Abstract

From the classic Frankenstein of 1931 to Matrix, which offers a version of the philosophical fable of the brain in a vat and on to Self/less, in which the consciousness of a dying tycoon is transferred to a younger man’s body, cinema has variously explored the relationship between personhood and the body by means of fictions concerning the brain and its contents.1 From the crude disembodied brains of 1950s B-movies to the neuroimaging visuals of 21st-century cyberpunk, these films localize individuality essentially in the brain, and make personal identity transcend the body’s demise by transplanting the brain into other, typically younger or at least healthier bodies....