Limitless, Episode 1 — Stress-Proof Review
Chris Hemsworth Gives Stress The What-For
By Mark
A while back National Geographic gave the wonderful Darren Aronofsky (“The Fighter”, “ Jackie”) some money and he got busy making a documentary series with mr slap himself, Will Smith, called Welcome To Earth.
Now Aronofsky is back with National Geographic putting a different star through some tasks in the name of documentary film making. This time is Australian Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor, learning about his body.
This first episode, called Stress-Proof, is all about, you’ve guessed it, stress. More importantly it’s about managing your stress, learning techniques that will help you deal with your stress and keep it under control.
Why would you want to get your stress under control? Well, by some estimates stress kills an estimated five million people each year around the world. Whilst your fight or flight response is generally a good thing, when it doesn’t turn off, when it’s constantly running, it can, quite literally, kill you.
Chris works with psychologist Modupe Akinola to help get his stress under control. She has set him an end goal, that is, to walk across a crane, that’s attached to the Crown Sydney Hotel, which itself is 271 metres in the sky.
We learn that Chris is’t so keen on heights and, even if he were, I’m not sure that would help a great deal. Despite being attached to the crane with little chance of something going wrong, your brain still fears the worse and thinks nothing of bringing those fears to the surface.
The techniques Akinola teaches Chris in the days leading up to the event are all designed to relax your body, bring your fight or flight response under control. The theory is that whilst your brain can send signals around your body, you can do the same and send signals back.
First Chris is sent to meet some special forces guys who pretty much attempt to drown him. With his hands and legs bound, he’s thrown into the pool and given a series of tasks…it doesn’t go so well.
His second task is fire, lots of it, as he’s sent to a firefighting training ground and sent into a burning building to rescue three bodies, all the while he must control his breathing for he has limited air.
The crutch of the advice he is given is about controlling your breathing and positive mental attitude. Turn those negative thoughts into positive ones whilst bringing your heart rate down by controlling your breathing.
Can Chris manage this before he takes his first steps on a windy day over 270 metres above the streets of Sydney? Once he’s up there, can he manage to walk out, and back again?
As with Welcome To Earth, Limitless is gloriously shot. This episode is not for you if you suffer from vertigo, there are lots of drone shots, some even simulate falling from a great height.
Chris meanwhile comes across as a likeable chap with all the worries and thoughts and stress most of us have. Sure, he knows he shouldn’t, he knows he’s comfortable, but he still stresses, as most people do.
Originally published at https://www.ocmoviereviews.com.
