Directed by: Roger Spottiswoode
Written by:Cormac Wibberley, Marianne Wibberley
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Rapaport, Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rooker, Sarah Wynter, Robert Duvall, Rodney Rowland
Released: January 18, 2001
Grade: A-

It is the not too distant future and the world is advancing.  Cloning has become an important industry but legislation limits its usage to animals only.  It seems the human brain is too complex to clone and after a failed experiment, "sixth day" laws were introduced prohibiting any attempt to clone a human being.  In the ten years since the laws were introduced, a rebel scientific team has perfected the art of human cloning and is running an underground operation.  The team is led by scientist Dr. Griffin Weir (Duvall) and financed by the very wealthy Michael Drucker (Goldwyn)

Adam Gibson (Schwarzenegger) is a helicopter pilot with a wife and daughter.  He is hired by Drucker and a few of his men to take them skiing atop a mountain range.  However, it's Adam's birthday and he palms the job off to colleague Hank Morgan (Rapaport) to get some time off.  Waiting on top the mountain is an armed anti-cloning protester who shoots and kills the entire party.

The party are cloned and returned back into the world but unknowingly, they think Hank is Adam and so the clone created is that of Adam.  Now we have two Adam Gibsons and given the 40-year mandatory sentence for human cloning, there's a lot of people who would like to see one of the two eliminated.

Like a favourite film of mine, Gattaca, The Sixth Day makes a point about playing god and where to draw the line.  It's a touchy subject matter and many people haven't sat down and thought about where they really stand.  If your son was critically ill and you had the technology to save him through cloning, would you do it?

This action-thriller shows the talent of Canadian director Roger Spottiswoode and writers Cormac and Marianne Wibberley.  I concede I was surprised on many occasions by both the storyline and intelligent surprises that followed.  Even Arnie gets the opportunity to pull out some great lines typified when he tells someone to get a clone so he can "go fuck himself".  Even I had to laugh at that.

Of course the film is filled with tacky "close call" action scenes which detract but this look at the future has been logically created thanks to great special effects.  The three-member film editing team has done a super job maintaining the suspense and the style is very audacious.

Arnie does have a limited range but has found just the right movie in The Sixth Day.  We haven't seen him much of late with End Of Days being his only other film in the past three years.  Interestingly, both films have heavy religious undertones.  I wonder if Arnie is trying to leave his mark on the world...