Beating death -- or at least the effects of old age -- is a longtime scifi flick theme. In real life, Viagra or a plastic surgeon's knife serves as the Fountain of Youth; on film, it comes in many different forms. The title character in The Picture of Dorian Gray has a magical painting that ages in his place. In Steven Spielberg's Twilight Zone: The Movie segment, codger Scatman Crothers turns the elderly denizens of a retirement home into their youthful selves. Terminally-ill billionaire Anthony Hopkins attempts to buy Emilio Estevez's body in Freejack. But perhaps the most memorable movie about the prospect of eternal youth is Cocoon.

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