THE SIXTH DAY

US, 2000, 120 minutes, Colour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rapaport, Michael Rooker, Robert Duvall, Sarah Wynter, Wendy Crewson.
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode.

At the end of the Millennium, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in the devil-confrontation thriller, End of Days. It quoted the final book of the Bible for its message, the Book of Revelation. A year later, in the millennium year, anticipating 'the near future' of the 21st century, with a quotation from the first book of the Bible, Genesis, he appears in a film about creation. The Sixth Day was the day that God created male and female in the divine image. In the film, the sixth day refers to future legislation, enacted after some experiments with human cloning, aimed at outlawing such experiments.

This means that what we have here is an Arnold Schwarzenegger action thriller which delivers what his fans have come to expect from him (even though he is over 50 and has had heart surgery). While this ensures a large audience for the film, it also means that a lot of people won't want to see it. But it is worth noting that The Sixth Day takes on the very serious issue of cloning, both of animals and humans and the repercussions for individuals and society. This gives the film some importance in enabling the wide and popular audience to consider and discuss the issue.

Arnold is Adam, an ace helicopter pilot with a wonderful wife and daughter. On his birthday, when he swaps duty with his buddy to ferry a millionaire involved in genetic experimentation, a nightmare begins which involves him confronting his cloned self. This means, of course, two Schwarzneggers for the price of one - and for Arnold to be heroic twice-over, to her heroic as well as to be self-sacrificing.

There are appeals to our emotional response to cloning as, in this world, pets can be cloned and that is what the kiddies want. But in a world of holograms and virtual reality, for some this is not enough. Robert Duvall portrays a scientist who, deceiving himself into thinking he is doing good by cloning humans, has been resurrecting the businessman and his thugs who spend most of the film pursuing both Adams (with plenty of chases by car and helicopter).

So the film is continually reminding us that, despite the niceness of having dead pets back or the cloning of depleted fish colonies for feeding people or, especially, cloning terminally ill people so that they are healthy again, cloning can be deadly dangerous in the hands of the power-hungry and the unscrupulous. There are further questions in the screenplay about human dignity, identity, the soul and the reality of ageing and dying.

It is interesting to notice that when the movies take on scientific issues, especially experiments when the scientists are 'playing God', they are usually very cautious, condemning rather than supporting the experiments. One has only to think of Dr Frankenstein creating monsters. And so, here, while the real Adam comes to appreciate his clone (after all Adam is a hero), he also sees the evil characters and their clones. So, it is a mixture of Arnold as action hero and Arnold as moralist.

1. The title and the reference and quote from Genesis? The image of God, God the creator, people as the new creators, taking on where God left off? The whole issue of cloning, the scientific background, the moral issues, whether clones are truly human?

2. The near future, sooner than we think? The future city, glossy, the buildings, the South American setting, the river, the laboratories, the ordinary homes, the mountain scenery? A comfortable future? The dramatic musical score?

3. Issues of technology for the future: the nature of transport, cars, automatic drive, helicopters and planes, technology and communications, screens phones, messages? Cloning?

4. The background of cloning, the information about the 1990s and Dolly the sheep? Human cloning, the future prohibiting it? Animals easier to control? No human cloning? The Sixth Day laws? The issue of who decides who is to be cloned or not, unscrupulous and greedy individuals and corporations "playing God"?

5. The moral issues about science, the discussion between Dr Weir and Adam, science not being evil in itself, rather evil people as scientists? A fable about the risks of explorations in science? Repercussions on human nature, human persons?

6. The film as an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, his screen presence, more genial as a father and husband, the touches of humour (although the deadpan delivery of some of the humorous punchlines in serious places)? Two Arnold Schwarzeneggers for the price of one?

7. Adam, his biblical name? His relationship with Natalie, his birthday, looking in the mirror, his daughter coming in, the domestic sequences? His friendship with Hank, the job, delivery of the passengers to the snowfields, the eye test - and its sinister use? Exchanging positions with Hank because of his birthday? Waiting for Hank in the bar, the message?

8. The home sequence, Adam going home, seeing the clone celebrating the birthday, with his wife, daughter, friends? The hunters and their arriving, meeting Adam on the doorstep, overpowering him? Dragging him away, wanting to kill him? His overpowering them, getting the car, the escape, the crash, the destruction of Wiley? His going to Hank's place, Hank and his arrival home, the holographic glamorous woman? Getting Hank's help, going back to the house, seeing the clone with Natalie? The hunters coming again, shooting Hank, the fight, getting the woman's thumb? Being able to drive the car and get away?

9. Michael Drucker and his background, his life story, his company, his death three years earlier, his owning the team, Johnny Phoenix as the star player, seeing him in action, his death and the commentary, in the car with the hunters, his being killed? Cloned yet again? The champion continuing to take risks, win the matches, dying and appearing again? Johnny and his appearance at the party? The deception on the public? Drucker and his money? The fact that he needed to be recloned, the information to be secret, his having no rights as a clone because he was legally dead? Dr Weir and his collaboration with Drucker? Recloning people? Playing back Drucker's memory, the flight, the fundamentalist shooter? The holograms? His power?

10. The fundamentalist appearing again, telling Adam the truth, his being killed by the hunters? Adam using the thumb and getting into the laboratories, his meeting Dr Weir, the discussions, seeing the clones ready for the recloning, the discussions with Dr Weir, his explaining all the procedures for cloning, the discs with the memory?

11. Dr Weir and his work, his tender relationship with his wife, at the party, taking her home, the domestic sequences at home? His behaviour at the press conference, the party? Drucker's domination? His explaining the whole procedures to Adam? His going to Drucker, refusing to reconstitute his wife? Drucker wanting him to continue so therefore killing him and bringing back his wife and himself, demanding gratitude?

12. The hunters, their personalities and their work, the black pursuer and his standing guard with Natalie and the daughter, the woman and her knowledge, physical prowess, her explanations to Wiley? Wiley and his psychosomatic pains? Brutality, his death? The assistant, his doing Drucker's will, his losing his leg in the shootout? Reconstituted? In the laboratory, the pursuit of Adam, with Drucker at the end, the gun to kill Wiley? His being drowned when the water from the laboratories gushed out?

13. Adam's clone, his not knowing what had happened, his meeting Adam, their discussions and agreement, their strategy, each taking the other's place, the clone entering, Drucker thinking that it was Adam (as did the audience), the revelation of the sign in the mouth that he was the clone? The confrontation with Drucker? The helicopter and the escape?

14. Drucker, his cloning himself, the process incomplete when Drucker was shot, his going to set up the procedure, hastening it? The two Druckers and the unscrupulousness, promising the world? Adam showing himself in the mirror? The confrontation on the roof, the shooting for the helicopter, Drucker and his landing on the glass, its shattering and his falling to his death?

15. The escape with the helicopter, the two men hanging on, the clone climbing over Adam, bearing the helicopter up, saved?

16. The farewell of Adam to the clone, his gratitude, his offering his family as the clone's family? The farewell to the daughter and her not knowing the truth? Natalie knowing the truth? The irony that the clones had been injected with diseases - and the effect of this knowledge influencing Dr Weir to rebel against Drucker?

17. The nature of the technology, the explanations, the mechanism for the memories, the replication of the mind, memories and emotions? The necessity of the disc? Adam and the clone and their destruction of all the discs? The final scene and the use of the memory disk for the recapitulation of the plot?