«The world is already entering the age of transhumanism … and soon I may be the only one left behind.»
Death of Death suggests that the world is already entering an age of transhumanism, an era in which emotional self-control, immortality, and radical longevity are imagined as attainable superpowers. A self-ironic voice-over guides us through these themes, paired with a cool jazz-electro-pop soundtrack by the Czech composer Michal Rataj. It is the music that gives the film the right mischievous playfulness, lifting it from mere reportage. Without addressing the most interesting issue of how longevity might affect future power structures, Death of Death becomes mostly an entertaining voyage. Here we meet entrepreneurs and scientists who claim that death is an evolutionary mistake we might be able to reverse. The ironic humour of the voice-over and the embedded commentary in the music make the film worth watching, giving us an introduction to this bizarre and expanding medical-technological industry pursuing immortality.
The director, Dāvis Sīmanis, confesses early on that he is not even sure what his film is about: immortality, anti-ageing, fear of death? This uncertainty becomes part of the narrative. The film’s structure mirrors his questioning mind, moving between characters, some in the USA, others in Russia, who are both visionary and eccentric.
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Zoltan Istvan, the presidential candidate of the American Transhumanist Party, has a clear political message: why bother spending money on the military when we can spend it on health improvements? Besides, everyone should have the right to live forever. For him, immortality is not a distant dream but a civic project. He advocates replacing organs with synthetic ones, rejuvenating bodies with stem-cell treatments, and pursuing any technological route — biological, digital, mechanical — that might eventually allow humans to escape mortality. If consciousness can one day be uploaded into the cloud, he believes society has an ethical obligation to do so. His conviction is so absolute that he cannot imagine dying.
Several interviewees list the «seven problems of ageing» that must be solved to prevent death, most of them biomedical in nature. At one point, the filmmaker questions whether humanity’s obsession with longevity is driven less by science than by anxiety disorders, fear of ageing, and the refusal to accept mortality.
In Russia, the fascination with resurrection has old roots: Lenin’s brain was cut into thousands of pieces in the hope that it might someday be reassembled and rejuvenated. Today, new fantasies flourish in private cryogenic facilities on the outskirts of Moscow. Dozens of bodies, including some pets, are stored upside down in metal containers, all waiting for a future revival. Villagers nearby protest what they call «the corpse storage,» fearing that frozen bodies might one day return as zombies.
Dozens of bodies, including some pets, are stored upside down in metal containers, all waiting for a future revival.
Funeral fashion
A series of scenes depicts a «necropolis exhibition,» complete with funeral fashion shows and mock coffin experiences, suggesting a culture both terrified of and obsessed with death. Russian publishing houses release titles like Death Must Die, while the government simultaneously mourns fallen soldiers in the «Immortal Regiment» parades and proclaims a national anti-ageing initiative. The irony is painful: Vladimir Putin announces a project to fight old age at the very moment his war in Ukraine is killing thousands of people.
Back in the United States, companies like Alcor place hope in cryonics, arguing that extremely low temperatures can preserve the brain until new bodies are available. Their facilities store human remains in metal containers. Patients are memorialised on the walls, their identities reduced to photographs on cold surfaces.
Evolutionary biologist Michael Rose describes ageing as a loss of adaptation: not molecular damage, but the moment natural selection stops caring about adult bodies. He believes we will soon be able to «retune» ageing, routinely halting it in our late forties. Others turn to animal models, such as jellyfish that can revert to earlier life stages, or technologies that link robotic components with human nervous systems. Oxford researchers demonstrate implanted electronics and speak of future networks of connected brains. The possibilities are immense, and the race is on. I am in no doubt that advanced medical care in the near future will look quite different from what we are offered today.
However, what the film does not mention is the implied effect on power structures. For whom, exactly, is immortality being built? The Israeli historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari posed the question in his bestselling Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017), where he claims that death is just a technical problem. Wealthier nations are already prioritising longevity technologies over basic healthcare, creating the possibility of a future divide between technologically enhanced elites and the rest of the world’s population, who still struggle with hunger and lack of medical access. If the majority cannot afford basic treatment, how could they ever afford to double or triple their lifespan?
Biological inequality
In the concluding chapters of Homo Deus, Harari speculates that advances in biotechnology, AI integration and cybernetic enhancement could lead to a profound biological split within humanity. A small elite might become genetically modified, biologically optimised and increasingly integrated with AI or neurotechnology, potentially enjoying extended lifespans, enhanced intelligence and superior physical abilities. Meanwhile, the majority could remain unenhanced, ordinary biological humans with shorter lifespans, fewer capabilities and diminishing economic relevance. The real danger, Harari argues, is that inequality would no longer be merely social or economic but biological. Whereas past elites justified their dominance through religion or ideology, future elites might claim their superiority on the grounds of technological enhancement. Such a development would mark not just a deepening class divide, but the emergence of something closer to two distinct kinds, perhaps even species, of human beings.
