Netflix has plenty of great options in store on the 2025 movie calendar, and for my money (you’ve heard about the big price increases), its documentaries are amongst the best things to binge on Netflix. I absolutely love movies like Will & Harper, The Tinder Swindler and The Deepest Breath, so when checking out the 2025 Netflix schedule, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever. Bryan Johnson’s story — and the lengths he’s going to to reverse the aging process — is somewhat fascinating, but I have to admit after it was over, I had a bone to pick with the filmmakers.
Don’t Die documents the strict diet and fitness regimen (called Project Blueprint) its subject is undergoing to not only keep his body from getting older but to actually become physically younger. The movie picks his brain about religion, his relationship with his son, his stringent lifestyle and the business opportunities that have come from it. However, we also hear from a few of Johnson’s many critics, who have some very valid questions and make relevant points about the science of his process, and I really wish director Chris Smith would have had him address those things.
Don’t Die Lets Bryan Johnson Off The Hook Too Easy When It Comes To The Science
The documentary addresses the hate Bryan Johnson started getting when his lifestyle went viral — from being trashed on The View to TikTokers making mocking jokes — all of which he brushes off by saying, “These are really hard ideas to get your head around.” But the people speaking out aren’t all just random YouTube watchers passing judgment in the comments section.
A big deal is made about the work scientists and doctors are doing to delay or prevent age-related diseases, but Dr. Andrew Steele says he was turned down — and blocked on Twitter — when he suggested Johnson use some of his hundreds of millions of dollars to fund a clinical trial to prove the effects of one of the drugs he was already taking. It’s a valid point about why Johnson is only experimenting on himself and not contributing to the science of it. Why can't he do both?
How Can Bryan Johnson Tell What’s Working And What’s Not?
Because let’s be real — it doesn’t seem like Project Blueprint actually has a chance of helping that many people. Johnson is doing everything from gene therapy, plasma injections, red light therapy and hair stimulation to rigorous exercise and taking hundreds of pills a day. While he says everything is measured so he can tell what’s working, how can he tell which of those (or which combination) gets credit for any benefits he sees? I honestly want to know, and I can’t believe Johnson wasn’t asked that question.
In addressing the Don’t Die subject’s critics ahead of the documentary’s release, Chris Smith told Tudum:
The goal is never to try to change minds. It’s trying to put information out there in a way that people can make their own decisions and try to reflect things as accurately as we can.
I understand that to a point, but I feel like I’d be able to make a more fully formed decision about Johnson if the director hadn’t let him off the hook when it came to certain aspects of his process, particularly the scientific ones. Without that information, Project Blueprint feels like little more than a vanity project, and the documentary a vehicle to sell more supplements.
If you want to check out Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, the doc can be streamed with a Netflix subscription.
