Thinking about modernity means thinking about the self. Thinking about the self means reconstructing its history. According to the general thesis of the book, this history unfolds on three overlapping levels, making the self a highly ambivalent, male-dominated hero of modernity. Demonstrating this is not only a philosophical endeavor but also a cultural-historical one. For the latter, the realm of film presents itself as a fitting area of study. The philosophical examination spans from the classical, self-justifying modernity through the romantic, agonistic modernity to the hybrid modernity. Culturally reflected, these three strands of tradition can be found in the film genres of the Western, the crime film, and the science fiction film. Thus, modernity reveals itself as a struggle of the (male) self with and against itself, and the discourse of modernity is sustained.