Sci-Fact
Sci-fi: Days of Fear and Wonder Season
Title
Clones and Eugenics in Cinema
What we see?
Cloning and the genetic manipulation of humans – eugenics – have become established narrative
tropes in cinema. The main recurring themes are filiation, human ‘uniqueness’ and difference,
instrumentality, and totalitarian or rigidly class-based societies.
Films frequently deal with a combination of these themes. So, for example, Gattaca explores
family relationships and the qualities that comprise our ‘humanity’ in the context of a future
dystopia in which genetic engineering produces new class divisions. The film delivers the partially
reassuring message that, by force of will, a particular individual who is defined as flawed within
this society can outperform a sibling who has pre-programmed advantages
A number of films dealing with these issues demonstrate interesting aesthetic traits. Gattaca
portrays a smooth, sleek futurescape in order both to convey the controlling nature of a eugenic
dystopia and also to stand in contrast to the messy material and psychological reality of human
individuals and family relationships
Code 46 portrays a dystopian future in which heavily-controlled mega-cities are surrounded by
deserts and shanty towns. Citizens of these mega-cities speak a form of ‘global’ English
incorporating words and phrases from a number of other languages. The prevalence of
reproductive technologies such as IVF and cloning means that individuals need to be screened in
order to prevent sexual relationships between partners who are genetically identical. In contrast
to the stylistic sleekness of Gattaca, Code 46 envisions a future society and humanity that is
sprawling, hybrid and contingent. It is in this context that the shadowy totalitarian authority – the
Sphinx – attempts to exercise some form of genetic control over its citizens.
Drawing on the literary and psychoanalytic theme of the uncanny, there is a pervasive dreamlike
quality and atmosphere of unease that manifests itself in films like Never Let Me Go and Moon.
The Boys from Brazil and the recent Wakolda deal with the issue of Nazi eugenic experiments and
display a variation on this theme of unease, evoking a vaguely gothic atmosphere around Josef
Mengele in post-war South America. Wakolda’s use of the rather hackneyed imagery of identical
clockwork dolls to symbolise Mengele’s psychopathic drive for human uniformity evokes a gothic
sense of the uncanny.
In general terms, films dealing specifically with clones or quasi-clone characters demonstrate an
interesting development over time. It is possible to identify a distinct evolution running from the
robotic individuals in The Stepford Wives to the fully human group of friends in Never Let Me Go. In
part, this reflects a shift away from pervasive anxieties around conformity and totalitarian
regimes in the post-war era.
Ethics?
Cinema seems to be taking clones more seriously, speculating on how human they might be
treated and what consequences cloning would have for human relationships. In short, cinematic
clones have become more ‘human’, and are now increasingly shown as being subject to prejudice
or marginalisation as a social group that evokes unwarranted revulsion.
Of course, the development of cinematic representations has clearly been influenced by the fact
that the science of cloning has moved from the realm of speculation to reality with the birth of
Dolly the sheep – the world’s first successfully cloned mammal – in 1997. Techniques such
cloning, stem cell therapies and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis have become scientific
realities and have been widely discussed in the media and at a governmental level.
One way in which cinematic representations of biotechnology and the human have responded to
this changing scientific landscape is by speculating on the possible emergence of stark new class
differences between those who can afford to avail themselves of these new opportunities to
enhance and prolong their own lives, together with those of their children, and those who service
these new consumer demands. The utopian blockbuster The Island depicts a future in which
human clones are created – as in Never Let Me Go – to provide harvestable organs for a rich
clientele. These wealthy customers are told that their organ donor clones are non-sentient
organic frames – ‘agnates’ – whereas the clones are in fact fully human. Although very different in
tone and approach, both The Island and Never Let Me Go are examples of an interesting emergent
dystopian theme in contemporary science fiction. As well as dramatising bioethical issues, these
filmic dystopias clearly express contemporary anxieties around what is widely perceived to be a
growing global divide between rich and poor.
A good deal of bioethical discourse around cloning and biotechnology has focused on the
morality of creating an individual for instrumental reasons. As well as having what we might call
biopolitical consequences, this theme raises important questions about issues of parenthood and
biological filiation in general. Womb (released as Clone in the UK) explores the possibility of a
mother giving birth to a clone of her dead husband in a near future in which human cloning is a
viable technology.
Speculations
Unsurprisingly, human reproductive cloning is illegal in many countries around the world.
However, in recent times claims have been made – notably by the Raelian cult Clonaid in 2002 –
that human cloning has been successfully carried out: these claims have never been verified and
seem unlikely to be true.
Generalised, although not universal, moral aversion to the idea of human cloning, as well as the
significant technical problems in perfecting these techniques, mean that the prospect of
widespread reproductive cloning remains a very distant possibility. However, cloning and
biotechnology in cinema is more than just a dramatic device. We may not be on the point of
cloning humans, but developments in areas like stem cell research and genetic testing point
towards a future in which life can be manipulated by technological intervention.
More to think about / Further reading
Mark Fisher, ‘Precarious Dystopias: The Hunger Games, In Time, Never Let Me Go’, Film Quarterly,
vol. 65, no. 4 (Summer 2012)
Brian Michael Goss, ‘Taking Cover from Progress: Michael Winterbottom’s Code 46’, Journal of
Communication Inquiry, vol. 31, no. 1 (2007)
John Harris, On Cloning (2004)
David A. Kirby, ‘Extrapolating race in GATTACA: Genetic passing, Identity, and the Science of
Race’, Literature and Medicine, vol. 23, no 1 (Spring 2004)
Eric Seedhouse, Beyond Human: Engineering our Future Evolution (2014)
John Marks