A deadly black ops assignment and an homage to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?

It’s not exactly the combo I ever would have thought of mixing together, but it wound up working on Limitless Season 1 Episode 7.

And if you haven’t had the chance to see Matthew Broderick skip school in the John Hughes classic, go watch it. Seriously. You can even ask Brian Finch to loan you his VHS copy.

The outset of the hour is almost shot for shot how Ferris Bueller begins, and you can’t help but smile as Brian takes on the Ferris role and fools Mike and Ike into thinking that he’s sick.

There’s some alterations to the dialogue from the John Lennon quote to being expected to go to work on such a great day, but you can tell the love and attention to detail in making those moments seem just like the movie.

But the hour takes a real sharp turn with Brian being kidnapped and set up to work with the CIA on a secret mission.

It becomes a much darker tale as Brian gets truly in the thick of it when he learns that the ops team he’s been recruited to plan to kill their target. 

Sure, he names them characters from Ferris Bueller, but these tactical team members are far from Rooney and Cameron.

Turns out, they are cold-blooded enough to turn on each other and kill for a massive $10 million reward.

Yet, even with the training Brian received on Limitless Season 1 Episode 5, his real weapon winds up being his enhanced brain power on NZT. And I was glad that he wasn’t some superhero that could take them all out action style, but he was instead forced to try and tactically figure his way out.

That meant convincing “Cameron” to kill his partner, and it was a rather shocking moment when it happened considering the light-heartedness of the Ferris Bueller aspect.

And as we would later see, the moment affected Rebecca considering she’d been able to keep Brian out of the messy parts of what they do. He was far more involved than he would have liked to have been, but the situation forced him to have to get his hands dirty.

But it was great to see Brian’s version of Rebecca as Sloane, especially in the matching outfit, as she tried to help him figure out a way to escape. I’m sure that was a fun scene to film.

It was also rather humorous when Brian lamented that he was no longer Ferris but instead Cameron, as we again got what felt like another shot for shot moment.

Even the ending was fantastic in the way the Russian, all woozy from Brian’s laced NZT pill, basically became Rooney from Ferris Bueller right on down to getting on the bus and being offered a gummy candy.

And the hour clearly wouldn’t have been the true homage to the movie without an after-credits moment of Brian coming out and telling people to go because the show was over.

So while there were no stealing of Ferraris for joyrides or parade antics involving floats and “Danke Schoen,” “Brian Finch’s Black Op” had plenty of Ferris Bueller moments for viewers to enjoy. And the way it combined a much darker dilemma for Brian to be involved without getting so overly serious, made this an enjoyable hour.

If anything, this episode really made me want to see Brian take his playful imagination and come up with some other movies he/another episode can emulate.

Did you like the episode taking on Ferris Bueller? What's a movie you'd love to see them pay homage to next? Sound off below, and see it all again when you watch Limitless online now.

27 TV Characters We Wish We Could Befriend

Start Gallery

Note: Limitless Season 1 Episode 8, "When Pirates Pirate Pirates ...," airs on Nov. 10 at 10 p.m.

Sean McKenna was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. He retired in May of 2017. Follow him on Twitter.