The sixth day of the title is a biblical reference to the day God created man, and is borrowed to name a set of laws preventing human cloning. Don’t let the whiff of science fiction put you off though. This is very definitely an action movie, and an extremely well-plotted and acted one at that. While the idea of cloning is central to the story, not to mention the various plot twists, it’s not critical to the enjoyment of what is essentially a detective story with a good dollop of chase thrown in.

By the time of 6th Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger had a lot of making up to do to apologise for turkeys like his Mr Freeze in Batman and Robin, not to mention the awful Jingle All The Way. This was the film to do it, probably his best outing since Total Recall.

Adam Gibson (Schwarzenegger) is a regular middle-aged guy who flies helicopter tours for the Double X Charter Company. He has a wife, Natalie (Wendy Crewson), and a young daughter Carla (Taylor Anne Reid). Set in the near future when animal cloning is commonplace (to the extent that dead pets can be replaced almost instantaneously and children also play with genetically engineered dolls) Adam maintains an old-fashioned attitude to the new technology. Refusing to allow his daughter to clone her recently deceased dog, he prefers to keep such “advances” at arms length.

That is until the technology comes to visit him. Returning home one night he finds his family and friends celebrating his birthday with him already inside. And outside the house are a bunch of people he’s never met who are intent on killing him.

The 6th Day: UKTV Gold, Saturday 13 October, 9pm

Worth a look:
Con Air: BBC One, Saturday 13 October, 10.15pm
Silver Streak: Film4, Sunday 14 October, 6.55pm
The Addams Family: Five, Sunday 14 October, 7.05pm
Fight Club: Film4, Friday 19 October, 10.55pm