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Self/less

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Wikipedia article




'Self/less' is a 2015 American science fiction action thriller film directed by Tarsem Singh, produced by Ram Bergman and James D. Stern and written by Alex and David Pastor. The film tells the story of a business tycoon and billionaire named Damian Hale, who is diagnosed with a terminal illness. However, he manages to save his life with the aid of Professor Albright, who transfers Hale's consciousness into a new, younger body. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Natalie Martinez, Matthew Goode, Victor Garber, Derek Luke, and Ben Kingsley. Many of the film's elements are similar to the 1966 film 'Seconds'.

'Self/less' was originally set to release on February 27, 2015, but because of multiple setbacks, it was not released until July 10, 2015. It was produced by Endgame Entertainment and was financed by Filmnation Entertainment. The film grossed $12 million in North America and a total of $30 million worldwide, against a $26 million production budget.

Plot



Billionaire New Yorker Damian Hale is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He finds a business card directing him to Professor Albright, who informs him about a medical procedure called "shedding", in which one's consciousness is transferred into a new body. Damian agrees to the procedure and follows Albright's instructions to stage his own public death. Albright then transfers him into a new, younger body, and prescribes medication to alleviate the vivid hallucinations which he claims are side effects of the procedure.

Damian starts a new life in New Orleans under the incognito name of Edward Kidner and is quickly befriended by his neighbor Anton. He later forgets to take his medicine and has hallucinations of a woman and child. Damian (as Edward) questions Albright, who dismisses it, but accidentally mentions details of the hallucinations that Damian had not disclosed.

Albright then arranges for Damian to take a vacation in Hawaii, but Damian, convinced the hallucinations are a real memory, identifies a landmark he saw in his vision and heads to a farmhouse outside of St. Louis. There, he finds the woman, Madeline, who reacts to him as her apparently deceased husband Mark. Damian plays along as Mark, though he is shocked to learn that Mark may have sold himself to Albright, in order to pay for their daughter Anna's life-saving treatment. Damian and Madeline are suddenly attacked by Albright's men, including Anton. Damian fatally wounds Anton and kills his accomplices, then flees with Madeline to collect Anna from school.

At a nearby motel, Damian then uses a laptop to research additional details regarding "shedding", and discovers that a man named Dr. Francis Jensen, now deceased, was the pioneer researcher in the field of transhumanism. In a video, Damian notices a tic Jensen shares with Albright, then sees Albright sitting next to Jensen, deducing that Jensen may have shed his consciousness into Albright's body.

Damian then finds Jensen's wife, Phyllis, in a nursing home, but she is living with Alzheimer's and remembers nothing. Damian lures Jensen (Albright) to the facility, where he reveals that the pills are meant to fully eliminate the original personalities of the bodies used in the shedding procedure, telling Damian that without the pills, Damian's consciousness will die, and Mark's will re-emerge.

Jensen later escapes when more killers arrive. Damian is almost overpowered, but Madeline wounds the attacker, who proves to be Anton in a new body. Anton reveals that he has shed multiple times. While Damian confiscates Anton's pills, Anton taunts Madeline to ask her "husband" why he cannot answer personal questions about their life.

Madeline then confronts "Mark" over his lack of knowledge of their personal details, causing Damian to reveal the entire story. He takes her and Anna to his old friend Martin O'Neill, and convinces Martin to arrange for Madeline and Anna to flee to the Caribbean. When he and Madeline discover Anna playing with Martin's previously deceased child Tony, Martin admits that he allowed Tony to also use shedding, and that Jensen's men are coming. Damian then reveals shedding's secret to Martin, who reacts in shock and disgust. Damian distracts Jensen's men while Martin flees with the others. Damian again fatally injures Anton, but the other thugs realize that Damian is alone and turn to recapture Madeline and Anna.

Damian then purposely stops taking his medicine to experience more of Mark's memories, which reveal that Jensen has a lab in an abandoned warehouse. Jensen captures him and starts to shed Anton into Mark's body. Damian, remembering that metal interferes with the process, hides a bullet casing in his mouth, causing the Shedding Machine to malfunction and destroy Anton's consciousness. Masquerading as Anton, Damian then rescues the others. Although Jensen tries to claim that Damian needs him to survive, Martin was able to reverse-engineer the pills and give Damian the formula, allowing Damian to safely torch Jensen to death with a flamethrower. After killing Jensen, he has Martin complete Madeline and Anna's escape to the Caribbean.

Damian later visits his estranged daughter Claire but does not reveal his presence inside Mark, simply giving her a letter that reconciles Claire with her father. Damian then travels to the Caribbean and fully stops taking his medicine. The real Mark then slowly re-emerges, and finds a video message from Damian thanking him for the time that he gave to him. The story concludes with Mark finally reuniting with his family.

Cast



* Ryan Reynolds as Damian Hale/Mark Bitwell: Reynolds plays both Damian Hale (in Mark Bitwell's body) and Bitwell, the man who has decided to sell his body in order to cover his daughter's medical bills. Bitwell's body is overtaken by Hale's consciousness as a vessel to live through.

* Ben Kingsley as Damian Hale: A wealthy business man who has a terminal illness. He seeks the best care money can buy, a new body.

* Natalie Martinez as Madeline Bitwell: Wife of Mark Bitwell, Madeline is living life convinced her husband has died.

* Matthew Goode as Dr. Jensen/Albright: The creator of the "shedding" process, Dr. Jensen underwent the process in his assistant Albright's body. He is the mastermind of the process, but keeps the secret that instead of engineering human bodies in his laboratory, they pay people considerable amounts of money to donate their bodies as vessels.

* Derek Luke as Anton: First introduced in the movie as Damian's new friend, it is later discovered that Anton works for Albright and was planted in Damian's new life.

* Victor Garber as Martin O'Neill, Damian's close friend

* Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen as Anna Bitwell, Mark's and Madeline's daughter

* Melora Hardin as Judy O'Neill, Martin's wife

* Michelle Dockery as Claire Hale, Damian's estranged daughter

* Sam Page as Carl

* Brendan McCarthy as Anton 2

* Thomas Francis Murphy as Dr. Jensen

* Sandra Ellis Lafferty as Phyllis Jensen

* Emily Tremaine as Mallory

* Teri Wyble as Andrea

* Mariana Vicente as Leah

* Dylan Lowe as Tony O'Neill

Production



Endgame Entertainment and FilmDistrict financed the film, who quickly put the film into development after the two companies saw success with their previous sci-fi film 'Looper'. FilmNation pre-sold the film at Cannes in 2013 and it was the first film to completely sell out at the festival due to universal appeal and the strong pre-sales limited the two financiers' exposure to the budget. FilmDistrict was set to distribute the film in the United States, but the company shut down and was absorbed into Universal's subsidiary Focus Features.



Principal photography began in October 2013 in New Orleans. Scenes were filmed at the Commander's Palace and the Howling Wolf. Antnio Pinto composed the film score. Dudu Aram was credited for additional music, as he had on other scores by Pinto. A sequence of shots beginning about seven minutes into the film show a disheartened Damian Hale, alone, moving through the entrance foyer and reception rooms of his marble and gilt Manhattan penthouse: this entire sequence was filmed in the three-storey Trump Tower penthouse belonging to Donald and Melania Trump, Trump's primary residence until 2017.

Release



The film was originally set to release on February 27, 2015. On July 2, 2014, the film was rescheduled to release on April 17, 2015. However, on November 8, 2014, the studio once again postponed the film for a July 10, 2015 release. The first trailer was released on March 4, 2015. On May 20, 2015, Focus Features relaunched their Gramercy Pictures label for action, horror, and science-fiction movies. 'Self/less' would be one of Gramercy's new releases. However, Gramercy had no credit on the film when it was released.

Reception



Box office

'Self/less' grossed $12.3 million in North America and $18.2 million in other territories for a total of $30.5 million, against a production budget of $26 million.

The film opened in North America on July 10, 2015 in 2,353 theaters, earning $5.4 million in its opening weekend, ranking number eight at the domestic box office. The film also opened in Sweden and Turkey on the same day as the United States. It opened in fifth place in the latter with $135,191 from 208 screens. The film stayed in the box office for six weeks, ending with a total of $495,953. The film opened in Italy on September 10, 2015, and finished in seventh place with a total of $353,291.

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a rating of based on reviews and an average rating of . The site's consensus reads: "'Self/less' boasts a potential-packed premise, but does frustratingly little with it, settling for lackluster action at the expense of interesting ideas." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". In CinemaScore polls, cinema audiences gave 'Self/less' an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

The IGN review by Josh Lasser awarded it a score of 5.0 out of 10, saying, "For someone with great visual command of the medium, Singh's latest is a disappointment."

See also



*'XChange'

References




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