Lucy Ending Explained (2024)

At the end of Lucy, Scarlett Johansson's Lucy transforms into a living computer and leaves Morgan Freeman with the keys to taking the human race to the next step of its evolution. Lucy is a 2014 movie written and directed by Luc Besson featuring performances from Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, and more.

After Lucy is kidnapped and forced to traffic the experimental drug CPH-4, surgically hidden in her own body, the bag is broken, flooding her system with the drug and allowing her brain to unlock new levels of consciousness. Initially, Lucy's abilities manifest as higher levels of learning and intelligence, but as her brain changes even more, her connection to time and space continues to shift. By the time Lucy unlocks 100 percent of her brain's ability at the end of Lucy, she becomes something else entirely.

Is Lucy Scientifically Accurate?

Do We Really Only Use 10 Percent Of Our brains? Is CPH-4 Real?

The basic premise of Lucy is that the human brain has far greater abilities than most people can access. While this is true on a number of levels, the notion that humans only use 10 percent of our brain was thoroughly debunked by a number of scientists, including an article at Journal Nature, after Lucy's theatrical release. The notion that human beings don't utilize all of our cognitive potential has been a sentiment among philosophers and scientists for centuries, although the specific 10 percent claim seems to have originated with Lowell Thomas' forward to Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936.

The claim that humans only use 10 percent of their brain isn't only inaccurate according to imaging scans and other scientific measurements, but it's also an entirely wrong paradigm to even use to measure cognitive capacity. While there's time and energy constraints on what humans are capable of accomplishing in a single day, physical and cognitive accomplishments continue to excel throughout time, so to say only 10 percent of the brain was being utilized would imply knowledge of a fixed upper limit of human potential and where we currently exist within that limit, which would be impossible to know unless the day comes where humanity actually hits the hypothetical limit.

When it comes to CPH-4 miracle drug that unlocked Lucy's potential, Lucy claims it's a natural chemical produced in tiny amounts by pregnant mothers to help babies rapidly grow their skeleton and nervous system, but that's also not entirely accurate. CPH-4 itself is an entirely fabricated substance, although there are special chemicals produced by mothers to facilitate rapid fetal development, just not any that are synthesized as a street drug, and certainly not any that are known to unlock brain capacity in adults. Most processes that facilitate rapid development in fetuses or young children result in cancerous growth when present in adults.

Why Didn't CPH-4 Affect Anyone Else The Way it Affected Lucy?

If Jang Knew The Real Effects Of CPH-4, He Would Have Taken It Himself.

CPH-4 unlocked the unused 90 percent of Lucy's brain, but it worked very differently for her than it did for anyone else. The only other person to be shown consuming any of the product was the test subject in Jang's office. He only inhaled a small particle, and while it clearly had some sort of effect on him, Jang shot him in the head before any clear results manifested. Meanwhile, Lucy was exposed to CPH-4 when the bag inside her stomach ruptured, releasing a large quantity directly into her bloodstream. It was immediately clear how it hit her differently, since she levitated up the wall, which the test subject in Jang's office didn't do.

Surely other test subjects used at least small amounts of CPH-4 during the drug's development process, but based on how little CPH-4 the test subject in Jang's office took, it's likely they never saw even a hint of the kind of effects experienced by Lucy. Additionally, Jang shot the man in his office who snorted just a single grain, and if that's indicative of how other test subjects were treated, it makes sense that Lucy is the only one to achieve the states she did. If anyone in the test process had achieved any major cognitive boost, surely Jang would have exploited it for his own purposes, if not before Lucy, then certainly after.

What Did Lucy Become at 100 Percent?

Lucy Is Everywhere Now

Lucy gained more and more access to her brain's abilities throughout the movie, but when she reached 100 percent, she became something else entirely. She had to sit still in a chair for several minutes as a shiny black substance covered her body and stretched out to all the computers and network equipment in the room, seemingly consuming them in the process. During this time, her body and mind completely changed on a cellular level as the movie depicts cells combining and other changes happening on both a molecular and cosmic level as she reached her full potential. When she reached 100 percent, she completely dematerialized.

After Lucy was gone, all she left behind was a cosmic-looking flash drive for Professor Norman. Del Rio also received a text from her saying "I am everywhere." Instead of asking "what" Lucy is at the end of Lucy, it would be more appropriate to ask where and when Lucy is. She hasn't simply transcended into a new physical being, she's seemingly transcended space and time altogether, leaving behind the cosmic flash drive like a miniature obelisk from 2001: A Space Odyssey to guide humanity on the next step of its evolution.

Lucy's Ending and True Meaning Explained

What's Lucy's Real Message?

The opening scene of Lucy shows Lucy, posited by some scientists as the first-ever human based on a partial skeleton discovered in 1974. The scene has a voiceover from Scarlett Johansson's Lucy saying "life was given to us a billion years ago, what have we done with it?" During the ending of Lucy, as she prepares to reach 100 percent and begins to transcend time and space, she goes to see the prehistoric Lucy and reaches out to touch her hand, launching into a cosmic vision as Lucy sees the world rolled back, cells combine, and the universe unravels in reverse before her eyes ending with 100 percent.

At the end of Lucy, Lucy has evolved beyond a need of a human body and returns to the same question from the opening, instead saying "life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it." There's a few things going on in this moment. Lucy is passing on all the knowledge she gained from her evolution following her consumption of the CPH-4 on to Professor Norman so humanity can evolve, but she may also be introducing a bit of a paradox, as one reading could suggest she went back in time to give the prehistoric Lucy a spark of intelligence, touching fingers in a reference to Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam painting.

As Lucy explains to Professor Norman, our concept of time is entirely determined by our limited ability to experience it linearly, so what someone who is (hypothetically, using the movie's logic) only utilizing 10 percent of their brain would perceive as a paradox would appear entirely differently to someone who'd reached 100 percent actualization. Regardless of the reading, Lucy's voiceover at the end of Lucy saying "now you know what to do with it" is a charge for Norman (and presumably the audience) to push forward and expand the scope of human consciousness.

Did Lucy's Ending Set Up A Sequel & Will One Happen?

The Story Concluded, But There May Be A Spin-Off

The ending of Lucy didn't seem to set up a sequel, and with a decade gone since it released in 2014, there are still no plans for Lucy 2. Still, despite the ending closing off the story, there does seem to be some financial incentive, as Lucy managed to make over $460 million on a $40 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). With this in mind, it does seem surprising that Universal Pictures (the distributing studio behind Lucy) didn't option Lucy 2. Director Luc Besson has also been asked about a sequel to Lucy, and his comments seemed to rule one out:

"I don't see how we can do one. It's not made for that. If I find something good enough, maybe I will, but for now I don't even think about it."

Besson's comments were made in 2014 (via Collider), and he followed them up in 2017 with a Facebook post to confirm that he wasn't working on a Lucy sequel despite rumors at the time reporting that a script was in development. Still, while the story of Lucy was wrapped up nicely, there are some routes a sequel could go. For example, another person could use CPH-4 to gain a similar amount of power, giving the godlike Lucy something of an antagonist to face for the future of humanity.

While Lucy 2 doesn't seem to be in the works, there was a spin-off series announced in 2023. While details are still scarce, including potential release date and what the cast will be, it was revealed that Morgan Freeman is in talks to reprise his role. Should the series go ahead then the story of Lucy will continue after all.

Lucy

R

Where to Watch

*Availability in US

• stream
• rent
• buy

Scarlet Johansson stars as the title character in Luc Besson's 2014 sci-fi thriller Lucy, where a young woman who's forced to work as a drug mule accidentally develops superhuman abilities after an experimental drug leaks into her system. She is pursued by drug lord Mr. Jang (Choi Min-sik) and helped by both Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) and police captain Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked) while she unlocks skills far beyond 10% of the human brain's capacity.

Director

Luc Besson

Release Date

July 25, 2014

Studio(s)

Universal Pictures

Cast

Scarlett Johansson , Morgan Freeman , Choi Min-sik , Amr Waked , Julian Rhind-Tutt , Pilou Asbæk , Lio Tipton , Nicolas Phongpheth

Runtime

89 Minutes