“Lucy”: A disappointingly beautiful film

By Evelyn Desnoyers

May 29, 2024

One of the most common myths in science is that humans can only use 10% of their brain capacity. This has led to the creation of many movies about what humans could do if we unlocked 100% of our brain capacity.

Despite this myth being disproved, the movies still show an interesting perspective into human evolution. 

In Luc Besson’s 2014 film Lucy, this idea is explored by following Lucy, a woman who has absorbed a high amount of a drug into her body, slowly allowing her to gain access to her brain’s full capacity.

Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is an American student living in Taiwan and, thanks to her boyfriend (Pilou Asbæk), gets kidnapped while delivering a package for said boyfriend. After her failed delivery, Lucy is used as a drug mule by a Korean drug cartel run by Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik).

Lucy and the other drug mules have packets of a bright blue powder known as CPH4 sewn into their lower abdomens. She is attacked, causing the drug to be released into her body. 

The movie follows her as more of the drug goes into her bloodstream and she obtains the use of more and more of her brain capacity. Simultaneously, we watch a presentation given by a Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), on brain capacity and what humans could do if we could use 100% of it.

The plot, despite being interesting, is riddled with flaws.

The supernatural abilities that Lucy gains have no scientific basis, not even in the universe of this movie. Professor Norman himself says that his ideas are just theories with no scientific backing to support them.

Being a science fiction movie this wouldn't be much of an issue, however, the rest of the movie is made to be quite realistic making all of these supernatural powers stick out.

The drug, synthetic CPH4, was also a strange choice for this movie.CPH4 is a molecule that is secreted in pregnant women after the six weeks of their pregnancy that helps the growth of the brain of the baby and also for the development of the brain in the baby. Since it is a real molecule there are many studies on what it does and its purpose. A fake drug would have been a much better choice for the film given that it would make much more sense for it to allow Lucy to defy gravity and hack into televisions and phones seem much less out there.

At some point in the film, Mr. Jang tells everyone that the drug is going to be sent to Europe and will be a “big hit” with the European teens. CPH4 seems like a strange drug for this kind of thing. Even in the scene where we watch someone take a small dose of this drug no euphoric sensation can be seen. 

The movie makes up for these flaws by having stunning visuals. Lucy mixes a traditional action movie with futuristic imagery. The scenes that show the CPH4 entering her bloodstream are disturbingly beautiful. The shining bright blue powder illuminates her bloodstream. Almost every scene has a beautiful background even from the start.

The final scene may have been one of the most visually interesting scenes of the entire movie. Even though everything flashed by so quickly it is the scene that stuck the most after viewing the film.

Lucy is not the most fun movie to watch, especially since it seems to take itself very seriously, making you feel like you need to search for another meaning that isn’t really there. 

Despite its flaws however, the movie is an interesting look into the 10% of brain capacity myth and does a good job being an action movie with a supernatural twist.