When a man clones himself to manage his life, the results are predictably chaotic.
In short: In the 1996 comedy Multiplicity, a stressed construction worker uses a secret cloning machine to balance his career and family. The experiment spirals out of control as each duplicate develops an exaggerated personality, leading to a series of absurd domestic complications that eventually force the original Doug to confront his priorities.
Directed by Harold Ramis, Multiplicity explores the high-concept premise of a man who clones himself to handle the pressures of his job in Los Angeles. Doug Kinney, the protagonist, initially views the technology as a solution to his work-life balance issues. However, the clones—Lance, Rico, and Lenny—each manifest distinct, exaggerated traits of Doug’s own psyche. Lance represents his masculine side, Rico his sensitive and domestic side, and Lenny, a clone-of-a-clone, embodies his immature tendencies.
The film’s narrative follows the inevitable friction caused by these duplicates, who eventually interact with Doug’s wife, Laura, without her knowledge. The situation reaches a breaking point when the clones’ lack of coordination leads to Doug losing his job and his marriage falling apart. The story concludes with the clones moving to Miami to operate a pizzeria, leaving Doug to rebuild his life and his relationship with his family on his own terms.
Critically, the film received mixed reviews upon its 1996 release. Critics like Roger Ebert noted that while the film shared a director with Groundhog Day, it lacked that predecessor's philosophical depth. Others, such as Janet Maslin, felt the plot failed to reach the absurdist potential of its premise. Despite the star power of Michael Keaton, the film struggled at the box office, grossing approximately $37 million worldwide against a $45 million budget, facing stiff competition from other summer releases like The Nutty Professor.
The legacy of the film remains a case study in high-concept comedy. While it did not achieve blockbuster status, it remains a notable entry in the genre of cloning-themed narratives. Its exploration of identity and the consequences of outsourcing one's responsibilities continues to resonate, even as later works like the 2019 series Living with Yourself have revisited similar themes through different, often more unintentional, lenses.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Multiplicity (film)
- Also: Wikidata — Multiplicity · CC0
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