Tamal Kundu
Written and directed by Benjamin Cleary, ‘Swan Song’ is a sci-fi romance drama film. Set in the not-so-distant future, the film revolves around illustrator and family man Cameron Turner (Mahershala Ali), who discovers that he has a terminal disease. Hoping to spare his wife and son the grief and pain of his death, he decides to replace himself in their lives with a clone.
However, as his memories are transplanted into the mind of the duplicate, Cameron gets to relive them and realizes that he is not yet ready to say goodbye. If you have watched the film and loved it, here is a list of recommendations for you. You can watch most of these movies similar to ‘Swan Song’ on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.
6. The Midnight Sky (2020)
Directed by George Clooney, ‘The Midnight Sky’ is a story about a man named Augustine Lofthouse, who has spent a lifetime looking for an alternate home for humanity. He has known that he has a daughter, Dr. Iris “Sully” Sullivan, but decided long ago that it would be best not to meet her.
In 2049, Earth has become desolate by a sudden cataclysmic disaster, and circumstances bring Lofthouse once more into the life of his estranged daughter, who is returning to Earth from a mission on one of Jupiter’s moons and has no idea that the Earth she knew doesn’t exist anymore in the same capacity. Like Cameron, Lofthouse has an incurable and terminal disease, which serves as the driving force behind much of his actions.
5. Finch (2021)
Like Cameron and Lofthouse, the eponymous character of ‘Finch’ (Tom Hanks) is also dying of an incurable disease. His Earth is post-apocalyptic. Hoping to have someone take care of his dog after his death, Finch creates a humanoid robot, which names itself Jeff. Finch, Jeff, Goodyear the dog, and helper-robot Dewey are forced to go on an impromptu journey because of an approaching colossal storm. Both ‘Swan Song’ and ‘Finch’ deal with themes such as family, love, and sacrifice.
4. Multiplicity (1996)
The only comedy in this list, ‘Multiplicity’ tells the story of Doug Kinney (Michael Keaton), a construction worker who has little time for his family due to his job. A scientist at the facility he is currently working for offers him an unconventional solution: get a clone to do his job so that he can have free time to spend with his family. However, when he feels he still doesn’t have enough time, he ends up creating more copies of himself. Cloning is an important plot device in ‘Swan Song’ and ‘Multiplicity. Moreover, they are love stories at their core.
3. Replicas (2018)
Both ‘Swan Song’ and sci-fi thriller ‘Replicas’ are about the protagonist deciding to use cloning and memory transplant to deal with grief and the sense of loss. William Foster (Keanu Reeves) is a biomedical scientist, who loses his family in a violent car crash. He was already trying to develop a method to transfer the mind of a deceased soldier into an android. He convinces one of his colleagues to create clones of his dead family members and then transfers all the conscious and subconscious memories from the originals to the duplicates. Predictably, things don’t go according to the plans.
2. The 6th Day (2000)
‘The 6th Day’ is set on an Earth where therapeutic human cloning or cloning for medicine or transplant has become commonplace, even though reproductive cloning or cloning of an entire human being has remained illegal because of a legislature known as the “Sixth Day” law.
Adam Gibson (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a charter pilot who discovers one day that he has been replaced in his family’s life with a clone and embarks on a perilous journey to prove who he really is. Like ‘Swan Song,’ ‘The 6th Day’ addresses the potential invasiveness with such futuristic technology as cloning and memory transference, albeit with an action thriller tangent.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
In ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’ after ending her volatile relationship with Joel Barish (Jim Carrey), Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) wipes every memory of their time together from her mind. When Joel finds out about this, he decides to do the same.
During the process, he gets to relive the memories — both good and bad — and discovers that he is not yet prepared to let go. In their own ways, Cameron and Joel are dealing with loss. If it’s the concern for his family that compels Cameron to make the decision, Joel does it to escape the pain of a broken heart.
Read More: Where Was Swan Song Filmed?
