Chris Hemsworth's 'Limitless' series is a surprising celebration of female power
No fanfare or feminist pronouncements—just impressive woman after impressive woman being highlighted.
Chris Hemsworth highlighted women who mastered the challenges he undertook in "Limitless."
Judging by his physique, Chris Hemsworth already appears to be a person who pushes himself to the limit. The guy convincingly plays Thor, the Norse god of thunder, for the love.
But even Hemsworth, with his bulging biceps and sleek six-pack, is bound by the laws of human nature, which include pesky limitations like fear and aging. Now that he's in his 40s, the Australian actor, husband and father of three wants to maximize his time on Earth. So in a six-part series on Disney+, he pushed himself to the brink in six different challenges to "discover how to live better for longer."
The titles of each episode—"Stress Proof," "Shock," "Fasting," "Strength," "Memory" and "Acceptance"—offer a glimpse of what kinds of challenges he undertook in his quest for optimal existence.
The series trailer shows some of what Hemsworth endured in these challenges, from doing a polar swim in the Arctic to walking a plank on top of a high rise to climbing a rope to a cable car dangling over a deep ravine.
What the series descriptions and trailer don't show is how many of the real-life examples of people who have mastered what he's trying to do are women.
I watched the series expecting that it would be well done and interesting, as most National Geographic specials are, but I kind of figured it would be a big testosterone fest. And it easily could have been created that way.
Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the people Hemsworth met with to learn about how to prepare himself for each challenge were largely women who had already mastered what he was attempting. And the best part was, it was never pointed out directly. There was no big "female power" pronouncement, no indication that women were going to serve as his mentors for much of the series. But the featuring of women was noticeable and notable.
For instance, in the first episode, "Stress Proof," Hemsworth takes on the challenge of walking across a crane jutting out from the top of a high-rise building. Despite his daring feats on screen, Hemsworth has a fear of heights, so this challenge was particularly stressful.
To explore how to manage the stress of the crane walk, Hemsworth shared the impressive abilities of Faith Dickey, a mountain climber and highlining champion who walks across slacklines hung between cliffs. She shared how she learned to make stress her friend and channel it, as well as how she utilizes self-talk to make it across a narrow strip of fabric suspended hundreds of feet above the ground.
She even once did it in heels:
Following the Dickey example, Hemsworth met with a group of firefighters at a training facility in New South Wales to learn how to control his breath and heart rate under duress. He was teamed up with 16-year veteran firefighter Tara Lal to enter a burning building in full gear and attempt to "rescue" dummies from the inferno. Firefighting is a highly male-dominated career field, yet they chose a woman to be Hemsworth's mentor. Love it.
In addition to the specific skill mentors, the psychologist who helped Hemsworth through his preparation for the stress walk was also a woman, Dr. Modupe Akinola.
Each episode featured women who shared their wisdom and experience with Hemsworth, from all around the world. A Finnish woman who cuts holes in the ice and swims under it. A British American freediver who can hold her breath underwater for six minutes. The Indigenous women and girls who run through the rocky mountainsides of Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico. The 85-year-old weight-training African American woman who could inspire anyone to exercise. And the list goes on and on.
The diversity of people of all ages and ethnicities highlighted in the series, as well as the high proportion of awesome women, creates a far more well-rounded exploration of better and longer living than the "Chris Hemsworth does these six hard things, look at him go" entertainment one might expect based on the trailer. The understated representation is well done and very much appreciated.
- Chris Pratt’s Avengers co-stars are coming to his defense after attacks on his religion ›
- Chris Hemsworth pledged $1 million to help the Australian wildfires and is asking others to step up, too ›
- Chris Hemsworth's reaction to his daughter wanting a penis deserves a standing ovation ›
- 5 years' worth of photos show how testosterone affected one person's life. - Upworthy ›
a man sitting at a desk with his head on his arms Photo by 
Can a warm cup of tea help you sleep better? If you believe it, then yes. Photo by 
A woman is getting angry at her coworker.via 
A man with tape over his mouth.via 
A husband is angry with his wife. via 
Three women sit on a blanket in the park. 
Two women engaging in a pleasant conversation inside a coffee shop
Two men engaging in a peaceful disagreement.
Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.