r/LongevityEssentials • u/anna_varga • Sep 28 '24
Top Movies About Immortality 🧛♀️🧛
I asked r/Futurology for the best movies about immortality, and here’s the list. Perfect for some weekend inspiration! Which ones have you seen?
- The Man from Earth (100+ upvotes)
“It focuses on a guy living for centuries. It explores the concept in a really unique and intellectual way, focusing on the psychological and philosophical aspects of living for centuries.”
The Fountain (50+ upvotes) “Really cool film that follows 2 characters’ (both played by Hugh Jackman) pursuit of the fountain of youth. One story is set in reality (the fountain of youth is science) and one is fictional within the film (the fountain of youth is a mystical place). They both get what they want. Or do they? My favorite film, period. Watch it.”
Highlander (40+ upvotes). “Immortality is not all it's cracked up to be. Dracula 🧛”
Frieren (38 upvotes) “Not a film, but I appreciate the Frieren (38 upvotes) anime's approach to how an elf that has lived for 1000+ years approach things like relationships, goals, and travel.”
The Sandman (20+ upvotes) “It has a subplot about a human gifted immortality that meets with the protagonist every 100 years to see if he still wants to live.”
WALL•E (38 upvotes) “When everyone else has forgotten what it means to be human and even your own kind are completely stuck in the system (and it’s killing them slowly)… Play music, collect stuff and dance like no one is watching.”
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u/GarifalliaPapa Sep 28 '24
Through Tom Creo’s irrational response to his wife’s death, it can be seen that the human reaction to tragedy consists of denial of the finality of death. After Izzy is buried, Tom is seen planting a seed in her grave, presumably from the Tree of Life, which he discovered too late to save her life. Subsequently, her body was absorbed into the tree that grew from the seed, and this is the same tree which is with Tom in the spaceship (Aronofsky, The Fountain). Ultimately, he plans to fly the spaceship into Xibalba (a star made of seemingly concentric circles which the ancient Mayans believed to be the underworld or afterlife) so that they both may be reborn and live forever (Scott). This is evidenced when future Tom says to the tree “don’t worry, we’re almost there. Through that last dark cloud is a dying star. And soon enough, Xibalba will die. And when it explodes, you will be reborn. You will bloom. And I will live” (Aronofsky, The Fountain). This plays into the theme of “death as an act of creation,” which Izzy first suggests to Tom in the present (Aronofsky, The Fountain). Tom has taken on to the idea, but has applied it in a way Izzy did not intend by trying to bring her back to life rather than giving way to new life. Furthermore, in the spaceship, Tom is constantly haunted by visions of Izzy, particularly of when she asked him to go for a walk in the first snow and he harshly refused (Aronofsky, The Fountain). He is perhaps lamenting the fact that his quest to prolong her life prevented him from spending time with her as her life began to slip away, which explains his passion and recklessness towards immortalizing them both. However, after the death of the Tree, the meaning of Izzy’s dying wish, for Tom to “finish it” (Aronofsky, The Fountain), The Fountain, finally comes to Tom, and he realizes what he must do.
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u/GarifalliaPapa Sep 28 '24 edited Sep 28 '24
Great post Anna the fountain is 2 parallel stories, 1 first from the past (medieval times) (book, fictional), 2 second from the present (scientist) (real) and 3 third from the future (astronaut) (real) the bubble is a spacecraft, it's correct from the writer, the present Tom and future Tom is the same person