Self/less

Two phrases encapsulate the theme of Self/Less. 

Obviously, the title is the first. A self grows into selflessness. A rampaging egotist — Ben Kingsley as geezer Damian — discovers the virtue and satisfaction of submitting to the well-being of others. The very selfish real estate mogul surrenders his own character to preserve and to free the young man whose body he has taken over (Ryan Reynolds as young Damian).  
Ironically, the last scene is on an island in the Bahamas, where Damian has freed his body to resume the young man’s family life with his wife and the daughter he sacrificed his life to save. The setting evokes Donne’s “No man is an island.” The geezer has learned community and social responsibility.

Which brings us to the second phrase: The Community Coalition is the non-profit public service organization the geezer’s alienated daughter Claire has founded. The original Damian had no time for his daughter because he was too consumed with building his personal empire. When he tries to connect it’s too late. His checkbook fatherhood won’t work. The extension of his life enables him to make an emotional connection — sans checkbook — that he couldn’t in his lifetime. That’s his young body’s last service to him, which he reciprocates by giving up his character’s life for the young man to resume his.

The minor characters replay the theme in slighter ways. The gunsel the villain scientist keeps resurrecting grows more loyal with every new life he’s given. Damian’s longtime partner Martin introduces him to the Frankensteinian “shedding” in gratitude for his success.  Where Damian uses the new science to preserve himself, the ever more generous Martin used it to revive his dead young son. He’s appalled to learn that came at the expense of another family’s loss of their son. The villain scientist claims to be animating a new combination of tissue, but he’s really ending one life to use the body for another. That’s where good science goes bad. That’s also where good politics goes bad: when the innocent are forced to make the sacrifice for the powerful. 

This is a fascinating new take on a classic horror/sci-fi tradition: man’s burgeoning scientific powers enable powers previously the province of the gods. That infernal presumption is imaged in the villain’s death by flamethrower. 

Damian’s last name is “Hale” — unfitting for a man whom we meet when he is far from hale and hearty. His healthy generosity at the end earns his name.