects and cause permanent access to his higher brain function. Frustrated Van Loon drives off but not without promising to return.
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