Why is Society Obsessed with Immortality in Cinema?
Throughout history, we, as humans, have been obsessed with the idea of immortality. Living forever has been the quest of humanity since the beginning. Humans have a desire to live forever and escape the inevitability of death. Through the ages, the ideas about how to achieve immortality have evolved from the belief of the afterlife through faith, to the alchemical philosopher’s stone. Scientifically, there is the idea of cryogenics, being used to keep the dead viable until we can revive them. Then there is the idea of achieving immortality by uploading our consciousness to another receptacle, to maintain our awareness for eternity.
In order for us to understand “WHY” society is drawn to the concept of immortality, we must first examine immortality as abjection. Abjection in these instances would be the routes of which immortality is achieved. Each immortal character listed below was not accepted in society, which makes their existence abject. Each character was once part of a community and then expelled when immortality was achieved, ultimately proving that immortality is a concept that is desired, yet forbidden.
While we are not able to achieve immortality at this point in history, we have been able to explore the idea through novels, comics, television, and cinema. Since we are not living in a world where we can buy and sell our time, like the movie In Time we have to rely on the imaginations of authors and the vision of cinematographers to see what the world would be like if immortals were living among us.
In this article, we are going to take a closer look at immortality through cinema and some of our society’s favorite immortals.
Frankenstein's Monster
Have you ever read Mary Shelly’s horror novel, Frankenstein? Well, even if you haven’t and have only seen versions on television, you can still understand that she explores the concept of immortality through the creation of Frankenstein’s monster. The monster, who has no name, was created because of the idea of immortality and rejected by society. His creator, Victor Frankenstein, has gone through the mourning of losing his mother and pursues this CRAZY idea that he can bring her back to life — Honestly, if you’ve ever lost a loved one, hasn’t this thought come across your mind? The idea of bringing the dead back to life is a mystery that society has not yet solved and until then, we will continue to obsess over the idea.
Dorian Gray
Picture this: you can do anything, nothing is off limits, and it has no physical effect on your body. Would you do it? That is exactly what Mr. Dorian Gray does in the many portrayals of his character, originating in the novel by Oscar Wilde. Gray is an immortal hedonist whose actions have no consequences on his body. In an effort to stay young, Gray sold his soul. It is stored within a portrait of himself, however with every action Dorian takes, the portrait bears the consequence and Gray remains young and handsome. In the end, it was Dorian who removed himself from society through suicide. It’s the classic immortality with no consequence. The thought of living forever and showing no consequence draws us close to this portrayal of immortality.
Dracula
Can you recall being a child and the idea of vampires seeming so real? As a child, the boundaries between science and superstition are not yet formed and as we grow older, the concept of immortality forces us to envision what these vampires would REALLY look like, today. Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, allows us to escape reality and leap into the world of immortality and abjection. Dracula was immortal until society realized the threat he posed. Those members of society did not accept his existence, and killed him. What’s even better? The child-like ideology of vampires has become so popular that gothic/horror novels have become some of the best-animated movies in modern days.
Jason Voorhees
Isn’t weird how in EVERY Jason movie he NEVER dies — well, not eternally? The reason society is still infatuated by the idea of Jason is because his psychological state of mind is a mystery. Lets face it — mysteries are just that, mysteries and the fear of the unknown creates a panic/excitement that stimulates the brain. Jason Voorhees is the symbol of immortality and a fearful immortal that looks mortal. The idea of something so abject (Jason), yet so close in image, creates the fantasy that allows our minds to ponder what could be— without fear of conventional ideologies.
Freddy Krueger
While not physically immortal, Freddy lives on as a spirit inhabiting the dreams of his victims. Throughout his showing in the movie series Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy hunts down his victims and kills them in their sleep, resulting in their death in the waking world. The movie prey on the subconscious fear of it viewers by exploiting the vulnerability of sleep. Even though Freddy is defeated in his films, he never truly dies. He is an immortal spirit roving his old neighborhood looking for someone to kill.
Lord Voldemort
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is, in my opinion, one of the greatest stories to be told. The villain in the story is Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named. The series revolves around the conflict between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. The story both begins and ends with the death of the Dark Lord. Voldemort, to become immortal, shatters his soul into seven pieces and hides the pieces into magical items throughout the world. The only way to kill him is to destroy these items and the body he is using. The downside to this method of immortality is that to break your soul into that many pieces you must have to murder that number of people, which separates you from society. Immortality, yes. Murder? I’ll let you decide.
Bella Swan
Stephanie Meyer hit it out of the ballpark with the Twilight Saga, which created a romance between the living and the dead. Why do authors have to create emotional connections between reality and immortality? Well, the answer is simple. Like Dracula, the idea of vampirism is so far outside of society, they had to separate themselves to maintain peace. Select authors have a special set of skills that allow them to understand and connect with their audiences. I mean, honestly— Who wouldn’t want to fall in love with a HOT vampire and finally become immortal? The idea of being able to reach a level of sublimity, through cinema, is what connects us to to the obsession of the immortal world. We allow ourselves to fall into the cinematic world of immortality and abjection, enabling us to feel a connection with the desire to reach immortality.
Deadpool
The Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool, Marvel’s greatest anti-hero. This foul- mouthed superhero was created after being tortured and experimented on by Ajax, his nemesis. These experiments left him disfigured but also with a speedy regenerative power that renders him immortal. We see this when he cuts off his hand and then it grows back over the course of the film. Nothing can kill Deadpool, even in the comics, he is unstoppable. He can survive all types of injury even to the extent of being decapitated. Besides the horrible torture that he endured, this type of immortality would be the kind that is most beneficial.
Across the two-hundred years shown through this list, we see the idea of immortality evolving into a societal norm. However, through these examples we see that immortality can only be achieved through abjection — the idea of society expelling those who achieve it. Not only are the people expelled, but the routes in which they achieve immortality are seen as abject. While immortality at its face is desired, the end result is isolation and eventually death.
