Representations of Immortality and Institutions in 21st-Century Popular Culture

This chapter examines how death and institutions intersect in four 21st-century popular cultural representations of immortality. While the routes to immortality in the four texts examined are varied, the chapter shows how powerful and elite institutions are positioned as central in all of these cultural representations of immortality on screen and in literature. Considering one film documentary – Freeze Me (2006), two television series – Torchwood: Miracle Day (2011) and Upload (2020–) – and one narrative fiction novel – Death at Intervals (2008), the chapter shows how a range of popular cultural narratives produced between 2005 and 2020 effectively function as spaces through which to negotiate shifting ‘real life’ anxieties about the medical and political institutionalization of death in the early 21st century. Questions about whether institutions can be trusted and about the roles they play in deciding what life and death are, as well as who gets to live and die, come to the fore across this range of popular cultural examples, demonstrating how popular cultural texts can function as spaces through which to negotiate sociocultural concerns about mortality. The chapter shows how the institutions that feature in these four texts take on a shadowy form with often nefarious motivations and ties to economic and social privilege.