Sean Meslar Film Post 4- Limitless

I want to examine the Nietzschean concept of post-conventional morality in two scenes from Limitless. We are told that the drug allows us to access our brain’s full potential, giving us the ability to see possibilities and actions that would otherwise be beyond out mental capacities. Les us first consider Nietzche’s concept of post-conventional morality; he argues that we must think of moral action “beyond good and evil.” Society’s moral structure has been put in place by Christianity, a religion which is founded on the manipulation of the mentally weak; it gives its followers every reason to not care about their lives and thus allows those intellectually strong enough to take advantage of them at every turn. So our goal must be to join these “ubermensch” by looking beyond what has been told to us as right and wrong and embracing the only true morality in life- the will to power. The film makes two depictions of post-conventional moral action; the first is Lindy’s escape through using a child as a human-shield; while she herself is terrified at this action, the suggestion is that when thinking clearly through the effects of AZT, we are able to recognize that only our moral beliefs are preventing us from acting in self-preservation. The second is the scene in which Eddie drinks Gennady’s blood in order to boost his AZT levels. While this is among the more taboo acts we can think of, Eddie is able to reach the Nietzschean revelation that taboos are not reflective of anything of real importance. While it seems clear that the film shows AZT as an ubermensch drug of sorts, I’m yet undecided if the goal is to show this as a moral advancement or degradation.