Audiences Hated Arnold Schwarzenegger's Sci-Fi Flop With Biblical Overtones More Than Critics

For most of his career, Arnold Schwarzenegger was shooting up the screen or anyone who thought they were tough enough to take on the Austrian Oak. Many of those cinematic showdowns were set in futuristic worlds or involved facing off against sci-fi-themed threats that became highlights of his filmography. Besides taking the lead in franchises that were good enough to compete with the likes of "Star Wars" or "Star Trek," there were also the mind-bending sci-fi movies, like "Total Recall," or even the original "Running Man."

Unfortunately, not all his science fiction stints have been great. One such misfire was a 2000 movie that gave audiences two Arnie's for the price of one, and multiple Michael Rookers in "The 6th Day." Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, "The 6th Day" is set in the futuristic year of (ahem) 2015, where animal cloning has been accepted into society. What hasn't been given the go-ahead, however, is human cloning as part of "The Sixth Day" law, which gets broken when Arnie's charter pilot, Adam Gibson, comes home one night to find a man who looks like him living his life.

From there, it's standard Schwarzenegger fare as Arnie blows up bad guys, including a repeatedly revived Michael Rooker, Tony Goldwyn in full sleaze mode as the brains behind the botched incident, and Robert Duvall as the conflicted scientist with a heart of gold. Unfortunately, even with these names and what sounds like a compelling story, "The 6th Day" wasn't worth marking on critics' or audiences' calendars after its release.

With the likes of "Commando," "Running Man," and the good "Terminator" movies behind him (don't mention the sequels), the early aughts felt like the sunset of Arnie's action-movie era, and "The 6th Day" certainly signaled that. With a 40% Rotten Tomatoes rating, critics called it out for borrowing story elements from better movies that had already been made, some of which were Schwarzenegger's own.

Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times said, "This movie plays like something picked up at a vintage store; you can see all the greasy fingerprints from those who have handled it before." Desmond Ryan of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Rotten Tomatoes) also saw through the cracks, saying that "There's no doubt that the formula for this kind of action film is showing its age." Robert Cashill of Newsweek (via RT) was exceptionally harsh on the film, saying that "The studios should enact their own '6th Day Law' prohibiting the carbon-copy duplication of elements from scenario to scenario."

Unfortunately, on the odd occasions when audiences sided with Arnie, they didn't have his back with "The 6th Day," which earned a woeful $96 million against an $82 million budget. To add insult to injury, the movie also earned four Razzie nominations, with Arnie being nominated for both Worst Actor and Worst Supporting Actor for playing his doppelgänger, and Worst Screen Couple for both characters. Ultimately, this was a very bad day for Arnie and not even in an entertaining way.