This 11-Year-Old Sci-Fi Movie Starring Scarlett Johansson Has One Hilarious Problem

Action movies are fantastic, and when they’re entertaining enough, most people don’t even mind if they’re a little bit dumb. In reality, if the premise is fun and strong enough, fans can overlook just about anything. Enter this 11-year-old sci-fi movie starring Scarlet Johansson and Morgan Freeman. Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about the 2014 film Lucy. Lucy was a delightful science fiction action film, telling the story of Lucy, a character who goes through a whole lot in one single film. It all starts with a favor, but quickly turns dark. The biggest problem with Lucy is also the funniest part, especially in hindsight.

Lucy was released in 2014, starring Scarlet Johansson as the titular character. Along for the ride are Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman), Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik), and Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked). It was a box office success, showing that people really enjoyed this sci-fi film, from the cast to the somewhat silly premise. In other words, Lucy is flashy, entertaining, and dynamic, but not necessarily the deepest action movie out there.

When Sci-Fi Meets Drama and Action

The story begins with Lucy becoming an unwilling drug mule, first for her boyfriend and then for a South Korean drug lord. It’s admittedly a pretty dark beginning, and things only get more chaotic from there. As a drug mule, Lucy has to carry a large quantity of new drugs inside her body, and inevitably, these bags rupture. Instead of graphically killing her, the new drugs expand her mind and open the door to a plethora of physical and mental abilities.

Here’s where the movie gets pretty weird, as Lucy learns that her newly expanded mind will kill her within 24 hours. This begins a snowball effect, as Lucy ingests more and more of the drug to buy her time. Time for what? Well, she needs to share her knowledge with the world, but obviously, it’s more complicated than that.

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The Premise is a Myth

The biggest problem with Lucy is that the entire foundation is based on a myth. And no, we don’t mean the story is rooted in legend and lore. Lucy’s premise is simple: the drug she unwillingly ingested activated the remaining 90% of her mind. Does that premise sound familiar? It’s because it is based on a long-debunked myth, which posits that humanity only uses 10% of its brain at any given time.

This myth has been around for ages, though nobody has taken credit for it. In all likelihood, the whole myth is based on a misunderstanding regarding scientific research. The brain is a complicated subject, and it wouldn’t be hard to misinterpret the data scientists are constantly collecting. It probably doesn’t help that there are multiple named parts to the brain, each with different functions. This could have led people to believe that some functions weren’t in use at a given moment. We now understand how incorrect this belief is, but it is still an understandable mistake.

Interestingly, many known names and industries picked up the myth, which explains how it spread so far and has been so pervasive. For example, the 1929 World Almanac referenced the “statistic,” as did many well-known sci-fi writers. Because of this, many people believed that they were only using a small portion of their mind, and thus society became fascinated with “unlocking” the remaining percent.

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Movies Don’t Always Need Solid Logic to Be Entertaining

It’s safe to say that people enjoyed Lucy, regardless of how flawed the premise was. Lucy‘s box office grossed over 400 million on a global scale. Compared to the budget (40 million), this movie did far more than break even. While part of the draw was certainly the star power (seriously, who would pass up seeing Johansson and Freeman in the same movie?), we also have to give credit to the plot, which sounds compelling. It’s one of those stories that sounds fun and cool until science ruins it.

Lucy isn’t even the first of its kind to play around with this flawed concept. Limitless was released a few years before Lucy, and it likewise involved a drug that could unlock the full potential of one’s brain (for a price). It would even spawn a TV series, showing how obsessed people were with this idea.

One might think that learning the truth behind the 10% myth would ruin any re-watches of Lucy, and they’d be wrong. Lucy proves that an action movie doesn’t always need a logical premise to be worth watching. Sometimes it’s nice to have a visually appealing movie that we can relax and enjoy, no additional thinking necessary. If that’s a little bit ironic, we can live with it.

Lucy is available to stream on Netflix.