The 6th Day

For other uses, see The Sixth Day (disambiguation).

The 6th Day
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roger Spottiswoode
Produced by	Jon Davison Mike Medavoy Arnold Schwarzenegger
Written by	Cormac Wibberley Marianne Wibberley
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Michael Rapaport Tony Goldwyn Michael Rooker Sarah Wynter Robert Duvall
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Cinematography	Pierre Mignot
Editing by	Michel Arcand Mark Conte Dominique Fortin
Studio	Phoenix Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	October 28, 2000 (Tokyo International Film Festival) November 13, 2000 (premiere) November 17, 2000 (Theatrical)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$82 million
Box office	$97,085,477

The 6th Day is a 2000 American science fiction action thriller film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as family man Adam Gibson, who is cloned against his will in the future of 2015. It was a success at the box office despite mixed reviews from critics, and Schwarzenegger received a salary of $25 million for his role in the film.

Plot

In 2015, cloning technology was sophisticated enough to allow the copying of human organs and animals. Reproducing a complete human is explicitly forbidden by the "6th Day" laws, named for the day when God created man. Adam Gibson (Schwarzenegger) is a pilot who runs a charter helicopter business with his friend Hank Morgan (Michael Rapaport). Michael Drucker (Tony Goldwyn), the owner of Replacement Technologies, a conglomerate that specializes in cloning, charters them for a skiing trip. Due to Drucker's financial and political influence (to the point that it is comically quipped that the President of the United States thinks of "herself" as the world's second most important person), both Gibson and Morgan undergo blood and eye tests prior to his arrival to verify their identities and aptitude. On the day of Drucker's arrival, the same as Gibson's birthday, Gibson finds that his family dog Oliver - which belongs to his daughter Clara (Taylor Anne Reid) - has died, and Morgan offers to take his place as Drucker's pilot to allow Gibson a chance to run out and get his pet cloned. Gibson disagrees with the idea of cloning the dog, but takes a look in Re-Pet anyway. After hearing the sales pitch about cloned pets, he decides to think further about getting Oliver cloned and instead gets a Sim-Pal (a responsive 'living doll') for Clara.

Gibson later returns home and discovers Oliver had already been cloned, suspecting it was his wife Natalie (Wendy Crewson) who went ahead with the Re-Pet. He almost enters the house when he sees what could only be a clone of himself already celebrating with his family. While sneaking around outside his own home, Gibson is confronted and chased by Replacement Technologies security agents Robert Marshall (Michael Rooker), Talia Elsworth (Sarah Wynter), P. Wiley (Rodney Rowland) and Vincent Bansworth (Terry Crews), who are all trying to kill him. He is able to escape and seeks refuge at Morgan's apartment after the police betray him to the killers. He speaks with Morgan for a few minutes when Morgan is suddenly shot by Tripp, a religious anti-cloning fundamentalist. Tripp reveals that the Morgan he shot was actually an illegal clone. Tripp tells Gibson he had killed both Morgan and Drucker on the mountaintop earlier that day. Tripp then commits suicide to avoid being captured by Drucker's security team, shooting himself in the head so they could not scan his memory in search of other anti-cloning activists.

Gibson sneaks into Drucker's company and finds Dr. Griffin Weir (Robert Duvall), the scientist behind Drucker's human cloning technology. Weir explains to Gibson that Drucker and Morgan were both killed earlier that day, and were cloned to cover up the incident using a memory scan captured during the medical and eye exams the pilots took. However, they believed that Gibson was flying the helicopter, and they accidentally created a Gibson clone before they realized their mistake. Drucker's security have been trying to kill Gibson to keep Drucker's illegal cloning operation a secret; since the real Drucker died three years ago, he was cloned, and if this gets out, he will lose everything, since clones have no rights whatsoever. Gibson recovers Drucker's memory hard-drive which is evidence of his cloning and Weir, who is sympathetic with Gibson, warns him that Drucker may go after his family.

Weir later learns that Drucker's human clones are embedded with a fatal disease that will kill the clone after five years, thus giving Drucker leverage to ensure the clones' obedience. Weir discovers the disease protocol when he finds out that his wife - whom he had cloned after her death five years ago - was dying of a traditionally childhood disease. Weir confronts Drucker and tells him he wants to quit, stating that he has promised his wife that he would not clone her again. In response, Drucker kills Weir, intending to later clone Weir and his wife, but with their recent memories erased.

As Weir predicted, Drucker orders his agents to take Gibson's family to make sure he cooperates with the cover-up. Gibson devises a plan with his doppelgänger to destroy Drucker's facility, rescuing his family in the process. Drucker forces Gibson to surrender and informs him that Gibson (the film's protagonist up to this moment) was the clone all along, who could not be retracted and eliminated before the blunder surrounding the real Gibson could be cleared. Drucker has been cloned several times and his security team as well. In a moment of sympathy, Drucker offers Gibson's clone to reveal where the real Gibson is hiding, since he has all of Drucker's cloning memory hard drives appealing to the fact that they are all clones and if found out, will be destroyed. However, the clone, upon accepting his true nature, refuses saying that everyone has to die sometime and tricks Drucker, buying time for the real Gibson (who had been hiding in the helicopter he used to get there all along) to sneak in and rescue his family. Drucker tries to stop Gibson II, which causes the final deaths of Marshall, Elsworth, Barnsworth and Wiley, and Drucker is shot in the stomach and mortally wounded.

After getting his family to safety, the real Gibson returns to rescue his clone. In a last-ditch effort to survive, Drucker clones himself before dying, but the malfunctioning machinery causes the new Drucker to have a disfigured, fetus-like appearance. Drucker pursues the Gibson clone onto the roof with his men and opens fire as the clone desperatly looks for a way out. The real Gibson arrives and together they hold off Drucker's goons. The Gibson clone pilots the helicopter at Drucker with a remote control, causing him to jump onto a glass roof to avoid its blades, but the glass breaks and sends him falling to his death. The two Gibsons barley escape on their helicopter at the last moment due to the remote control being damaged in the battle. Bombs planted earlier by the real Gibson explode and the human cloning facility is destroyed, while both Gibsons escape the complex with the inflammatory information.

In the end, the original Gibson arranges for his clone to move to Patagonia, Argentina, to start a satellite office of their charter business, and to keep the clone's existence a secret, while he reunites with his family and has gained a more moderate view of cloning from his experiences. The Gibson clone says goodbye to his family and gives them Hank's cat, a RePet as a new pet as it needs an owner and he has lost his aversion to cloning. Its also revealed that the clone had a DNA test run and discovered that for some reason, no fatal disease was programed into his DNA, giving him a chance at a full life. As the Gibson clone flies to Argentina, the film rewinds and closes.

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Adam Gibson and his clone
• Michael Rapaport as Hank Morgan, Adam's best friend
• Tony Goldwyn as Michael Drucker, the CEO of Replacement Technologies and the main antagonist
• Michael Rooker as Robert Marshall, a Millennium security agent and Drucker's right-hand man
• Sarah Wynter as Talia Elsworth, an assassin working for Drucker
• Wendy Crewson as Natalie Gibson, Adam's wife.
• Rodney Rowland as P. Wiley, an assassin working for Drucker
• Terry Crews as Vincent Bansworth, an assassin working for Drucker
• Ken Pogue as Speaker Day
• Colin Cunningham as Tripp, a religious fundamentalist strongly against cloning.
• Robert Duvall as Doctor Griffin Weir, Drucker's scientist in charge of the cloning
• Wanda Cannon as Katherine Weir, Griffin's wife
• Taylor Anne Reid as Clara Gibson, Adam's daughter
• Jennifer Gareis as Virtual Girlfriend
• Don McManus as RePet Salesman

Box office and reception

The film opened at #4 at the North American box office, making 13 million USD in its opening weekend. It made only $96 million worldwide against its $82 million budget, making it only a moderate success.

The film received mixed reviews and has a 40% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The 6th Day earned three Razzie Award nominations for Schwarzenegger: Worst Actor (as the real Adam), Worst Supporting Actor (as the clone of Adam) and Worst Screen Couple (Schwarzenegger as Adam and Schwarzenegger as the clone).

Production

Locations

• Vancouver, Canada
• Vancouver Library Square, Vancouver, Canada
• Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
• The Darkness House, United States
• McMath Secondary School
• Simon Fraser University
• Toronto Eaton Centre, Toronto, Canada
• Ladner, British Columbia, Canada

Home video releases

The 6th Day was released on video on the following dates:

Release Date	Territory	Format	Notes
March 27, 2001	U.S. and Canada	DVD	Discontinued
May 27, 2001	U.S. and Canada	VHS	Discontinued
June 3, 2003	U.S. and Canada	DVD	Special Edition
December 15, 2003	U.S. and Canada	DVD	Schwarzenegger Action Pack: The 6th Day and Last Action Hero

A Blu-ray version was released in the United States and Canada on April 8, 2008.

Potentially anachronistic product placement

The film set in 2015 opens with scenes of an XFL football game. The XFL franchise folded after its first season in 2001.

External links

• The 6th Day at the Internet Movie Database
• The 6th Day at AllRovi
• The 6th Day at Rotten Tomatoes
• The 6th Day at Metacritic
• The 6th Day at Box Office Mojo