LUCY PRESENTATION

'Lucy' is a 2014 movie directed by Luc Besson starring Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman. It deals with the topic of the human brain and how, according to some myths, we use only 10% of it.

A curios fact is that the name 'Lucy' for the main character, the girl, is not by a casual choice...

...it was in fact chosen by the director from the first female australopithecus, that from the paleontologist that discovered her, was named Lucy

First summary :

Lucy Miller is a girl that studies in Tapei, she usually goes to rave parties with friends and doesn't know what to do with her life, one day her boyfriend Richard obbligates her to deliver a case to a certain Mr. Jang in his place . What she doesn't know is that Mr. Jang is a corean criminal boss and at the moment of the deliver of the case, they will take Lucy and his guards will kill her boyfriend presumably for being a coward.

Second summary :

Once took in the room where Mr. Jang was, Lucy is is commanded to talk to a translator for the boss on the phone, she asks nervously to tell Mr. Jang that she doesn't know anyting about the content of the case and that her presence there was a mistake. At this point Mr. Jang writes on a piece of paper the 'supposed' right code to open the case, but from the moment that he doesn't trust his supplier and the case if the code is incorrect will explode, he forces her to do it for him while he and his guards get protections and hide behind walls. Lucy's boyfriend to obbligate her deliver it, handcuffed her to the case, that means that if the code she is going to put in is not correct and the case will explode, it's more probable that she is going to explode with the case. Luckily the code is correct and on the inside there is a package, that they will put in her abdom through a surgery to make her a drug courier, of a new substance...the sintetic CPH4, a drug...

Facts :

The exploitation of 10% of the brain is a widespread belief according to which the intellectual capacities of human beings are not fully exploited: a large part of the human brain would not be used and if it were, it would allow the individual to enjoy extraordinary abilities. Some go so far as to argue that the hypothetical 90% of unused brain potential hides important psychokinetic and psychic abilities in general, as well as the possibility of developing extrasensory perceptions.

Third Summary :

After being imprisoned in a cell, some man that wants to abuse her beats her up because she rejected being used and because of the kicks, the bag of drug inside her abdom breaks and the substance is released inside of her body starting a extrasensorial experience that will gradually lead to reach the 100% of her brain / cerebral capacity...

Fourth Summary :

Escaped from her cell after killing her captors and now avoiding human emotions to focus on her major goal, she kills many of the members of the drug trafficking gang, then goes to a hospital where, after killing a patient who was undergoing surgery in what she had understood just by looking at the monitors for the operations that he had no hope of be saved, she had an operation in order to extract the broken bag inside her abdomen and she began to perfectly remember every single thing that had happened to her since she was in her mother's womb; doctors inform her that CPH4 is an enzyme produced by pregnant women in very small quantities to initiate the development of the fetus, and that it is a miracle that she is still alive after taking such a large quantity .

Once the operation is over, she goes to Jang and, after wounding and immobilizing him, reads in his mind what the destinations of the other three couriers are (Berlin, Paris and Rome), then returns home, where she finds the roommate who lends her the own computer. In a few minutes she opens and memorizes 6734 pages written by Samuel Norman, a biology professor at the University of Paris who has been holding research and conferences for many years on the fact that human beings would not fully exploit their brain capacity, and decides to contact him . Lucy then has a telephone conversation with Norman, during which she reveals that she can control electromagnetic waves by modifying the signals received by the professor's cell phone, television and radio, appearing on the screens of such devices; however she confesses to him that she does not know what to do with her faculties, as due to the drug she now has only a few hours left to live. For Professor Norman, the meaning of life is none other than passing on experience and knowledge, proposes that she pass on her knowledge so that all of humanity can benefit from it. The young woman leaves the country headed for France: arrived at the airport, she changes her physical appearance with willpower and contacts Pierre Del Rio, a French policeman who is the captain of the Anti-drugs section (managing to know everything about him and the situation in where he is without being told anything), denouncing and describing the other three drug couriers.

Fifth Summary :

Sixth Summary :

On the plane, Lucy risks having her mind disintegrate her body to expand in the form of energy, and manages to arrive safely in Paris thanks to another intake of synthetic CPH4: here, once she has regained her original appearance, recovers the other three bags of drugs from the French police, takes possession of them and, with the help of Del Rio, meets Professor Norman. At the university Lucy explains to Norman that she has realized that what he had theorized in his research is true: not only does humanity normally use a minimal part of its mental faculties, but the exploitation of ever higher percentages of its brain makes those who experiences it, to get able to totally control their own body, others', matter and energy. Lucy also reveals that it is not mathematics, nor physics, nor any other human-leaded discipline that best describes the universe: the only entity that really expresses, regulates and quantifies the existence of everything is time . Norman and his assistants help the young girl take the huge amount of drug left, to allow her to reach 100% brain capacity .

Seventh Summary :

During the process, while outside the room a shootout is in progress between the policemen led by Del Rio and Jang's men, who have arrived in the meantime, Lucy reaches ever higher percentages of capacity, begins to expand by absorbing the energy and matter that surrounds her and creates a supercomputer, in which she pours all her enormous knowledge. She also discovers that she can move at will in space and time, finding herself existing simultaneously in different places and in different historical periods, until she gets to touch the hominid Lucy, progenitor of humanity and her ( not casually ) namesake, and then goes even further back in time to the time of the Big Bang. Having reached 100% of her mental faculties, Lucy transcends time and space and disappears together with the computer, leaving all knowledge in the hands of the professor, on a USB key. Del Rio, after saving the scientists from Jang by managing to shoot them, asks where Lucy is and receives a message on her cell phone saying "I'm everywhere".

Like said in the second slide, the name 'Lucy' is not casual, as are many scenes in the movie...in particular at the end, where we see Lucy living all the centuries of history, at a certain point she faces with the first female hominid 'Lucy' ; here there is an important scene that marks the movie which is the one where she holds out her finger to the australopithec, the ancestor does the same and they recreate the image of the famous painting by Michelangelo 'The Creation of Adam' . This scene could be considered the center of the movie because of its meaning. The movie reflects on how normally we use our brain and how theorically we know appallingly little of our world we live in and the evolution of this one thanks to the million years that took to create the ecosystem we know today, so its brilliant the connection between a painting that shows the creation of the first 'Man' and the hominid 'Lucy'.

Reflections :