Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A world of the very near future in which cattle, fish, and even the family pet can be cloned. But cloning humans is illegal - that is until family man Adam Gibson comes home from work one day to find a clone has replaced him. Taken from his family and plunged into a sinister world he doesn't understand, Gibson must not only save himself from the assassins who must destroy him to protect their secret, but uncover who and what is behind the horrible things happening to him.
The 6th Day is a serviceable but unremarkable Schwarzenegger sci-fi actioner. The cloning premise had genuine topical resonance in 2000 but the execution leans heavily on familiar man-on-the-run thriller mechanics and the conspiracy plot is predictable and undercooked. Schwarzenegger delivers his usual watchable physicality and some self-aware humor, and supporting players like Tony Goldwyn and Michael Rooker add color, keeping acting passable. Cinematography is competent genre work—functional futuristic production design without anything visually distinctive. The novelty score suffers because the core ideas (implanted memories, corporate cloning conspiracies) echo Total Recall and other PKD-adjacent films far more memorably executed, making this feel derivative despite its interesting premise. The ending resolves tidily but without real impact or surprise—a double-twist on the clone concept that fails to land with much punch.