After reading Outlive, my wife and I dived deep into the longevity movement so we just had to watch this documentary about Bryan Johnson. The guy is pretty much the high priest of the movement and as this film shows, he seems to revel in that role. The film is about the man himself, so those looking for technical information on his Blueprint life-extension program will be disappointed. He’s obviously a very enthusiastic participant, yet director Chris Smith is to be credited for not turning this into just a hagiography. Johnson may be completely earnest in his aims and I don’t think he’s a scammer. But he’s also a deeply weird person with what seems like an unhealthy relationship with his son.

The film starts with the basics of Johnson’s project to extend his life for as long as possible, hopefully indefinitely so that he won’t die. The details are played out for maximum shock value: how he goes to sleep like clockwork every night at 8.30 pm for exactly eight hours and thirty four minutes and takes 54 pills of various types as soon as he wakes up. How his diet, exercise and indeed every other aspect of his life is calibrated for maximum health. And how he is a person who revels in the attention that this project has garnered for me and sees himself as the head of a movement. It then goes on to cover how he grew up in a Mormon family of modest means and always had an entrepreneurial streak. Most interestingly, it also shows that he suffered from depression grappling with finding meaning in life. After having lost his faith in God, he seems to have obsessively latched onto this life extension project as his new goal. There’s an obvious missing element in his regimen, any close relationship with another person. So Johnson is delighted when one of his sons Talmage decides to live with him for his final year of high school while his other children remain estranged. They bond in their time together and Talmage was the one who donated plasma to him in the famous news story that spread around the world.

There isn’t too much technical detail in this film but that’s alright since Johnson’s personal website has more than enough of that for anyone who wants to try to replicate his regimen. Instead, this film serves to get his story out to the broader public and raise questions of what drives Johnson to such extremes and whether he’s right to do so. It gives plenty of space for critics who claim that Johnson is spending so much time and effort in extending life that he’s not actually living; that despite all of the data about himself that he is publishing, it has little scientific value because he’s trying so many things at the same time that it’s impossible to tell what works; and that he’s a grifter trying to market his own line of health products. I think there’s no doubt that he’s a narcissist. He hired a publicity manager to get his story out and enthusiastically participated in this film. He’s aware of the criticism against him but appears to take the view that any publicity is good publicity. The scientists are right that he could have deployed his wealth more effectively for the general good by funding drug trials that target life extension. But it’s his money and he’s not interested. I do find criticisms that he isn’t living his life to the fullest to be shallow. His wealth has enabled him to experience a broader range of activities than the vast majority of people. Not mentioned here is that he is also a pilot and is into mountaineering, and is even now dabbling in various new businesses. Similarly any money he could make through affiliate links on his website would be peanuts compared to his more serious businesses.

Even though Smith doesn’t shy away from portraying Johnson as something of a weirdo, he also misses the chance to dig deeper into his psyche. It’s astounding how different a person Johnson was to the person he is today. Just as he was once all in as a believer in the Mormon church, he is now all in on the life extension movement. It’s clear that he is someone who really, really needs to believe in a cause and has struggled to find one. His relationship with Talmage looks deeply unhealthy to us outsiders and seems to stem from how he has few other deep personal connections. His wanting to be live forever in order to be there for Talmage at every stage of his life comes across as being creepy as his son surely has his own path through life and has the right to set his own boundaries. Theirs is an unbalanced relationship due to Johnson’s age and wealth no matter how much he emphasizes the strength of their bond. Johnson himself admits that part of being healthy means having strong human connections and he is deficient in that regard. The film ends with him at the center of a growing community of like-minded supporters, hinting that he has found his people. But it’s questionable if this is enough to make up a lack of personal relationships. Smith never even directly asks Johnson if losing his faith in God means that materialism is all there is.

I’d still recommend this documentary because whatever you may conclude about Johnson, he is a strange person, an extreme outlier compared to normal people. That alone makes him a fascinating subject to learn more about. I don’t see this winning any awards because it uses a fairly standard documentary format and is unlikely to rile up anyone’s passions, but it does its job well enough.