The 6th Day

Did You Know?

• Schwarzenegger received a salary of $25 million for his role.
• The film premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Plot

By 2015, animal cloning is common, but human cloning is banned by "Sixth Day" laws after a failed attempt. Charter pilot Adam Gibson is hired by billionaire Michael Drucker, owner of Replacement Technologies, for a snowboarding trip and must undergo a drug test. When Adam's daughter's dog dies, he visits a RePet cloning store while his partner Hank flies Drucker to the mountains, where both are killed by assassin Tripp. Adam buys a SimPal doll and returns home to find a clone of himself with his family. He is abducted by Marshall, Drucker's head of security, and agents Talia, Vincent, and Wiley. Adam escapes, killing Talia and Wiley, but the police dismiss him as a mental patient. Drucker, apparently alive, publicly opposes repealing the Sixth Day laws while secretly perfecting human cloning with Dr. Griffin Weir. Adam escapes the police station, kills Wiley again, and finds Hank alive. He brings Hank home but spares his clone. Adam infiltrates Replacement Technologies and confronts Dr. Weir, whose wife Katherine reveals she is a series of clones made to cure her cystic fibrosis.

Reception

The film opened at number four behind How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Charlie's Angels, and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, grossing $13 million in its opening weekend. It earned $57 million in North America (including Mexico) and $96 million worldwide, though Variety reports $116 million. The film grossed $126.3 million worldwide on its first release and $18 million on re-release, totaling $144.3 million. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 40% approval rating from 117 critics, with a rating of 5.9/10, and the consensus calls it "routine and formulaic." Metacritic gives a score of 49 out of 100 from 30 critics. CinemaScore audiences gave an average grade of "C." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave three out of four stars, calling it a serious science fiction film but noting problems with the cloning depiction. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave two out of five stars, criticizing the generic appearance and Schwarzenegger's typecasting. Todd McCarthy of Variety described it as a "standard-issue" Schwarzenegger actioner with a plausible cloning angle. Steve Murray of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave a "C+", calling the film a clone of better movies. The 6th Day earned three Razzie Award nominations for Schwarzenegger, losing all to Battlefield Earth. It was also nominated four times at the 27th Saturn Awards, losing in all categories.