The 6th Day (2000) – What Happened to This Sci-Fi Action Movie?

It may be hard to remember today with all we’ve been through as a people in the last twenty-five years, but back in the late 90s and early 2000s, cloning was a scorching hot news topic. Though we don’t agree on mostly anything these days, back then there were legitimate reasons for vehement opinions on both sides as the ability to clone pets and humans began to feel eerily reachable. Naturally, Hollywood stepped in to do what Hollywood does. They gave us a humorous but sneakily deep-thinking Sci-Fi/Action flick about all of the discourse surrounding cloning, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he almost died making it. This is the story of what happened to The 6th Day.

When husband/wife writing duo Marianne and Cormac Wibberley sold the second script they’d written together to Disney to break onto the scene, they were shocked by how quickly they’d been type-cast as “family” movie writers. They decided to write an action movie sample to prove to studios they were capable of exploring other genres as well. That script, titled The Sixth Day, would change their lives. It ended up jumpstarting a career that would include the duo working on hit films like National Treasure and Bad Boys II, among others.

The “six” in The 6th Day was originally spelled out like a rational adult would assume. However, it was later changed by the studio out of fear that the majority of the public were brainless human meat popsicles, unable to decipher it from M Night Shyamalan’s uber hit The Sixth Sense. Regardless, the script found the desk of Phoenix Pictures chairman Mike Medavoy. The studio that previously brought us films like U Turn, Urban Legend, and Lake Placid was over the moon with what they’d read. Impressed by the way the script incorporated humor and action, the studio optioned the script, but there was one problem… they had never really made a movie like this before. And so, Medavoy smartly reached out for the help of a Sci-Fi/Action Producer, Jon Davison, who had films like RoboCop and Starship Troopers under his belt. Sony Pictures Releasing came aboard to distribute the film, and we were off.

For director, the studio ultimately went with experienced director Roger Spottiswoode, just a few years removed from Pierce Brosnan’s Goldeneye follow-up, Tomorrow Never Dies. Although it had to be at least somewhat alarming that Spottiswoode also helmed Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, which Schwarzenegger famously tricked Stallone into starring in, knowing what the outcome would be for Stallone. But I digress.

An alternate multiverse features Gremlins and The Howling legend Joe Dante helming the project. In a 2009 Reddit AMA, an Arnold Schwarzenegger fan (who isn’t?) asked Dante if he’d ever worked with the actor. Dante responded that he almost worked with him on The 6th Day but that Schwarzenegger was quote-unquote “wrong for the part”. I imagine he’s referring to the idea that the script (though it had both True Lies and Total Recall elements) called for a bewildered every man thrust into a dangerous situation. Arnold is anything but an “every man,” but to be fair, they at least dressed him in dad khakis for most of the film. I would also argue that I’d cast the Austrian Oak in any role he was willing to play, ever. Which they did. He also helped produce.

Arnold, along with his $25 million dollar price tag was set to play the character of Adam Gibson- a family man and business owner who ends up wrapped up in a billionaires human cloning conspiracy. One day the happy go lucky Adam shows up to his surprise birthday party to see another version of himself in his home, kissing his wife, and eating his birthday cake *Clip here of the hilarious “eating my birthday cake!” moment*. He’s informed that this was a mistake, but unfortunately he’s now seen his clone and has to be killed . If his family finds out, they too will be terminated in the name of the future of human cloning. Arnold has to then take down the entire industry to get his life back, eventually teaming up with his own clone, and at one point using a severed finger to access proprietary information.

The rest of the cast features an “Oh shit, HE’S in this movie too?” moment at every turn. On the good guy side of things, Michael Rapaport plays Adam’s bachelor buddy and coworker, Hank. Air Force One’s Wendy Crewson is cast as Adam’s extremely loving wife, Natalie, who brings him stogies and does husband/wife stuff with him in their garage minivan. The bad guys are led by Ghost actor Tony Goldwyn as Michael Drucker, who gives an impressively believable evil-Steve Jobs performance as a heartless corporate figurehead playing God. Drucker’s Street General is played none other than the legend Michael Rooker as Robert Marshall, barking orders and threatening folks at every turn in his patented “tired of your shit” voice. Even his henchmen are notable, with Terry Crews appearing in his debut role as the literal muscle. Crews appears onscreen alongside fun performances from Sarah Wynter and Rodney Rowland as a couple of cyber punk clones with low morals, who look as if they came straight from the set of Hackers.

A lot of these characters are fun but surface-level action archetypes until we reach Robert Duvall as Dr. Griffin Weir, a good person at heart, tortured by his past decisions. Yeah, Robert Duvall! Who Schwarzenegger specifically recruited into the role, knowing the kind of heart he would inject into the project.

The 6th Day was originally set to take place twenty to thirty years into the future, but plans were changed when the world caught up to the script’s technology quicker than expected. As the film was moving forward, so were the news headlines around the topic of human cloning. The birth of “Dolly the sheep”, the first mammal ever to be successfully cloned (that we know of) was announced in 1997, which led to then-President Bill Clinton banning federal funding for human cloning that same year. That in turn led to the announcement of “The Missyplicity Project” in 1998, where a man and his associate began a project to clone a family dog. Which, as you know, directly connects to the “RePet” storyline of The 6th Day, in which a company straight out of Total Recall can clone your family pet, right at their Mall-based location. Like it’s a goddamn “Build-A-Bear”. Someone’s never seen Pet Sematary. The decision was made to circumvent the original plans and base the Canada-shot film a mere fifteen years into the future, landing us in 2015. The same year that Back To The Future Part II takes place.

While we don’t have Back To The Future Part II’s hoverboards or time travel, The 6th Day was able to sort-of, kind-of anticipate some of our current technology. For the self-driving cars, Arnold says they went to General Motors and asked for their future prototypes. This resulted in them supplying $15 million dollars of futuristic vehicles, which were transported in heated trailers. There’s a helicopter that turns into somewhat of a jet, called a “Whispercraft”, weighing in at a whopping 7,000 pounds and featuring a working dashboard. Though it wasn’t actually flyable. The rig was created by the designer of the human spaceship from Alien, Ron Cobb. The Demolition Man-esque laser guns, lovingly dubbed the “Foosh guns,” were created by Special FX supervisor Michael Lantieri by filling the barrel with water and calcium carbide, so that when fired, a gas was released and ignited by glow plugs, creating a light effect. Most impressively, and as it turns out accurate, Arnold at one point uses an interactive “smart fridge” in his kitchen. Something I still can’t afford in 2025, but by god they exist. Currently on sale at Lowe’s.

The 6th Day threw the kitchen sink at us, revolving their ideas around future technology innovation. One musn’t forget Hank’s dream girlfriend- a switch-on/switch-off hologram that wants to watch sports with you, loves that you go straight to your chair after work, and even unzips your pants.

On the ugly side of things, there is what’s supposed to be a futuristic doll called a Sim-Pal, that actually looks like someone should it take it back to the evil dark ages and burn it with fire. The Sim-Pal has a hilarious amount of screen time in The 6th Day, with the movie hellbent on making the probably Satanic doll suffer at every turn. Seriously, LOOK at this thing! Which, incidentally, if you’re a big weirdo who wants Jeffrey Dahmer’s Annabelle sitting on your kitchen island? You can currently purchase one of the screen-used props on eBay for $3500 bucks. Just know that you are judged.

To create all these effects, some of which haunting and unfortunate, the production had originally planned on filming 300 SFX shots. Which, throughout pre-production, quickly ballooned to 700 SFX shots for the project sporting a budget of $82 million (around $150 million adjusted for inflation as of 2025). According to VFX Supervisor Peter Kuran, the infusion lab alone took three months to create with two crews often working day and night. The lab featured 85,000 and 32,000 gallon water tanks, both filled with 86-degree water. They did this to make it more palatable for a scene in which Arnold would hide in the tanks from his assailants. The water may have been comfortable, but the scene almost took the beloved actor from us for good.

The scene was first rehearsed with goggles on, and all the appropriate precautions appeared to have been taken. However, when Arnold went to film without the goggles, the water was too “milky” for him to see. When he went to depart the water, he realized he didn’t know where to get out and was trapped. Thankfully, his stunt double, Billy Lucas, saw him struggle and helped guide him to safety. In a Reddit AMA eleven years ago, Arnold recalled the moment as one of the closest he had ever been to death (also recalling the horse on the rooftop moment from True Lies, unsurprisingly).

Speaking of early deaths, the first moments of the film feature a much brighter future for Vince McMahon’s XFL Football League. The moment is one of The 6th Day’s most underrated oddities, showing a future in which the XFL wasn’t a dumpster fire that only survived a year- but was rather a super successful one in which players were paid in the millions in front of thousands of adoring fans. When a million-dollar Quarterback with an unexpected career-ending injury is secretly murdered and quickly cloned to start the next weekend, it’s another interesting look into how billionaires could use the power of cloning for nefarious purposes. Who thinks of this stuff? I bet Jerry Jones would do it.

The 6th Day certainly seemed like a movie that spared no expense and had a lot of fun doing so. While the bold, futuristic ideas and classic Arnold moments make for what I consider a pretty fun and underrated flick, critics didn’t agree. To make matters worse, audiences didn’t show up. The film was considered a box office flop, making only $96 million at the box office on an $80 million dollar budget when it was all said and done. It opened domestically at number four behind How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Rugrats In Paris, and Charlie’s Angels. It was ultimately a very bad sign for Arnold’s career at the time. For reference, Arnold’s previous film, the very underrated horror flick End of Days, had managed to pull in over $300 million at the box office just a year prior.

Though Roger Ebert liked the film and gave it three out of four stars, Arnold received multiple Razzie nominations, including Worst Actor. Cheekily, he was also nominated for worst supporting actor as his own clone, and worst screen couple for his performance with himself. Which, I’ll openly say is horse dung because those two were adorable. Thankfully, he lost all of those to Battlefield Earth. On the bright side, the film was nominated for a few Saturn awards, including best actor, best Sci-Fi film, best Special effects, and best Makeup. Though it didn’t win any of the awards, it’s still nice to be noticed.

Who knows why The 6th Day didn’t hit with audiences despite its humor, ideas, and action? Perhaps they were unwilling to participate in anything that reminded them of old-school 90s action movies at the dawn of the 2000s. Or it could have been, in part, the corny poster featuring a confusing monstrosity as Arnold was reticent to hold a gun due to ongoing strife about gun violence in his movies. Regardless, if you happen to be nostalgic for an Arnold throwback or want to check out the wild ideas around the horrors of human cloning through the lens of a Sci-Fi blockbuster with jokes? This one is a lot more fun than it was given credit for being back in 2000. And that is what happened to The 6th Day.

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