The 6th Day
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The 6th Day is a 2000 action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Rapaport. Schwarzenegger plays a family man named Adam Gibson who is secretly cloned and must fight for his own survival while stopping the organization behind the cloning. The film was directed by Roger Spottiswoode.
Contents |
Cast & crew
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Adam Gibson
- Michael Rapaport as Hank Morgan
- Tony Goldwyn as Michael Drucker
- Robert Duvall as Dr. Griffin Weir
- Wanda Cannon as Katherine Weir
- Taylor Anne Reid as Clara Gibson
- Michael Rooker as Robert Marshall
- Sarah Wynter as Talia Elsworth
- Wendy Crewson as Natalie Gibson
- Rodney Rowland as P. Wiley
- Colin Cunningham as Tripp
- Jennifer Gareis as Hank's Virtual Girlfriend
- Don McManus as RePet Salesman
Additional information
The title refers to the Biblical story of creation in Genesis, where on the sixth day, God created mankind, male and female, "in his own image". The device seen in the movie poster is used to archive the mental state of a person, such as memories, habits etc. and subsequently transfer it to his or her clone. The record is called a "synchording". In addition to the Biblical references, there are also references to the Raelian concept of immortality through cloning and personality transfer.
The film purports to look at the ethics of human cloning, but it has been criticised for presenting a scenario that is nothing like the somatic cell nuclear transfer process that would actually be used in any form of human cloning (whether "therapeutic" or "reproductive"). In this film, the clone can imitate the appearance and personality (and adopt the life) of the original person - a scenario repeated in a more recent film, The Island (2005 film), though it has no scientific basis. Whatever is wrong with cloning as presented in such films would not necessarily carry across to any real-life form of cloning.
On one interpretation, the film's title suggests that God is the creator and taker of life, and that the action of artificially creating a designed human being (i.e. imitating God's actions on the sixth day) must be a sin. Yet, both Adams survive and are shown as having a place in the world after the resolution of the narrative. Thus the movie tend to confirm the thesis of some science fiction theorists that even superficially anti-technology science fiction tends to accommodate the very technology that it criticizes. Interestingly, the main character eventually seems to accept the use of cloning technology to recreate pets (which he originally resisted), again suggesting that such a technology as cloning may have a place if it is not misused.
Locations
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 |
| August 27, 2002 | U.S. and Canada | VHS | |
| 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 |