The film’s existence drives home the fact that there are two realities under a capitalist system: one in which working people struggle daily, unsure about what tomorrow might bring, and another in which the super-wealthy have enough money to attempt to be alive 100 years from now.
To start the new year, Netflix released the film Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, a documentary that walks the line between being a cinematic pep-talk for living a healthier life and a voyeuristic spying on one millionaire’s obsession with keeping death at bay with all the money he can muster.
It would be easy to dismiss the documentary as a cash grab indulging society’s desire to gawk at eccentric individuals. Yet, the sensationalized, ridiculous, and—interestingly enough—sometimes touching film inadvertently lends itself to a more significant conversation.
By examining Bryan Johnson’s over-the-top existence of using all of his resources to reverse the aging process, viewers can take it further and engage with the idea that Johnson exists because our healthcare system has failed everyday people.
Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever is a documentary film directed by Chris Smith. Smith takes us on a journey watching Johnson explore various methods and experimental medical treatments, hoping to make himself physically eighteen years old again.
Along with covering Johnson’s everyday life, there are several interviews with medical and science professionals who comment on Johnson’s practices throughout the film. Fortunately, Don’t Die doesn’t attempt to be a complete puff piece, allowing for some opposing views and less than glowing assessments of Johnson’s lifestyle. And to be sure, there is a lot to be critical about.
Johnson has a very rigid daily routine and sleep schedule. He wakes up daily around 4 a.m. in his mansion, works out for one hour in his home gym, endures red-light therapy for his skin, and eats a strict and repetitive whole-food diet.
In addition, Johnson consumes over one hundred supplements in pill form, expensive oils, and additional nutrient sources. He also regularly collects his stool samples and sleeps with a monitor attached to his penis to record his erections.
This meticulous regime is what he calls the Blueprint Protocol. It is an ever-evolving project with Johnson as the star, attempting to reverse all his organs’ age.
According to Johnson, he has been making some headway toward his goals. Johnson claims that the data compiled by his doctors suggests that Blueprint has so far given him the bones of a 30-year-old and the heart of a 37-year-old (Johnson is in his late 40s).
His goal is to get all of his organs to be that of an 18-year-old. And he’s not sparing any expense to do so. Reportedly, the software entrepreneur funds a team of more than thirty medics and health workers who monitor the functioning of his body and all its organs around the clock, costing more than two million dollars a year.
Before Johnson started his project to keep death away, he was a businessman in the tech industry. His earlier success with the company Braintree, and eventually the buying of Venmo, saw him making millions of dollars.
Yet, Johnson explains in the film that he was unhappy even with all his business success. He explains that he felt run down from constantly working at the office, which led to bad health choices.
He also found little solace in his religion of Mormonism. Suicidal thoughts led Johnson in search of something beyond the hustle of money-making, he claims. Going on a journey of self-discovery made the millionaire conclude that he needed to shut off his mind and focus on his organs.
His current philosophy is that he has tapped into his Autonomous Self by shutting off his conscious mind and listening to his body. He claims he can pay attention to his physical form and become the healthiest he has ever been.
The film interviews scientists in the anti-aging community who disagree with Johnson. They challenge the scientific method he uses to achieve his results. Others note that while he claims to be doing this for the greater good of research and to start a movement of like-minded people, his money should be spent funding broader studies that include more than just himself. Sometimes, it seems as though Johnson relishes in public attention, even if he isn’t entirely comfortable with the criticisms he receives.
Smith focuses on Johnson’s relationship with his son and father. This helps provide more intimate, down-to-earth moments to contrast the more elaborate—and often outlandish—times in the movie when focusing on Johnson’s anti-aging journey.
Yet, even the touching moments of working through generational trauma are not unscathed by Johnson’s want for immortality. This is clear when the trio swaps plasma for the supposed health benefits. Johnson’s son gives him his plasma, and then Johnson gives his plasma to his 75-year-old father.
It’s presented as a bonding experience, yet this reviewer cannot help but remember the history of ruthless royalty who bathed in the blood of their young servants, hoping to turn back the age clock. What’s even more appalling is learning through the film that transfusing plasma from younger individuals is not something only Johnson does but is a known method for many wealthy people in modern times.
This is where the film’s actual value shines through. In this informative moment, viewers can understand that Johnson isn’t an outlier in hoarding wealth and self-serving projects—he just so happens to be a more public face.
Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos were both early investors in Unity Biotechnology, which develops therapeutics to reverse aging-related diseases. Billionaire venture capitalist and former PayPal CEO Thiel has said he wants to live to 120. Amazon CEO Bezos also bought a share in Altos Labs, a biotech start-up focusing on cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health and resilience.
A growing number of super-wealthy people are willing to spend millions of dollars to live longer so they can continue to spend (and hoard) their billions of dollars. While they may not have a YouTube channel like Johnson broadcasting such an endeavor, it is indeed happening.
While millions of people across the country struggle to pay medical bills, receive proper insurance, or treat their already existing illnesses, there are individuals like Johnson who can afford to spend money to try to get his rectum to be 25 years younger.
The grossness of the wealth gap is on full display in Don’t Die as viewers witness a man who has so much money to pay for regular care that he has enough time to attempt to achieve health results that defy the natural laws of science.
Johnson makes the valid point that we live under a system in which many people work themselves to death. Yet his “solution” is to focus on reversing his age and selling people the Blueprint program—including a thirty-five-dollar bottle of extra virgin olive oil—to receive even a fraction of the resources he has at his disposal.
The United States healthcare system prioritizes treating illnesses instead of preventative care. That’s because pharmaceutical companies have concluded that there is more profit to be made in treating diseases than curing them. Add to this the insurance companies that are allowed to deny people in need of the proper coverage to afford their treatment, and you have a nightmare scenario for most working-class people.
Watching and judging Johnson’s extreme routine gives one an entertaining guilty pleasure. Yet, the documentary’s existence drives home the fact that there are two realities under a capitalist system: one in which working people struggle daily, unsure about what tomorrow might bring, and another in which the super-wealthy have enough money to attempt to be alive 100 years from now.
Johnson presents himself as a marvel of science, but in reality, his exploits drive home the fact that plenty of people could get some of the results he has if they were allowed access to the resources he’s permitted to privatize.
The film takes a straightforward and level-headed approach to a polarizing figure. Those interested in science and pseudoscience will no doubt be fascinated by Johnson’s lifestyle. Not that he’s stumbled upon anything groundbreaking, but the documentary can potentially add to the conversation around inequality in healthcare.
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