Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a 2021 sci-fi drama film, titled Swan
Song. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care. Cameron Turner is a caring family man living in
a near future where technology has advanced to whole new levels. He has recently been diagnosed
with a terminal illness, which is the reason why he has started to look into cloning technology.
There is a facility managed by Dr. Scott that creates a perfect copy of you and implants your
memories in it so the clone is ready to replace your place in life when your time has come, and
Cameron has been going there to leave DNA samples and get his clone ready, yet he can't still quite
make his mind about the subject. One night, while driving home after another memory session,
he gets a message from Dr. Sott saying that his latest scans show an accelerating deterioration
and he should make up his mind soon. Cameron ignores it for now and enters his house, where
he says hi to the dog and checks on his wife Poppy and his son Cory before going to the bathroom,
where he has a seizure. Since his wife doesn't know about his illness, he closes the door so she
can't see him deal with it alone. The next day, he meets with Dr. Scott to visit her facility's
living area where clients stay until they die after the clone has been sent to replace them.
After making him sign a contract that says the clone will never be woken up if he changes his
mind, she introduces him to Dalton, who works as a psychologist and main technician in the control
room; the rest of the work around the house is done by AIs. Next, Dalton asks him to disable the
cameras on his contacts and his watch before he's allowed into the room where his clone is sleeping.
Although, "sleeping" isn't quite correct because the clone -who Dr. Scott is calling Jack for
convenience- has never awoken yet, it is still an empty vessel. Cameron watches it with both
awe and shock, hesitating to touch it without the doctor's permission The experience proves
to be too unsettling for Cameron, who decides not to go through with it after all. He returns home
and continues to go through his everyday routine, with a wife and son he loves and a designing job
he hates but needs to eat. Cameron's real passion is art. One afternoon, he recalls a conversation
he had with Poppy and her twin sibling Andre about the clones and remembers his wife said
that as long as she could not tell the difference, she would not mind them at all. This takes Cameron
to contact Dr. Scott again, who promises that all clones have the part of their memories that
remember the facility wiped, so they never know they are copies. To ease him into the concept,
she tells her about the last clone they sent and how he can meet her to get any doubts out of his
mind. The woman is called Kate, and she works as a clerk, so Cameron visits her shop and pretends to
be a client to interact with her. Conversation is absolutely normal, and Cameron can not tell Kate
is a clone - neither can her daughter, who is also there with them and shows no signs of knowing this
is not her real mom. When Cameron returns home, he can not help crying when his wife reminds him
they will be parents again in seven months because he realizes he will not be able to meet the baby.
He considers telling her the truth for a moment, but he can not bring himself to say it,
and makes up some excuse about being nervous about being a dad again. Afterward, he calls Dr. Scott
and tells her he has changed his mind. Cameron returns to the facility, where he meets the real
Kate and tells her about meeting her clone. They go for a walk together, where he mentions her
daughter looked very happy and they discover they have the same oncologist, just like the patient
that came before them. Then he calls Poppy to tell him he will be away for a week for a special job.
After changing into new clothes provided by the facility, Cameron is put under for six hours,
during which his memories will be copied into Jack. Once the procedure is done, the next
step is to check the synchronization of their minds, which means Cameron vividly goes through
some of his most important memories, like meeting Poppy, having their first kid, and Andre's death.
After several synchronization rounds, it is finally time to wake up Jack. They put the
clone and the original in different rooms so they can have some time getting used to the idea, and
Dr. Scott explains to Jack that a freckle on the palm of his hand is the only difference between
him and the original - it is put there on purpose in case he needs help remembering which one he is.
Cameron spends the evenings calling his family, and one night, while playing video games online
with Cory, he has a seizure. He barely manages to end the call before passing out, and the next day,
he spends some time a walk with Kate again, during which he expresses his fear of dying at any moment
without saying goodbye to his family. Afterward, it is finally time for him to properly meet Jack,
who he finds talking to Dr. Scott about Poppy with perfect memory accuracy. The two of them stare at
each other for a while before Jack confesses how nervous he is about the whole deal. Cameron can
still not wrap his mind about it, so he is asked to watch while Dr. Scott interviews Jack to check
his memories. Cameron is shocked to see that Jack not only remembers everything perfectly, he also
has the same feelings about those memories that he does. After another quick chat with Kate, who
is getting worse every day, Dr. Scott continues to ask Jack questions, this time with Cameron in
the room. Jack talks about the hard times he went through when Poppy lost Andre and the dreams he
keeps having, and he is so good at explaining what Cameron has been feeling and ignoring,
that at some point Cameron loses his sense of self and starts answering the questions as well.
After having lunch together and showing the same eating habits, they call Poppy.
Cameron is allowed to watch, but Jack is the only one talking to her, and he is a natural
at it. Seeing technically another man being so accepted by his wife without even telling the
difference upsets Cameron, who ends the call before deciding he does not like any of this.
He and Jack start arguing and even pushing each other, not agreeing on what to do next,
and Cameron only leaves after he starts feeling sick, deciding he wants to go home and cancel the
clone switch. Sometime later, the two men share a talk about their fears when it comes to Poppy
and her learning about their situation, but it is not enough for Cameron to change his mind: even if
his health is not good at the moment, he wants to see his family. When the time comes for Cameron to
leave, they put cameras on his contact lenses, so Jack can look into his family life and learn
some things. However, Cameron does not even get to the door of his house - he begins having a seizure
right in the middle of the street, even losing consciousness for a few seconds. Dr. Scott sends
a car to pick him up and bring him back to the facility, which Cameron does not want but has no
other choice to accept if he does not want to die in front of his family. Cameron falls unconscious
again on the way back, and Dr. Scott puts him to bed with some strong medicine while telling
Dalton to send Jack in the morning, because he is ready. Jack is given all of Cameron's clothes
and accessories and is told by Dr. Scott that he will have a two-week trial with the family.
If all goes well, then he wi'll come back to have his memories of the cloning procedure removed.
He will also have to wear contact lenses with cameras so they can monitor his progress.
When Jack arrives at the house, everything goes extremely well.
Poppy and Cory can not tell the difference and talk to him normally, and his memories work
perfectly for him to be able to interact with them without any issues. The only problem that
he encounters is that the dog does not recognize him and continuously barks at him all the time.
Meanwhile, Cameron wakes up twenty-four hours later and freaks out when he finds out they have
sent Jack because he was not done with his family, but Dr. Scott hits him with a reality check,
reminding him he is dying. From then on, Cameron spends most of his days watching the video Jack
is taking of his family, only taking a break to be with Kate when she cannot leave the bed anymore.
When she dies, her ashes are thrown in the lake. Jack starts taking his contacts off more and more
often, not only when he goes to bed, and Dr. Scott explains it is to give the family some privacy,
but Cameron begins getting paranoid about possible hidden motives. After having a bad dream of Jack
mistreating Cory, Cameron decides he has had enough - he steals an old watch of his that
they did not give Jack because it is broken and afterward, he sneaks out of the facility in the
middle of the night, using the watch to activate a boat that takes him back to the mainland.
He makes it to the house a few hours later, and the first room he visits is his office,
where he sees all the art Jack has been creating and the chat conversations he has had with Poppy,
all perfectly normal and domestic. The noise he makes though, wakes up Jack, who comes over and
shows to be very understanding of his presence. Feeling sympathy for him, he allows him to have
one last night with his family, so the two of them exchange their clothes, scaring the dog when
he sees them together. While Jack hides in the closet, Cameron wakes Cory up and takes him with
him to the kitchen, where he teaches him to eat edamame, Poppy's favorite snack to have with beer.
Cameron can't help crying while hugging his son, and after putting him back to bed,
he joins Poppy in their own bedroom. She comforts him when she sees him sad, and they
both agree to call their new baby Andre after her brother. They cuddle as close as they can,
and once Poppy falls asleep, Cameron leaves the room and exchanges clothes with Jack again.
Before returning to the facility, he shakes Jack's hand and thanks him for everything.
Cameron spends his time drawing and talking to new clients about the clone experience.
Two weeks later, Dr. Scott confirms that Jack's memories of the facility have been deleted and
he is fully Cameron now, which the real Cameron is thankful for. Before he got his memory fixed
however, Jack recorded one special last video for Cameron: he asks Poppy to look him in the
eye and to tell him she loves him, which she does as Cameron watches with tears down his face.