They Cloned Tyrone
Came out; 2023
Time; 2 hours 2 minutes
Watched: Netflix
Rated: R for pervasive language, violence, some sexual material and drug use
IMDB Rating; 6.7/10
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring;
John Boyega as Fontaine
Jamie Foxx as Slick Charles
Teyonah Parris as Yo-Yo
Kiefer Sutherland as Nixon
David Alan Grier as The Preacher
Story Line;
A pulpy, sci-fi mystery caper in which an unlikely trio investigates a series of eerie events, alerting them to a nefarious conspiracy lurking directly beneath their hood. Fontaine, a neighborhood drug dealer, is shot dead by rival Isaac and then is very shocked to wake up in his bed the next morning unharmed. He and Slick Charles and Yo-Yo begin looking into the incident, and their search eventually leads them to a vast underground complex where a government backed lab is performing experiments on the local Black population. Realizing that he is an artificial clone controlled by Nixon, Fontaine initially feels despair, but decides he needs to stand up to these White institutional overlords for the sake of his neighborhood.
Thoughts:
This movie looked funny in the preview. It wasn't as funny or as action packed as it seemed like it should be. The story line was definitely different and Jamie Foxx is great of course!
It's a little weird, a little goofy and a little gangster but it was fun
CAUTION; Major Spoiler Alert
Fontaine is a regular drug dealer in a retrofuturistic neighborhood called the Glen with odds against him and a schedule he seemingly keeps daily. His mother stays in her room all day and rarely speaks to Fontaine, and he still mourns the death of his younger brother. Fontaine goes to one of his customers, Slick Charles, a pimp who owes Fontaine money. Slick initiates a fight with Yo-Yo, one of his many sex workers, who also encounters Fontaine when he arrives. Fontaine is able to get some of the money from Slick but is then fatally shot by an opposing drug dealer named Isaac.
The next morning, Slick is shocked when Fontaine shows up for more money, alive and without any recollections of the previous night's events. Yo-Yo arrives to confirm Slick's claims of his death, which confuses Fontaine. He suddenly remembers when a man, bleeding from a gunshot, was kidnapped by a mysterious van, which is now parked outside of a house. Fontaine goes inside the house to investigate, while Slick and Yo-Yo voice their concerns. Their concerns are proven right, however, when they discover an elevator leading to a hidden underground lab. Inside, a white scientist with an afro tells them that the operation has gone widespread. Slick and Yo-Yo snort a mysterious white substance they think is cocaine, but end up laughing forcefully and accidentally killing the scientist. Before they leave, the trio discovers a corpse lying on a table, identical to Fontaine.
At a chicken restaurant, every person in the building begins laughing at the same time, which makes Slick realize that the fried chicken, which has been said to have a new secret ingredient, contains the same white substance that he and Yo-Yo consumed previously. Investigating further, Yo-Yo initiates foreplay with the restaurant manager, who coincidentally looks very similar to the scientist Slick killed. While pleasuring him, she discovers that the entirety of the Glen is being surveilled and recorded. Through some hidden messages from a drunk that Fontaine encounters daily, they discover a local black church where the group becomes deeply unsettled by a disturbing set of lyrics that the churchgoers collectively sing. After the service finishes, the group discovers an elevator on the altar. In this lab, however, Fontaine and Slick find clones of themselves. They also find evidence that the scientists behind the operation can control the clones through certain trigger words and items like the chicken.
They find an exit to the facility, which is connected to a local strip club. The DJ, secretly part of the operation, brainwashes the clubgoers with music, forcing them to chase the trio down until a mysterious white man named Nixon shows up and incapacitates all of them. Nixon reveals that scientists like him conduct experiments on impoverished, predominantly Black populations, including the Glen, to allow the operation to go unnoticed and supposedly achieve peace in America. It's also revealed that Fontaine and Slick are clones, themselves, as Nixon uses a deadly trigger word on them that he threatens to use on them again if they don't stop their investigation.
The next morning, Fontaine falls deeper into a state of despair after discovering that his mother, whom he had never actually seen, was just a voice on a tape recorder. Yo-Yo decides to take matters into her own hands, but has her identity accidentally exposed and is subsequently kidnapped by Nixon. Fontaine comes up with a plan with Slick and Isaac to rescue Yo-Yo, faking his death to sneak into the lab undetected. Fontaine successfully sneaks in and lets Slick and Isaac storm the lab with numerous residents of the Glen. Yo-Yo frees herself and finds Slick, while Fontaine is overpowered by his clone and is taken to an older version of himself, revealed to be the real Fontaine. He explains that he is helping scientists to create peace by literally whitewashing Black people into white people because of the racially-motivated murder of Fontaine's little brother, which prompted him to start making the clones. After explaining that the country would be better with assimilation than annihilation, the real Fontaine is killed when Fontaine uses Nixon's trigger word on another clone, shooting him. Meanwhile, Yo-Yo stalls Nixon from killing her before Slick shoots him in the head.
The facility entrance to the church opens up, spilling naked clones out to the public and exposing the country's secret operation. The trio decides to head to Memphis after Yo-Yo announces her retirement from her job. In LA, a man named Tyrone lives the exact same lifestyle as Fontaine. With his friends, he watches as one of Fontaine's clones appears on TV, realizing that he himself is a clone of Fontaine.
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