15 Sci-Fi Movie Endings That Would Have Changed Everything

12. Limitless (2011)

Neil Burger’s sci-fi thriller Limitless gave us a different look at Bradley Cooper in the early tens, as the star worked to transition away from comedy and into action and drama. Cooper plays Eddie Morra, a struggling NYC author trying and failing to get where he needs to be – until he cops a sample of the latest nootropic compound, NZT-48, a drug which promises to supercharge his life, focus and abilities.

NZT-48 enhances Eddie’s brain function to superhuman level, combining the rabid speed of the cokehead with the time dilating analytical abilities of Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. But with great reward comes the usual monkey’s paw consequences, including extensive blackouts and withdrawals. Now, with the choice to either get off the drug or die, it seems Eddie only has one choice – ditch the pills and make it on his own. And this is the ending the theatrical version gives us.

But there is another, darker ending that Burger actually filmed but didn’t use. In this version, Eddie is still hooked on the pills by the film’s conclusion, using them to perpetuate his rising political career. He signs off by saying he’ll use the pills to get off the pills, but he’s clearly caught in the same addict’s cycle he has been all along, and any chance of salvation looks slim.