Copy that: The most memorable films and TV shows about clones

In “Star Wars,” the Clone Wars get mentioned in passing. It was just a bit of backstory and world building. Then, George Lucas decided to make it a big part of “Star Wars” storytelling. While the prequels are a fiasco, in the world of animated “Star Wars” shows, a couple of clone-focused outings stand out. We’ll go with “The Clone Wars,” which Lucas crafted with “Star Wars” bigwig Dave Filoni. It ran for seven seasons and 133 episodes.

Dino DNA! It’s easy to forget, because the science of “Jurassic Park” is nonsense and we’re in it for the action and the Jeff Goldblum of it all. However, it’s DNA taken from mosquitoes trapped in amber that allow the dinosaurs that populate Jurassic Park to come to life. Then in the “Jurassic World” trilogy they clone a human. No, really, that happens in those movies.

Before there was “Mickey 17,” which we’re getting to of course, there was “Moon.” In Duncan Jones’ directorial debut, the then-underrated Sam Rockwell plays a man who has been doing a three-year solo stint mining on the Moon. Then, his life is thrown into disarray when he finds out he isn’t alone. Given the gist of this list, you can probably figure out the twist to some degree.

By dint of being one of the only people to see “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” Mike Myers changed the pop-culture landscape. In that movie, Marlon Brando’s Dr. Moreau (purportedly at the behest of Brando) has a small sidekick who dresses like him. They play dueling pianos at one point. This is the inspiration for Mini-Me, Dr. Evil’s clone. People remember Mini-Me. They probably don’t even know a single thing about “The Island of Dr. Moreau.”

Thanks to “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” “Parts: The Clonus Horror” lives on. This is not one of those low-budget oddities made by non-professionals or Ed Wood that show trafficked in, “Clonus” features Peter Graves, Keenan Wynn, and Dick Sargent in the cast. In the film, clones are raised in a desert compound to be, unbeknownst to them, used as organ donors for their counterparts. Now, the evil people who set up the compound were a little on the nose in naming it “Clonus,” but to be fair the clones have no idea what a clone is so they don’t really get it.

“It would be fun if there were a bunch of Michael Keatons.” This is, more or less, the gist of “Multiplicity.” Keaton plays a blue-collar guy who gains access to a cloning machine and keeps on cloning himself to try and help out at work, at home, and the like. Each of the clones has their own personalities to let Keaton have some fun. It’s a trifle of a movie, but an entertaining one.

In recent years Ang Lee has been as interested in technical innovation in filmmaking as storytelling. Sometimes that leads to a “Life of Pi,” but sometimes it leads to a “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” “Gemini Man” splits the difference in terms of quality. Will Smith plays an aging sniper being hunted down by his clone, played by a de-aged Smith. While the de-aging works well, especially for 2019, the movie doesn’t have a ton of substance.

The most underrated Christopher Nolan movie, “The Prestige” features rival magicians who escalate their rivalries to vicious levels. There are a couple twists to the story. One is fairly obvious, the other is not. One of them involves cloning. If you like Nolan at all, check this one out.

Ira Levin, who was one of the foremost writers of elevated genre work, wrote the novel that “The Boys from Brazil” is based on. The plot is a real trip. Gregory Peck, Atticus Finch himself, plays a version of notorious Nazi scientist Josef Mengele who created dozens of clones of Hitler in Brazil. Somehow, even with a pulpy plot like that, this movie actually got three Oscar nominations.

“They Cloned Tyrone” is a really good movie that didn’t get a lot of play among Netflix offerings. We won’t say too much about the plot to avoid spoiling it, but we feel fine including it on this list. The movie has “Cloned” right in the title, after all. John Boyega and Jamie Foxx both give strong performances in this dark sci-fi comedy.

In what was to be Hugh Jackman’s farewell to Wolverine, James Mangold got the opportunity to direct a violent, R-rated superhero movie that didn’t feel gratuitous. It’s gritty in a good way, featuring an aging, possibly dying, version of Jackman’s Wolverine, aka Logan. Like in the Westerns of old, he has one last mission he needs to undertake before he hopes to ride off into the sunset, which involves mutant cloning.

Of all the “Alien” movies, outside of the ones involving Predators, “Resurrection” is the worst of the bunch. Joss Whedon, who wrote the screenplay, was a poor fit for the “Alien” tone. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was held back by the fact he didn’t really speak English. There are clones, though. Specifically, of Ellen Ripley.

Technically, in “Us” they are doppelgangers, but they are exact doubles and they “share a soul” with the main characters, so it’s the same spirit as clones. A ton of people saw “Us” because it was Jordan Peele’s follow-up to “Get Out.” It doesn’t make a ton of sense, and people just sort of gave up on trying to figure it out. Still, it did get to be a sensation for a second, more so than 2022's “Nope,” which is a better movie.

Among television shows involving clones, “Orphan Black” is probably top of mind for most. Canada’s most successful foray into American television until “Schitt’s Creek,” the show stars Tatiana Maslany as several clones, who have distinct looks and personalities. Though the show wasn’t a big hit, “Orphan Black” did net Maslany an Emmy win and helped turn her into a known commodity in the United States.

Way back in the 1980s, the Secret Board of Shadowy figures endeavored to clone the most famous humans in history. They have to grow up, though, and so they all end up as teenagers together in Clone High. The show ran for a season on MTV and was an of-the-moment parody of teen soaps that was fairly funny and definitely never caused any controversy. Decades later the show got rebooted on HBO Max. Though altered for the times, this new “Clone High” was still quite funny, but it only lasted two seasons before being canceled.

At first, “The Venture Bros.” is something of a parody of “Johnny Quest” and a bunch of stuff. It’s really just indebted to the cultural interests of show creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. Then, at the end of the first season, it turns out that Hank and Dean Venture are clones. Eventually the clone element was written out, leaving Hank and Dean to actually grow up a bit, but that sci-fi trope was one of many the show tackled.

Hey, remember when Netflix had a series starring Paul Rudd as clones? That came and went, huh? “Paul Rudd plays clones” was really the long and the short of it, hook wise, but that surely got some people to tune in. They made one eight-episode season of “Living with Yourself,” but that was that.

In his follow-up to winning Oscars for “Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho made a movie that feels like a remix of a few of his previous movies. But also, there are clones. In a dystopian sci-fi future Robert Pattinson plays a man who has signed up to be an “expendable” on an outer-space colonizing mission. Basically, he does the dangerous jobs, and if he dies, they just print out a new version of him. It’s all going, um, not well, but functional, until the 17th Mickey is presumed dead inaccurately, leading to chaos.