Released: November 17, 2000
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
*****
What science fiction does better than any other genre is take a modern day issue (say, apprehension regarding other worldly encounters) and walks us through it. The trials, the tribulations, potential fallout from the wrong decision. There is another type of sci fi and it revolves around space flight, laser guns and weird alien creatures. The 6th Day takes elements from both those traditions, wraps them up and hopes the result is entertaining, maybe even enlightening.
Adam Gibson (Arnold Schwarzenegger) returns home from work one night to find an exact duplicate of himself celebrating his birthday with his friends and family. As he is tailed by supposed government agents, Gibson learns he has been cloned, a process banned in this version of the United States. But why? The real Gibson doesn't have any life threatening illnesses and isn't a vital cog in the workings of the world. An answer is forthcoming, though not until a deeper, darker plot to replace vital legislators with copies-clones who will work to reverse the current ban.
As one of the Governator's last sci fi roles, he does reasonably well given the Gibson character. Arnold still can't act with any reasonable expectation of success, yet it doesn't matter. He's a loving father, a devoted husband, good friend. All of which helps Schwarzenegger in the part. Then there's this other side of The 6th Day, the part making little to no sense. It's the science of the cloning. Take an eye scan of a person, you get all their memories, facial ticks, fetishes and the like. Yes, an eye scan. That information is then transferred to a duplicate body, which is "baked' until a formed human being emerges. The only way to figure out a clone is a clone turns out to be dots near one of the eyes. All well and good. It just doesn't make any sense.
When the "logic" is coupled with an incessant need to make a run and gun action adventure, complete with two Gibson's, laser guns and half formed clones, the movie turns in on itself. For all the whiz bang cool future "stuff"' we see in the first half hour, the next three half hour's turn out to be nothing special, as if all the ideas had been used. The premise doesn't sustain a two hour running time when the last half hour is nothing more than the standard running and jumping (not to mention shooting). Where are the ethics of cloning, the reasons it was banned? Where are the subtle jabs at current society? The 6th Day can't be that subtle. And a shame, too. This could have been so much better than it was.