MBTI: Can Eddie Morra Be Typed?
If you’ve seen the movie Limitless and you care at all about MBTI, you’ve probably tried to type him. And it’s possible you’ve gotten an answer. What was it? ENTJ? ENTP? ESTP? ISTP? What were the functions you observed?
While many have gotten an answer they’re happy with, I’m not so sure he can be typed at all. It’s almost as though Eddie’s typing would mean that there is a perfect type because of what the pill does for him. Oh, NZT- what type would you turn us into?!
Are you closer to the guy on the left or the guy on the right?
When we first meet Eddie, he’s having a hard time. He’s got writer’s block, he doesn’t seem like he takes very good care of himself, he’s got an impending deadline for the story he’s supposed to be writing and due to all of this, his girlfriend is sick of it and leaves him. From this, we can conclude INTP. Just kidding.
But when Eddie eventually gets his hands on a miracle pill, you know what happens.
His irises become an electric blue, clarity overtakes the foggy cloud that had settled in his mind, and everything is illuminated.
There are several things throughout this clip that seem to display different functions in specific places.
A. Extroverted Sensing (Se)- Colors popping after Eddie takes the drug, understanding what needs to be done in the moment. ESTP (Dominant Se), ISTP (Auxiliary Se), ENTJ (Tertiary Se), INTJ (Inferior Se). Other types also use Se but one thing we can conclude about Eddie is that he has a high Thinking preference. His arguments and conversation points before and after the drug dictate a
Though we can conclude that Eddie prefers Thinking over Feeling. He knows how to talk to people similar to the way a knowledgeable salesman would and his speaking style focuses more on logic than an emotional connection past just making sense in an unobtrusive way.
B. Extroverted Intuition (Ne)- Making connections between seemingly unrelated things as Eddie does in this scene perfectly illustrate the dominant Ne and Inferior Si of an ENTP; bringing in new observations and relaying it to information previously gathered- such as why his landlord’s wife is mad and how it doesn’t fit with why he’s being nagged about rent so harshly. Putting this together with a book he sees her with that he recognizes from years earlier, he figures out that she’s actually upset about a paper she’s supposed to write.
C. Extroverted Thinking (Te)- Using all the knowledge available to him, Te organizes fact and data in a useful and constructive way to move toward an intended goal. This is the least likely of the options of what type Eddie could be as he probably wouldn’t have been the slob he was before if he were an ENTJ in the first place. Even so, knowing how to put every bit of his information to use gives the impression he’s a person of intelligence and long range vision as ENTJs and INTJs are known to be.
Getting some major Ti from this pic. Mm, yeah, totally.
So while all this is speculation, everybody does become a better version of themselves while they’re on NZT. But it’s only Eddie that we’re seeing. So if everybody were to become the same type after taking the pill we can’t exactly say, which is an interesting topic in itself- if there were to be an “ultimate human,” would type then cease to exist? Since it seems what NZT does anyway is turn you into the best version of yourself you can be, but as Eddie mentions at one point in the movie that he gains interests in foreign languages and fine art; things he hadn’t previously cared about.
So to take the pill means you essentially become the perfect person whose life can take whatever direction you choose- make smarter choices on the path you’ve already taken or go somewhere else entirely. And since no matter what you do, as long as it doesn’t kill you or get you imprisoned, your life isn’t going to be the same.
Check the ending out below-
And getting back to the MBTI root of all this, Eddie probably can’t be typed due to the significance of the pill. He’s a writer, which means he must have creative energy to put to use, but it’s even hinted that after winning the senate, he could eventually become president- inevitable if he were to choose that path.
What are the most likely options here? For his dissection and straightforward analysis of things- ESTP, ISTP, ENTP, or INTP. But INTP isn’t likely since none of their interests generally involve direct public forums of any kind nor a taste for the “finer things” as Eddie develops. So this leaves ESTP, ISTP, and ENTP, all of which have Introverted Thinking in their top two functions.
By the end of the film, Eddie has been working on the “kinks” to push the negative effects of the pill out and has even gained super-sensory acuteness, being able to see what drivers in cars are doing and that they’re milliseconds away from crashing and that Van Loon (Robert de Niro) has heart problems. This could be seen as a far-fetched form of Extroverted Sensing (Se) though it certainly stretches the boundaries of what’s possible for humans. This is dominant for ESTP and auxiliary for ISTP.
And yet seeing the multiple immediate possibilities of what’s to come is ENTP, gathering various likelihoods and acting on whichever is favored. Eddie’s decisions could just as soon be based on the “fifty moves” he’s ahead, as he claims to Carl as to why he’s always going to be better. This itself is intuition at his ridiculous peak, specifically Ne, as Eddie’s actions are reactive- making moves based on what’s presented to him it seems and it’s what gives him the edge to constantly move up.
I bet he could write better with all those letters NOT floating in front of him.
But does that make him ENTP? I wouldn’t think so, as he is the perfect human. And as much as an ENTP would like to claim that they are the perfect human, too many other functions the ENTP doesn’t have are also present in Eddie to definitely state this as his type. He lives in the moment (Se), he analyzes and dissects (Ti), all of his knowledge could be considered in empirical (Te) as he memorizes facts and information immediately and mentions having a four digit IQ, while possibilities are everywhere for him (Ne).
I’m not writing this and not typing him out of laziness, but simply bringing up that the pill itself leaves Eddie (at least appearing) largely untypable. Not due to lack of quality writing, but to the “perfection” effect the drug gives its users, taking away the worst and giving only the best humans are capable of.
Verdict: Inconclusive! The drug changes everything!
Zombies Ruin Everything 
11/28/2015 at 1:55 pm
I’m an ENTP with an ENTJ mother, ENTJ partner at work, an INTJ girlfriend, an INTP best friend, an INTJ father, and a compulsive obsession with myers briggs in general. I’d like to point out that some of the analyses you’ve made about the functions are a little bit unduly biased towards extraversion. For example, Ni and Ne both look for possibilities and connections. Ni tends to amplify the most likely event, which would lend itself to such comments as “that van’s going to rear into that taxi,” while Ne would lend itself far more to contemplation of the various ways by which Eddie could influence the car-accident situation. Ni also tends to find strange, epiphany-esque subjective connections between the current situation and random events. When he notices the book in the landlord’s wife’s purse, he suddenly connects that experience to an episode in which he was trying to sleep with a law scholar.
Personally, I think Eddie is an ENTJ while on NZT. He states outright his constant need to move forward (very Te) and combines that love of strategy and ambition with a long range vision characteristic of introverted intuition. Additionally, as you pointed out, he has notable Se (though it doesn’t drive any of his behaviors; he uses it as a tool more than anything). Eddie does not, however, possess much F of any kind. That is readily apparent in the movie as he cheats on his girlfriend, kills a woman and three men, and causes the supposed death of a fourth without any thought to the consequences. He demonstrates the same cutthroat affirmative narcissism and antisocial personality that ENTJs and ENTPs are known for, but without the feckless spontaneity that ENTPs are famous for. ENTPs, however, often become obsessed with their own darkness; they are very aware of the evil inside (in my experience) and love to dwell on their internal sense of dangerousness. ENTJs, however, are completely blind to their feeltardedness. Eddie, in much the same fashion, has no idea the kind of monster he has become while on the drug. Of course, he isn’t malicious. His monstrosity is born of selfishness and egocentrism. If anything, Eddie is prosocial. As seen in the recent TV series, in fact, he demonstrates a desire to solve world problems. He clearly wants to help people. He just doesn’t care if he kills people in the process. So what? He has places to go; screw whoever stands in his way.
I suggest that if you do decide to explore Eddie’s type further, and go so far as to want to modify your post, that you don’t offer as much judgment about his actions. The above has a lot about why Eddie is an ENTJ not only as a consequence of his cognitive functions but also as a function of some of his unhealthy behaviors. I don’t want you to get too many angry ENTJs on your back, so be careful 🙂
I hope you found the above to be an interesting theory and perspective! I am very confident in my opinions, but I’ve heard many times that others just aren’t convinced of my vision the way I am. Hopefully you’re not one of those people, but if you are, what the hell, right? It’s all in good fun 🙂