Netflix took it upon themselves to start the year with a true story to the core: Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, is the new documentary available on Netflix. The subtitle is quite intuitive, and although it sounds like a morbid title, it is based on real events. Bryan Johnson is a 47-year-old American businessman who has made millions of dollars in the business of software and has a clear objective: to lengthen the course of his own life as much as possible, staying young forever.
In 2021, Johnson announced his anti-aging project called the “Blueprint Project”, promising to spend $2 million a year to return to a biological age of 18.. His “eternal life” dynamic includes a team of 30 doctors at his service, hundreds of pills a day, strict diet and training, infrared therapies; plasma transfusions, predictive algorithms and genetic therapies. Everything to defeat death.
A look at Johnson’s life
His story immediately attracted international media attention, and Johnson himself took the opportunity to become something of a health guru on TikTok and other platforms. Now its echo will be even broader with don’t die of Chris Smith author and director recognized in documentary film; with stories ranging from Fyre (Fyre: The Biggest Party That Never Happened)the film about the celestial music festival that turned out to be a disastrous scam, going through Bad Vegan: Fame, Fraud, and Fugitives until the recent docuseries about the wrestling mogul, Mr. McHanon. Smith’s attraction to megalomaniacs, who want to change the world at the risk of making it seem controversial, is clear.
Smith followed him for 12 months, recording in several scenes his life protocol that seems straight out of a science fiction story: His routine includes continuous intake of pills and supplements, 90 minutes of daily exercise, dinner at 11 in the morning, bed at 8:30 at night; Weekly MRIs and skin treatments. Even a therapy not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the follistatin gene, which would ensure cell differentiation while preventing deterioration and degeneration of the dermis. Johnson states that his body age is that of “a young adult of twenty” and that, instead of celebrating his birthday every year, he blows out the candles every 19 months. In other words, he would do anything to slow down the flow of time, including involving his teenage son Talmage in the process.
Netflix
More than 240 billion molecular data reveal two peaks of deterioration of the body at specific ages, suddenly accelerating changes in metabolism and the risk of various diseases.
On the border between reality and fiction
Although the majority of the documentary leaves the viewer with an open mouth and a raised eyebrow, some scenes involving father and son are truly evocative, sometimes moving. It is clear that Talmage sees his father as a fascinating and inspiring example, even as a confidant to whom he can tell everything; Likewise, Johnson fights a battle against the clock to spend as much time as possible with his son, with the implicit objective of also giving him eternal life. For this, Johnson involved Talmage and even his own father in the first ‘multigenerational plasma exchange’ experiment. In a post Instagram post from 2023, he wrote: “What the mind divided, biology now unites.”
The director also brings together interviews with the numerous doctors, researchers and scientists who are still in the Blueprint project; also become a commercial brand that sells protein foods and other fitness products. However, skeptics believe that Bryan’s entire operation is not only questionable, but also a thinly veiled attempt to attract curiosity, fame, media and money: “It’s not science, it’s just attention,” says a Harvard professor during the course of the documentary. At times, Johnson’s own words sound like those of a visionary guru, willing to sell a future that doesn’t yet exist and may never will.
“I hope you don’t die,” Talmage confesses at one point, giving the title to the entire documentary. Although the solution to mortality remains a surreal hypothesis, Chris Smith comments that behind all the media circus, his work could serve as a lesson for everyone: “One of my hopes is that people realize how good it is. for health, sleep, diet and exercise. It’s something everyone can achieve.
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