Immortality Works

An index of works concerning immortality and immortal beings of a general sort. In other words, no beings who have gained immortality as a side benefit of their status; no vampires, angels, demons, genies, gods or any other kind of supernatural beings: see their respective indexes for works concerning such entities.

In order to qualify for a place on this index, the work must feature an immortal as one or more of the main cast and exhibit a major focus on the attainment and/or experience of immortality.

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Examples:

Multimedia Franchises

• Code Geass: Those who take up the titular Code can bestow anyone possession with the titular Geass, a Magical Eye with varying abilities. The move causes the ones with the Code to become The Ageless and never die.
• Highlander is focused on a group of Immortals who can only die via decapitation, and their mutual quest across history to become the last surviving Immortal and claim "The Prize."
• Samurai Jack (see the Western Animation folder for more details)
• Wolverine: A mutant whose Healing Factor slows down his aging. It is said he's over a hundred years old.

Anime & Manga

• The premise of Ajin is that a new variant of humans known as "ajin"^note or "Demi-human" in the official translation have emerged who are subject to instantaneous Resurrective Immortality upon death. The series really goes all-out with exploring the limits of the ajins' abilities, highlighting how they're able to approach situations entirely differently than normal humans can. For ajins, death is a non-threatening and at times even favorable outcome since dying merely resets them to their original physical state. Feats that would be impossible for a normal human, such as swimming through miles of an underwater drainage pipe, are possible for an ajin as drowning to death will just reset them back to their original physical state, although it doesn't remove the unpleasant experience of drowning. The biggest threat that ajin characters face in the series isn't death, but rather being knocked unconscious and then physically restrained, as that's the one way they can truly be incapacitated.
• Blade of the Immortal features an immortal bodyguard as one of the central characters, continuously searching for a means of becoming mortal again by making amends for his past crimes.
• Flame of Recca: The titular protagonist is sent in The Present Day from 400 years in the past by his mother using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique that leaves the user The Ageless and unable to die. The Big Bad is also a persistent Immortality Seeker who thinks the female lead's powers holds the key for his goal.
• Immortal Rain is about a young bounty hunter who aims to take down an immortal being known as Methuselah, though she eventually falls in love with him. The main antagonist, Yuca, is also immortal and aims to bring an end of the human race since he's tired of being reincarnated as a human countless times.
• Killing Me/Killing You focuses on two immortals who search for a way to die.
• Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms focuses on a girl from a tribe of immortal beings who adopts an orphaned human baby, and what happens when an immortal girl raises a boy who will continually grow up.
• Mermaid Saga tells the story of a man who ate mermaid flesh as a bid to become immortal, and after five hundred years, wants nothing more than to regain his mortality.
• Mnemosyne focuses on a secret society of immortal women and their interactions with mortals and other supernatural beings.

Audio Plays

• Big Finish Doctor Who: "Seasons of Fear": The main villain of the story is an immortal Roman soldier who attained immortality via a Deal with the Devil, and the narrative follows him across the centuries in his efforts to defeat the Doctor and accomplish his goals — including the heartbreak and turn to misanthropy he undergoes along the way.

Comic Books

• The Eternals is based around a genetically engineered Human Subspecies with the power of immortality; the series and its offshoots focus on their stories, their trials and — in the case of Eternals (2006) — the shock of rediscovering their powers after years of believing themselves ordinary humans.
• Fables focuses on the secret society of immortal beings of fairy tale lore secretly living in our world (although their immortality is dependent on how well their legend is known).
• Gilgamesh the Immortal tells the story of a human ruler given eternal life through alien technology and his experiences across eternity.
• Immortal Hulk features Bruce Banner finding himself with the power of Resurrective Immortality, struggling to cope with the strain and nightmarish consequences, dealing with other seemingly immortal foes, and even exploring a Bad Future where the Hulk has become a ten-billion-year-old living apocalypse.
• Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale tells the story of an ancient African king who was cursed with immortality for kidnapping a witch's son to raise as his heir, focusing on his deeds and struggles across the millennia, and how his state of being continues to evolve as time goes on.
• The Old Guard focuses on a group of immortal warriors (some of whom are millennia old), how they cope with the passing eras, and the fact that they will eventually lose their immortality and die.
• Stillwater (Image Comics) is set in a small town where an apparent Immortality Field is in place, detailing the grim sociological consequences that ensue in a place where nobody can age or die — and nobody is allowed to leave.

Fan Works

• And I Must Scream, a Harry Potter fanfic in which a twist in the prophecy results in Voldemort being finally slain — at the cost of Harry being cursed with immortality.
• dead things: Harry rejects his train to the afterlife in canon. Despite that, he still registers as having already died, so he can't die by any means — not of old age, not by committing suicide, not even by doing increasingly disturbing magic rituals. The plot revolves around him having lost his sanity as a result.

Films — Live Action

• The Age of Adaline centers on a 107-year-old woman whose ageing has been halted after being frozen to death and then resurrected by a bolt of lightning.
• The Fountain is divided into three plotlines scattered across history, two concerning attempts by the protagonists to find a source of immortality that can save their loved ones, the other concerning an immortal character venturing out into deep space in pursuit of absolution.
• He Never Died features the modern day trials of Jack, the biblical Cain, who cursed with immortality for the murder of his brother Abel.
• Highlander revolves around a group of immortal warriors who have been battling each other for 'the Prize' for centuries, with particular focus on the titular Highlander Connor MacLeod and how his immortality personally affects him.
• The Man from Earth features an immortal as the main character, revolves around a discussion of his life with his mortal friends, and details the many joys and woes of his long life - including his pursuit of education and his doomed relationships.
  • The Man from Earth: Holocene, a 2017 sequel.
• The Myth: The female lead has been rendered The Ageless since the Qin Dynasty thanks to an elixir, which the Big Bad has been wanting to get his hands on. The protagonist is actually the reincarnation of her lover, who was a general who died on a rebellion during The Emperor's bout with death (which necessitated finding said elixir in the past).
• The Old Guard, an adaptation of the comics, focusing on the arrival of a new immortal into a group of world-weary immortal mercenaries.
• The X-Men Film Series have two primary characters with slow aging capabilities in Wolverine and Mystique as side effetcs of their respective mutant powers. In Wolverine's case being alive for so long and outliving many beloved to him is a central part of his character.
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Wolverine's Origins Episode, with the prologue showing he's been living since the 19th century.
  • The Wolverine focuses on the title character's Big Bad Friend from World War II trying to steal his Healing Factor to achieve immortality.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past shows Wolverine doing a Mental Time Travel to his body in The '70s.
  • Logan centers around Wolverine's Healing Factor finally weakening, effectively ending his immortality. He dies at the end of the film.
• Zardoz centres around a society of immortal elites ruling over a post-apocalyptic setting, their ennui and the punishments used to keep their culture in line, and their interactions with a mortal "exterminator".

Literature

• Die Alchimistin and its sequels are focused on a centuries-old group of immortals and their descendants. The three original immortals, Morgantus, Lysander and Nestor, practice murder and Villainous Incest to prolong their lives, and are in a never-ending struggle for power. Nestor's daughter Aura, Lysander's daughter Sylvette and Morgantus's son Gillian end up dragged into their intrigues and introduced to the immortals' conspiracy as well.
• The Ancient Future Trilogy introduces immortality in the first book and gradually develops into a story of immortals from across history joining forces into an intergalactic power in order to challenge an empire of tyrannical immortals posing as god, with particular emphasis on how a Society of Immortals remains progressive in finding a goal they can aspire to.
• Arc of a Scythe: Humans have, through advances in genetic engineering and cybernetics, made natural death a thing of the past, and humans are biologically immortal, although they can be killed through other means.
• Baccano!: The plot revolves around a group of immortals and their associates across time, often switching decades as the characters get caught up in each other's stories and centuries-long schemes. It also focuses on different types of immortals, with 'incomplete' immortals who don't age but can die and 'complete' immortals who neither die nor age but can be killed by other complete immortals.
• The Bone Clocks features two factions of immortals warring against each other over the generations, with members of both groups serving as narrators over the course of the story — during which they explain how they live, how they socialize, and how they were recruited.
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August tells the story of an immortal who is sent back to the start of his life every time he dies; the novel details his experience as an immortal, his encounters with an entire society of fellow "kalachakra", and his relationship with an immortal villain.
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: The titular protagonist was granted immortality via a deal with a dark god, though with the catch that no one will remember her after one encounter; the book focuses on Addie's life over the centuries and how she has been shaped by her experiences.
• Kane Series: The protagonist, based on Cain, has been cursed with immortality and the way he copes with it is an important part of the series.
• The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus: A big part of the story is Great Ak making the case to his fellow immortals to bestow immortality on an aging Santa so that he can continue to do his good works for the rest of time.
• The New Pantheon series features five teenaged protagonists who become immortal and discover several of their teachers have been alive for thousands of years. Then they learn they have to stop an invasion of giants.
• Orlando: A Biography centers around the immortal nobleman of the same name, charting his experiences through history, his unexpected change of sex, and even their meetings with other immortals.
• The Postmortal (also known as The End Specialist) charts the logical consequences of an entire society achieving biological immortality without bothering to change in any other way, including widespread ennui, environmental degeneration, and massive political upheaval.
• Repeat features an unsuccessful man being allowed to repeat his life from the very beginning, leaving him effectively immortal until he's satisfied with how his life turns out. Due to him Aimlessly Seeking Happiness, he lives for several centuries, suffering a good deal of immortal angst as a result.
• The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel features many immortal historical domain characters, including Flamel, John Dee, and Niccolò Machiavelli, discussing their attainment of immortality and personal experiences.
• Slade House: The two main villains of the story have been sustaining their existence by feeding on the souls of victims lured into the eponymous house, claiming a new victim almost every chapter and even getting a chance to reveal their long and sordid history. One of the heroic immortals from The Bone Clocks makes a cameo appearance.
• Tide Lords is about an immortal prince who wants to die after living for thousands of years.
• Tuck Everlasting revolves around an entire family of immortals and their interactions with a young mortal girl, along with the question of whether or not she will decide to become immortal as well.

Live-Action TV

• Forever (2014) centers around a 200-year-old immortal working as a medical examiner, his difficulty coping with eternal life, and his feud with a rival immortal over 2000 years old.
• New Amsterdam (2008) tells the story of a New York homicide detective who's secretly a 400-year-old ageless resurrective immortal, and his efforts to find his one true love and become mortal in the process.
• The Outer Limits (1995): "The Last Supper" features an immortal woman finding herself in love with a mortal and eventually revealing her secrets - all while an Immortality Seeker tries to claim her eternal youth for himself.
• The Twilight Zone (1959):
  • "Escape Clause" features immortality as a result of a Deal with the Devil, with the recipient realizing too late the logical consequences.
  • "Long Live Walter Jameson" is concerned with the eponymous immortal revealing himself to a colleague, discussing his relationships and woes over his two thousand years, and facing his mortality.
  • "Queen of the Nile" focuses on an immortal villain sustaining her existence by feeding on the life force of others, routinely faking her death so she can become a star again.
• The X-Files introduces an immortal man in "Tithonus" who became so by looking away from death when he came to collect him, causing a nurse to die in his place. He's been seeking death ever since. At the end of the episode, he and Scully are both fatally wounded, and he convinces her to look away from death, leading to him dying at last and Scully making a miraculously rapid recovery. There have been references to Scully being immortal now in-series since then.

Tabletop Games

• Chronicles of Darkness: Immortals concerns the roleplaying of a wide variety of otherwise-human immortals, focusing on not only their personal struggles but also their psychology. The current roster of immortals include Blood-Bathers, Body Thieves, the Purified, the Visitors, Patchwork People, Wardens, the Reborn, Eternals, and Harvesters.

Video Games

• In Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe's Morella, the title character was obsessed with living forever as a young and beautiful woman, and she married a man with a similar aim. As the game progresses, the player learns that they actually succeeded, but their immortality came at a terrible price for other people. The crux of the game is thwarting Morella in her current efforts to continue her immortal existence and save those who are endangered by her power - which includes the player character herself.
• Glory of Heracles series, starting with the third game, heavily focuses on immortality. There are multiple immortal characters who have lost their memories, and try to recover them in order to find purpose in their lifes. The series features multiple types of immortality, from "normal" unkillable humans, to semi-divines like the titular Heracles, to products of immoral experiments. The series' Running Gag is the ability to jump headfirst from various high places, which doesn't hurt your protagonists, because they are immortal.
• The Legend of Dragoon: One of the main characters is forced into immortality in order to kill a prophesized Apocalypse Maiden every reincarnation. She's been doing this for 11,000 years by the time of the game.
• Lost Odyssey centers around an amnesiac immortal mercenary, who starts recalling events from his past. The game represents immortality by having immortal characters revive after several turns, should they fall in battle.
• Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: The residents of Kanai Ward turn out to really be immortal duplicates of their former human selves, known as "homunculi". Resurrective Immortality occurs when they die, effectively allowing the defectives living in Kanai Ward to continue living on undead.
• Planescape: Torment features an immortal as the main character, the plot centering around your efforts to recover the identity you lost after millennia of resurrections and dealing with the ultimate cost of the immortality you attained.
• The Secret World: the protagonist of the story is one of an entire group of perpetually-resurrecting near-ageless beings, and you interact with a wide variety of other immortal beings and learn their struggles over the course of the game; over time, you also learn that your class of immortality comes with its own share of caveats...
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: The eponymous protagonist has Resurrective Immortality, and the game's plot is driven by various groups seeking said immortality.
• Skyforge: The player character is one of several people granted immortality (which is revealed via flashback), and at a later point in the game one can undertake the possibility of becoming a god. Several plot points in-game question how to deal with other immortals.
• Suikoden: The video game series features the True Runes, stones which grants powers to their host as well as preserving them to the age they acquire it. Living a very long life and outliving your loved ones have been a core element to these characters.
  • Suikoden
  • Suikoden II
  • Suikoden III
  • Suikoden IV
  • Suikoden V

Web Animation

• Confinement is an SCP Foundation animated series which revolves around the misadventures of Connor, an anomalous young man contained by the Foundation due to his powers of Resurrective Immortality, which they also deliberately exploit by forcing him to handle all kinds of extremely dangerous situations on their behalf. Connor's inability to stay dead is very frequently used as both a plot device and Running Gag.

Web Original

• 17776 explores themes of immortality, being set in the titular year far in the future where all of humanity has become immortal.

Western Animation

• Samurai Jack: The fifth season of the series revealed that the titular hero became biologically immortal as an unintended side effect of Aku's Time Travel spell which sent Jack into The Future in the first place. About 50 years after the events of Seasons 1-4, Jack still hasn't aged at all since the moment he was displaced in time, with his eternal youth and incredible fighting skills allowing him to survive indefinitely in Aku's future world.

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