We know that human is cloning possible, but could your clone be engineered to be smarter than you? Healthier and stronger than you? What would happen if your clone decided to hunt you down? Find out with my review of Gemini Man.
Plot
Gemini Man is a 2019 action thriller that is directed by one of my favorite directors, Ang Lee. Before Lee got to do his magic with the script, which was originally written by screenwriter Darren Lemke in 1997, the film went through many rewrites and directors. It wasn’t until Skydance Media purchased the rights in 2016 from Disney that filming was able to take place. With Ang Lee aboard, filming began in 2018 with stars Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Linda Emond, Clive Owen and Benedict Wong.
Henry Brogan (Will Smith) is looking to retire after working for many years as a government assassin for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He has one last job to do and that is to use his sniper skills to kill what he is told is an enemy of the state. Henry is the perfect assassin with a few flaws: he is allergic to bee stings, and he is afraid of drowning, which leaves us to wonder why we find the now retired Henry, renting a boat from the rental manager Danny Zakarewski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
Henry’s reason for renting the boat is to meet with an old friend, Jack (Douglas Hodge), who is also a retired agent. Jack tells Henry that he was played by his bosses, Clay Varris (Clive Owen) and Janet Lassiter (Linda Emond). The man that was killed by Henry was not an enemy of the state but a genetic scientist that worked for Clay Varris and the Gemini program. After Henry leaves Jack’s yacht, Jack and his girlfriend are murdered by Gemini operatives.
Henry asks Danny out on a date. He knows that she was hired by the DIA to keep an eye on him. After learning of Jack’s death, Henry and Danny escape from the same Gemini operatives and go into hiding with Baron (Benedict Wong), another of Henry’s military colleagues. When Clay Varris realizes that Henry is too smart to be killed, he sends in his secret weapon.
Junior
Junior doesn’t know who his parents were. His adopted father and Ninja trainer, Clay Verris, told Junior that his parents had dumped him at a gas station when he was an infant. Junior is young, 23 years old, and he is fast. He is the perfect assassin, and Verris sends him after Henry. When Henry and Junior finally get to fight, the secret of Junior’s true origins is revealed.
Conclusion
At first, I thought Will Smith’s son, Jaden, played Junior, but I soon realized that Will Smith plays both characters, Henry and Junior, thanks to CGI. I was impressed with the CGI effects, but although I enjoyed the movie because of the action and the whole clone thing, it wasn’t Ang Lee’s best work. I guess, to me at least, after watching Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I always expect more punch in his films.
One more thing on the clone thing. Gemini Man was fun to watch, but if you really want to watch a good series about clones, you need to watch Orphan Black on Netflix and Amazon Prime. It will blow your mind.
I would have appreciated more of the reviewer’s opinion on this movie. It’s a good summary of the plot but I still have no idea how the reviewer actually felt about the movie.