'Don't Die' Netflix Recap Explained: What Is Bryan Johnson's Project Blueprint?

Historically, the pursuit of immortality has been one of the classic objectives of human civilization. At some point in our lives, the thought of cheating death, evading the dread of mortality, has come across our minds, at least if not from a personal drive to live longer, then out of concerns for the ones we care for and love. People have gone to remarkable, and occasionally odd, lengths in their efforts to stop the ever-flowing ravages of time, and Netflix’s latest documentary, Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever, which revolves around millionaire entrepreneur Bryan Johnson’s attempt to reverse the aging process, is a testament to that. While viewers might initially feel themselves quick to pass the judgment that the documentary is just another expert marketing of a rich lifestyle, which is a stark reminder of the existing class divide, I can assure you there are some quite important takeaways from this one, which will feel very much topical in the present worldwide crisis of degrading healthcare and unchecked growth of consumerism. 

Homo Sapiens to Homo Deus

Don’t Die documentary focuses on Bryan Johnson, founder and CEO of a successful e-commerce payment company who is obsessed with the idea of reversing the aging process and spends millions on an annual basis on a ‘Project Blueprint’ program to ensure every minute aspect of his physical health remains in absolute tip-top shape. In order to do so, he and his team of medical personnel have taken extensive steps—from using advanced machinery to rigorously training Bryan’s body even beyond the optimum level to a measured vegan diet to taking several medicinal and experimental life-extending drugs. The rigorous regimen Bryan goes through on a daily basis is almost superhuman. Using every available lifespan-extending study, Bryan and his team go through a trial-and-error method where Bryan is essentially turned into a lab rat as he subjects himself to various procedures that are still untested on humans. While Bryan and a certain section of the medical community believe that this can actually allow the progression of scientific exploration towards life extension research, others believe this to be a futile pastime activity of someone who has too much money and time at their disposal. The experimental procedures range from injecting rapamycin to gene therapy to plasma transfusion—and all of these methods harbor a potential of adverse side effects. But it is nearly impossible to deter Bryan from his mission of achieving the unthinkable—a life unconstrained by time. 

Public Opinion and the Horrid Ground Reality

As Project Blueprint starts trending in news and social media, divisive opinions start to emerge. The majority of netizens, renowned scientists, and authors like Andrew Steele strongly criticize Bryan’s approach, labeling his passion project a charade that was secretly a money-making ploy. The major reason for such a statement was the fact that Bryan actively promoted the brands and products he used on his social media and even created certain specialized brands himself while marketing his Project Blueprint—almost making it seem like he is trying to capitalize on the collective health paranoia of the masses. However, Bryan maintains his stance that he is doing all this for public welfare and nothing else. 

Bryan has a very clear-cut idea about how he is trying to achieve his goal of de-aging; as he remarked, he is trying to disassociate himself from the negative proclivities of the mind and take better care of his body. In an age where social media algorithms are dominating our minds, leading us to make horrendous lifestyle choices, especially when it comes to diet – no wonder that chronic illness, cardiovascular diseases are at an all time high. During the initial part of his career as an entrepreneur, Bryan had to face inhumane stress while maintaining professional and personal life and had adopted a terrible lifestyle, and its trickle-down effect was visible in his deteriorating family relations as well. Which is why Bryan is well aware of how true the statement is that you are what you eat, and hence he has decided to undergo a complete dietary and healthcare transformation. If letting go of the allure of taste means having a chance to live for longer, then it is worth the sacrifice for Bryan. And his efforts have apparently resulted in the forty-odd-year-old Bryan being able to dial his biological clock back to reverse his age by five years. Although this method of shutting off the mind to promote the well-being of the body is seen as a soulless, mechanical exercise by some people, who claim that, to avoid getting drawn in by the algorithm, Bryan has inevitably created one for himself.

What Motivates Bryan to Pursue his Goal?

While the cutting-edge procedures and stringent regime might feel overwhelming or at times distracting for viewers, the motivation that drives Bryan to make such inhumane efforts is rooted in his family, more precisely, in his paternal relationships. Bryan’s father, Richard, struggled to keep his life straight after going through a separation with his wife, and a young Bryan, who used to idolize his father, was disappointed to find his father behind bars on one occasion, much to Richard’s shame. Bryan too hadn’t had a happy marital life, as the love of his life, with whom he was married for 13 years and raised their three kids together, had broken off her relationship with him and slapped him with lawsuit, which, according to him, was motivated by vindictive intentions. The clauses of the lawsuit portrayed Bryan in a negative light, and people didn’t waste the opportunity to use his personal life to belittle his lifestyle-enhancing approach. 

As previously stated, during the initial phase of his career, Bryan was going through a lot of stress and had a tough time keeping in touch with his reality. This resulted in his disillusionment with his faith, and he grew disenchanted with the Mormon religious community his family had been a part of for a long time. As a result, his family, even his kids, turned their backs on him, leaving him completely alone. Things changed when Bryan’s son, Talmage, decided to catch up with his old man one day. The father and son bond pretty easily, and Talmage is able to see his father in a new light as he too gives up on his religion. This paternal bond was crucial for Bryan, who had faced struggles all through his life to form a connection with people, and the main reason he wanted to go to any length to achieve this de-aging miracle was to spend a lifetime with his son. On one occasion, Richard approached Bryan as he was in fear of losing his mental faculties and Bryan decided to help his father through plasma exchange. In fact, this plasma exchange became an exercise to rekindle family ties as Richard, Talmage, and Bryan—three generations of the Johnson family—decided to undergo plasma exchange together, and in a strange way this biological procedure was symbolic of the strengthening of the paternal bond between the members of the family. Talmage had spent 150 days with Bryan before leaving for his college in Chicago, a time Bryan will cherish forever, and to spend many more such father-son moments, he becomes even more determined to go the distance, irrespective of what the future holds for him. 

What Does Bryan’s Project Blueprint Reveal About The Decrepit System?

Bryan had faced backlash for his seemingly eccentric attempts to prolong his life, but at the same time, he had also found support from people who shared his views about lifestyle improvement. Bryan now has an active social life, a group of followers who are there by his side, and there is a greater sense of purpose behind his actions knowing that people have faith in his idea of making a change. Bryan’s efforts to achieve the perfect formula of de-aging, and the divisive public reaction to it, actually reveal a lot about the existing situation, which is not merely plaguing the United States, but the entire world at this moment. Bryan is able to undergo extremely costly procedures, and the fact that he opted to become a test subject for a number of untested procedures actually makes way for better clinical assessment and paves the road for wider availability of such procedures in the future. The reality of the healthcare system is scary, as more and more people are losing access to basic medical treatment by day, and the ones calling the shots—CEOs of hospital chains and pharma companies—are making it increasingly difficult for common people to find affordable facilities. Bryan’s actions might promote and encourage the exploration of life-extending research, and his example might make it possible for increasing demand for such procedures, resulting in better availability in the future. 

Also, we don’t have to actually consider going through this rigorous regime of his, which is practically inaccessible to common people to lead a better, safer life. What Bryan’s attempt showcases is that we need to at least begin to value the worth of our life by making conscious choices, at least refuse to always give in to our cravings, start building an active social circle, and have a positive outlook—which should be more than enough to add a few years to our overburdened life. By Bryan’s own admission, he had let go of his will to live at one point, which is why he knows the true worth of life. In a world that now champions overconsumption, gluttony, and avarice over everything else, the main takeaway from the documentary should be the value of restraint and discipline, of which Bryan’s routine is a perfect example. 

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