Lucy (2014)
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A woman gains psychokinetic abilities after a drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.
The story
Lucy is an American student in Taipei who is coerced by her boyfriend into delivering a briefcase containing a highly valuable synthetic drug called CPH4. After her boyfriend is killed, she is captured and forced to become a drug mule. During a struggle, a bag of the drug is ruptured, and the substance is released into her system. This exposure grants her enhanced physical and mental capabilities, including telepathy and telekinesis. As her abilities rapidly evolve, she must navigate a dangerous world of drug lords and law enforcement while grappling with her burgeoning powers and the physical consequences of the drug's presence in her body.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After a bag of the drug CPH4 ruptures in her abdomen, Lucy gains superhuman abilities like telepathy and telekinesis. She escapes her captors and seeks medical help, only to learn the drug's potency. She eventually tracks down the other drug mules and seeks out scientist Samuel Norman to understand her condition. As her abilities grow, she travels to Paris, where she works with police captain Pierre Del Rio to recover the remaining drugs. Upon meeting Norman, she realizes her condition is unstable and consumes the remaining drug. Her brain capacity begins to rapidly increase, causing her body to transform into a black substance that merges with electronic devices to form a supercomputer. She journeys through spacetime, eventually witnessing the Big Bang. In the present, she reaches 100% brain capacity and vanishes into the space-time continuum, leaving behind only her clothes and the supercomputer. Del Rio shoots the villainous Mr. Jang, and a message appears on a phone: 'I am everywhere.'
- First release year
- 2014
- Runtime (minutes)
- 90
- Production countries
- France
- Original languages
- English; Taiwanese Mandarin
- Directors
- Luc Besson
- Writers
- Luc Besson · writer
- Cast and characters
- Scarlett Johansson · Lucy; Morgan Freeman · Professor Samuel Norman; Choi Min-sik · Mr. Jang; Amr Waked · Pierre Del Rio; Julian Rhind-Tutt · the polite British antagonist; Pilou Asbæk · Richard; Lio Tipton · Caroline; Nicolas Phongpheth · Jii
- Genres
- science fiction; action
- Themes
- humanity; consciousness; evolution
- Tone and mood
- action-packed; philosophical; metaphysical
- Premise and plot tags
- superpowers; drug-induced; time-travel
- Content notes
- violence
- Reception
- The film received generally positive, but also polarized, critical reviews. It was praised for its visuals and themes but criticized for its 'nonsensical' plot regarding the ten-percent-of-the-brain myth.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 67% · scale: percentage · review count: 234; Metacritic · score: 62 · scale: 100 · review count: 456; AlloCiné · score: 2.6 · scale: 5; Cinémur · score: 84% · scale: percentage
- Production trivia
- The film was the biggest ever for EuropaCorp.; The film features over 1,000 visual effects shots.; A spin-off series was announced in 2022.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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