Lucy (2014)

Lucy (2014) – Full Story, Cast, Plot & Ending Explained

Movie, cast & characters

The “Lucy” movie is a French action cum Sci-fi movie thriller, which was released in 2014. It was directed by the American director Luc Besson, who is also a producer and a screenwriter.

The movie star cast has actors  Scarlett Johansson playing the main character ‘LUCY’, Morgan Freeman as Professor Samuel Norman, Choi Min-Sik as Mr. Jang, Amr Waked as Pierre Del Rio, Julian Rhind-Tutt as The Limey, and Pilou Asbæk as Richard.

Introduction to the movie

At the start of the movie, a cell is shown, which splits up to form two cells. Then these two cells split up further to form four cells. This phenomenon continues, and the cells keep splitting and multiplying to form more and more cells and fill up the space.

Trouble starts right from the beginning

The opening scene shows a proto-human from prehistoric times, drinking water from a clean lake. A voice, from the main lead of the movie, Lucy, narrates that life to the living beings was given billions of years ago, and what have we done with it?

Coming to the present world, the main lead actress is shown talking to her boyfriend Richard, whom she met just a week ago. Both are standing in front of a hotel in Taiwan, and Richard is carrying a briefcase with him.

Richard is insisting that she go inside with the briefcase and deliver it at the reception. She refuses to do so and says that she is in a hurry and has to go home to study for her upcoming exams.

She is being persuaded repeatedly, and even offers her $500 for this job. On being asked why he doesn’t go himself, Richard replies that he just had an argument with the person, and therefore, if she goes, everything will be alright.

Richard requests her to go to the reception, ask for Mr. Jang, deliver the package at the reception, and come out. When she doesn’t agree, Richard handcuffs her wrist with the handle of the briefcase. This doesn’t leave her with any other choice, and she is forced to go inside the hotel.

Reluctantly, she approaches the hotel

At the reception, she asks for Mr. Jang and says that she has been sent by Richard. The receptionist calls the room’s telephone and informs someone about this. She is persistently asked to reveal her name, which she reveals, quite hesitantly.

Richard is seen smiling from outside, but suddenly, he is shot dead. Some men come to the reception and take Lucy forcibly in the elevator, and then to the room, where their boss, Jang, is. On reaching the suite, she sees bloodied human bodies, shivering with pain. This causes her to vomit there only.

The villain Jang appears on the scene

Jang comes out of the room, with his hands and face soaked with blood. He washes his hands with mineral water on the floor itself. Jang makes her sit on the chair, with him, in front of her. He dials a number and puts the telephone on speaker to translate to her.

The voice from the other side asks her what is in the briefcase. She pleads ignorance about it, and that Richard gave her the briefcase. Then Jang writes code 140 on the paper, and the telephonic voice asks her to enter the code and open the briefcase.

Jang goes inside, along with his men, looking for shields and protection. She opens the briefcase with the code 140 and tells them that there are four packets of blue powdered crystals inside.

Jang’s men bring a drugged-up man there to sniff some blue crystals from the packet. That man takes it and has a brief nervous breakdown, after which he laughs uncontrollably. Jang shoots him in the head and tells Lucy that she is being offered a job. When she refuses, Jang’s man hits her.

Professor Norman is shown delivering a lecture

In another scene, Professor Norman is shown delivering his lecture in a hall full of people. The professor talks about the research he has done on the human brain and its capacity. He says that, although animal life has been on the earth for millions of years, most species use only 3%-5% of their brain capacity.

Humans, too, even after achieving a lot on earth, use only 10% of their cerebral capacity. He adds that the only species that uses most of the cerebral capacity are Dolphins, and they, too, use only 20% of their total capacity.

Here, the lecture of Professor Samuel Norman continues, in which he throws light on what could happen if human beings started to increase their cerebral capacity beyond the stated 10%, known so far. He explains that normally, it seems that creatures like us seem to be living for only one purpose, and that is to gain time.

It is through this activity of going through time that the real purpose of our cells seems to have devised two possible solutions. The mass of the cells, which constitutes the basic structure of earthworms and human beings, chooses either to be immortal or to reproduce further, to pass on whatever intelligence gained over time.

Again, the Professor’s lecture continues, in which he says that let us assume that someone uses 20% of the brain’s capacity. The person may be able to control the body and its functions. He further says that it is well known that the Greeks, Egyptians, and Indians had the notion of cells centuries before the invention of the microscope.

Professor Norman continues that there are 100 billion neurons in every human being, but only 15% of them are activated. Surprisingly, there are more connections in the human body than the stars present in the entire Galaxy.

In reply to a question about the next stage, the Professor says that the next stage could be controlling other people, for which such people need to access at least 40% of their brain’s capacity. A magic show footage appears on the screen to explain this activity further.

Professor Norman explains that the next stage could be the control of matter, but for that, human beings should have access to 60% of their cerebral capacity. On the question from the audience about the consequences of someone using 100% of their brain’s capacity, the Professor thinks for a while and comes up with the reply that he has no idea.

There appears Lucy, with a changed attitude and strength

Again, in another scene, she opens her eyes, which are shining bright with a blue color. As she regains her consciousness completely, she sits calmly on the chair and tempts a man who enters the room.

The man puts his gun on the table and walks toward her. Before he can touch her, she just holds him with his belt and flips him far away with his belt still in her hands. She pulls the nearby table towards her, with the help of the belt, to take the thug’s gun.

On the road, she finds two taxi drivers. She asks them if they speak English. One guy says no, and she shoots him in the leg. Another guy says yes, and she boards his taxi and tells him to take her to a hospital.

Now she experiences that she has enhanced senses, which have increased her physical and mental capabilities. She can hear the normal voices of people who are outside her car very clearly.

On reaching the hospital, she puts a silencer on the gun and tells the driver to wait for her. Inside the hospital, she clearly understands the Taiwanese language and interprets it herself in English in a flash, due to her heightened senses. She finds her way to an operating theatre where an operation is going on.

She breaks into the room and reads the report of the patient on the X-ray scanner. Suddenly, she shoots the man who was being operated on, throws him away, and lies down in his place. She tells the doctor that he would not have been able to save the man anyway, as the tumor in his brain had invaded the right side of his spine.

She talks to her mother on the phone about her heightened senses

Lucy takes the doctor’s phone and calls her mother while the surgical procedure is still going on on her. She tells her mother that she can feel everything, like the air, the blood in her veins, the heat leaving her body, and even the gravity that exists. She also tells her mother that she can access each and every part of her memory now, even that memory that lies deepest in her brain somewhere.

She says that she remembers how she was sick in her childhood, petting a cat when she was very young. Her mother is also astonished that she can remember this, as she was very young at that time. She tells her mother that she loves her and hangs up the phone.

In the meantime, the doctor takes out a bag half-filled with drugs from her stomach. She enquires from the doctor about the time it will take for the drug to be eliminated from her body. The doctor, while stitching her wound back, asks her about the contents of the bag.

When she tells him that it is CPH4, the doctor gets shocked and tells her that it is the substance that sixth-month pregnant women produce inside their bodies, naturally. This is produced by the body in tiny quantities, and it is like the packing power of an atom bomb for the baby.

She now visits Jang with an aggressive approach

In the next scene, she moves to the hotel where Jang has been putting up. She finds her way through and, in the process, kills Jang’s men in pinpoint accurate shooting through the door. She finds Jang relaxing and getting a tattoo done on him by a lady.

While entering the room, she gestures with her hand and tells the girl to go. She takes two big knives out from her belt and pierces them into both hands of Jang. Jang feels immense pain and screams his heart out, but she seems calm and focused.

She visits her friend Carolina and asks her for her laptop. There, she reads all the information that Professor Norman had researched, in no time, and from there, she calls the professor. Lucy tells him that she has read all his research and that she wants to meet him.

She explains that she can remember all his research by heart, and then, he appears on his television screen. She tells him that her cells are reproducing at a very high speed, several million per second.

She reveals that she fears that she may not live more than 24 hours. The baffled professor asks her to clarify, to which she replies that she has absorbed a large quantity of synthetic CPH4, which will allow her to use 100% of her cerebral capacity.

She tells the professor that right now, she stands at 28% of her brain capacity. She also tells him that she can control other people, magnetic and electric waves, besides her own metabolism. She demonstrates this to the professor by appearing on a laptop, telephone, and the radio one by one.

She informs the professor that she is filled with a huge amount of information, and doesn’t know what to do with this much information.

The professor suggests she pass this information on to others, just like a simple cell does normally. She tells the professor that she will be with him within 12 hours and hangs up.

She hands over a piece of paper to her friend Caroline, which is a sort of prescription and suggests she change her lifestyle, as her liver and kidneys are failing her. She tells her to take precautions, and she will be alright.  

Lucy approaches a cop and tips him off about the drug smuggling

In the next scene, while making her way through the airport, she changes her look as the news of her shooting of the patient at the hospital goes viral. She calls a French cop, Pierre Del Rio, on his phone and informs him about the drug smuggling, and sends him the details on his work machine.

She also tells him to take the drug packets into his custody, and that she will collect them from him later. Pierre arranges for their arrest, and all of them are apprehended at Berlin, Paris, and Rome airports, respectively.

The next scene shows her working on two laptops with both hands at a very fast pace on a plane. She asks for a glass of champagne from the flight attendant and tells her to wipe her nose without looking at her. The girl notices that she is bleeding from her nose. Another guy brings her the champagne glass, and she takes a sip, toasting “to knowledge”.

Cerebral capacity is shown to increase by 40%

At this stage, the screen shows an image of 40%, which means her cerebral capacity has increased to 40%. Right after the sip, she notices her tooth in the glass. She coughs, and three more teeth come out.

Her skin condition deteriorates and begins to disintegrate. Rushing to the toilet, where her condition gets worse, she sees her face starting to get disfigured and melt away.

She has some CPH4 crystals left with her. She takes the substance out and snorts it, which brings her condition back to normal.

The next scene shows her in the hospital, with Del Rio and other cops waiting outside the room, along with the doctor’s team. The doctor informs Rio that he has given her an injection, and she will be unconscious for the entire day.

She is shown to reach 50% of her cerebral capacity

Here, the screen shows an image of 50%, which means her cerebral capacity has increased to 50%. The next moment, she wakes up and suddenly sits on the bed, which the nurse notices.

She goes outside and informs the doctors about her being conscious and sitting upright. Doctors get surprised, along with the cops, and all of them rush to the room where she has been kept, but they notice that she is walking in the corridor outside.

The policemen confront her and ask her to surrender. She moves her hand and puts all of them on the ground, but Del Rio is spared. Del Rio tries to take out his gun, but his gun is empty of all bullets, which fall to the ground.

She asks about the packets, and Del Rio tells her that they have been recovered. She asks Rio where the packets are, to which Rio tells her that they are safe and in France only. She emphasizes that they will be safer with her only.

Jang’s man is watching outside the hospital and alerts his boss on the phone. Both Lucy and Del Rio sit in the police car, and she forces him to allow her to drive after she listens to the telephone conversation between Jang and his man on the car radio.

She drives frantically towards the hospital, where Jang and his killer men have assembled to collect the drug packets from the paddlers. After the Jang’s men take out the packets from these peddlers, they kill all of them. Lucy and Rio confront them in the corridor while they are escaping.

At 60%, she experiences an increase in power

Now she is shown to have reached 60% of cerebral capacity. She manages to create an invisible wall so that the man with the drug briefcase is not able to escape.

Using her acquired powers, she deprives them of their guns, which were being carried, and which get stuck to the ceiling. She blows them in the air when they try to attack her, and they keep floating in the air.

She snatches the briefcase from Jang’s man and starts to leave, asking Del Rio to come with her. Del Rio tells her that he thinks he won’t be of any use to her anymore. She kisses him and tells him that he is a reminder to her.

Now she and Del Rio proceed to a university, where Professor Norman and his colleagues are assembled, for a meeting and to learn more about her. She throws light on the subject and tells them that time is the only unit of measure. The rest of the units devised by mankind are only from the perspective of humans, as humans consider themselves unique in this world.

She explains that there are no numbers or letters that exist in the real world. These are created by humans, as per their limit of understanding, and knowledge of things that they perceive in this world.

She further says that humans have set the limits to things, so as to understand and remember them, as per their finite capability of understanding them.

She adds that we have created a finite scale to measure things so that we can forget the infinite value that is attached to them. Professor Norman asks her if the units devised by humans, or the mathematical laws, don’t represent the true measurement, or if the world is not governed by these laws, then how does this world exist, and keep moving?

To answer this, she creates an image of a moving car on the screen in the air, and replies that a car is running on the road. If we accelerate the motion of this car on the road to an infinite speed, then the car shall cease to exist to our eyes, but it is still there.

Time is everything

Therefore, time is everything, and whatever exists in this universe is governed by time. She continues that time only is the true measurement of things, and it is time only that gives legitimacy or proof to the matter that exists within this universe. In short, without time, we are nothing.

While Lucy is discussing this with the Professors, Jang arrives with his gang and starts shooting everywhere. Sensing that she has very little time left, Lucy gives the Professors the packets containing the rest of the CPH4 crystals. The team of Professors assembles them in a jar, which synthesizes into a blue liquid material, to be administered into her veins.

Professor Norman asks Lucy if she is sure about the fact that she can sustain such a large amount of CPH4 in her body. She replies that her remaining cells in the body will fight it out to save their integrity up to the last remaining cell.

So, she has to force an entry into her remaining cells in order to reach their nucleus. Lucy says that in order to reach the ultimate 100% capability, she has to fight with her own cells, which are resilient to this.

At 70%, her body begins to transform and change its shape

While she is being administered the dose of CPH4 in the room, Jang and his men fire indiscriminately and have a fierce gunfight with Del Rio and other policemen. At this stage, her brain capacity reaches 70%. Her body starts to transform and turns into a black substance that tries to attach to the nearby computers.

This provides her with more energy and matter, which further boosts her power. Lucy’s immense acquired power allows her to control the matter, and she starts to move the things in the room. Lucy attaches to all the computers in the room through this black substance. Lucy’s state has reached 80% now.

On the outside, cops and Jang’s gang have a heavy exchange of fire, and Jang orders his men to do something about the policemen. Inside, Lucy creates a blank white space, and thus emerges a new generation computer.

Now, Lucy reaches 90% of her brain capacity

Now, Lucy’s cerebral capability reaches 90%. Jang’s henchman fires a rocket through a launcher and blasts the door, after which Lucy is seen somewhere in Paris. Then, in a flash of a second, she reaches a mountainous landscape, at a seashore, and suddenly to Times Square in New York City. She has the power to control time with the flipping of her hands.

She can stop the pace of time and move ahead or backward. She is able to travel to the past century, then to older times, then to colonial times. Then she moves to prehistoric times and has a glance at the earlier civilizations.

She even moves to the age of dinosaurs and comes face-to-face with the creatures of that era. Then Lucy moves to the age of prehistoric times and meets the same prototype human, who was shown in the first scene.

Lucy can travel in the entire universe at 99%

She touches his fingers with hers, and then she travels to the entire cosmos and explores the planets, space, and through time. At this stage, she crosses 99% of her capacity.

Here, Jang starts to come near her while she is still transforming her body into the black substance and traveling through the entire universe.

She passes through a tunnel, while the cells are shown getting united with each other, just the reverse of what was shown in the opening scene.

Lucy reaches the ultimate 100% of her cerebral capacity

The process is complete, and she reaches 100%, as all the cells are united to form a single existence.

Jang shoots her from behind, but she is gone, and only her clothes remain. Del Rio enters the room and shoots Jang dead. The black matter that has engulfed the computers creates a flash drive at the tip. Professor Norman takes it, and the matter disappears within a flash.

Thus, Lucy passes all the knowledge to Norman, and his research is complete. Del Rio asks, “Where is Lucy”? His phone gets a message, which says “I am everywhere”.

In the end, Lucy’s voice says, Life was given to us millions of years ago. Now you know what to do with it.

Some of the frequently asked questions from the movie