“Self/Less”

Provocative psychological science fiction thrillers, seems to be turning into the next trend. First there was the Transcendence, a movie where the moral dignity of keeping a dead man’s consciousness alive was questioned. Now we have “Self/Less” a film which ultimately is about ethics. On this movie, the consciousness of a dying man is transferred (with the help of technology of course) to a younger body, and you as the viewer are watching the struggle to determine the fine line that separated right from wrong, moral from immoral.

Here is a bit more detailed version of the plot. An extremely wealthy man (Ben Kingsley) is dying from cancer, so he decides to undergo a radical medical procedure known as “shedding”. This procedure involves transfer of his consciousness into the body of a healthy young man (Ryan Reynolds). However, a lot mystery surrounds the origin of the body and the organisation that is behind it.

The cast consists of some very famous and talented actors. Among them, there are the two first mentioned above, (Ben Kingsley and Ryan Reynolds) as well as Matthew Goode, Victor Garber, Michelle Dockery and Melora Hardin.

Ryan Reynolds who plays the healthy new body said during an interview: “I thought it was interesting, I mean that idea we can take someone’s consciousness and put it in another vessel and actually make it function is interesting and these guys that I am working with are saying this is actually real science, this is stuff that they are actually working on to some degree (?) Then it just scared the crap out of me”. He then added: “I mean you are violating a million different rules. I mean natural selection, theology all kinds of things when you are messing with this but, you have to wonder though if Steve Jobs had 20 more years, what if Einstein had 30 or 40 more years, you know, any of these great minds or these great thinkers that produced wonderful ideas for humanity, what if they had a second chance to give some more”.

And after reading what you just read, we have to say…Ryan Reynolds nailed it once more!He couldn’t have expressed in a better way, all the questions that this movie makes you ask yourself, and even though there might be many hotheads out there who have already got to the answers, the truth is that both sides are true.

On the one hand, by transferring a human being’s consciousness to another human’s body crosses many lines. But on the other hand, it could take humanity through many steps of evolution if it was applied to great minds that lived throughout human history.

And to be honest, if you think about it, many things that have made humanity a better place, were based on breaking moral rules.

So if you’re a guy who likes “torturing” himself with all that kind of questions, then that’s a movie you definitely don’t want to miss. It came out a few days ago. And given that the cast includes some top actors, you can expect to see a top movie.