Double feature: Movies with multiple versions of the same character

Michael Keaton’s ‘90s were a little odd, but in the mix there, he made “Multiplicity” where he got to really do some comedic acting. Like, several times over. The Harold Ramis comedy is about a regular Joe who can duplicate himself via a machine, but each version of him is slightly different. Keaton is fun, of course, even if the movie is a little lackluster.

Does “Spider-Man: No Way Home” count? Possibly, and we will (spoiler) get to that later. In “Multiverse of Madness,” though, we get several versions of Doctor Strange, including one that is zombified. Sam Raimi’s return to directing expanded the idea of the Multiverse in the MCU, and it also brought the X-men into the Marvel movies as well.

There is a bit of “Two versions of the same character” in the original “Back to the Future.” Of course, sequels often ramp things up, and the second film in Robert Zemeckis’ trilogy does the most with having multiple versions of the same characters. We get multiple Martys, Docs, Biffs, and more!

Here is a case where two versions of the same character meet, but they are played by different actors. Rian Johnson’s serious, violent take on time travel features Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the same guy at different points in his life. The hitch? JGL is supposed to kill the future version of himself, and when he fails, all hell breaks loose.

Ang Lee loves to try out new technological ideas within the film world. With “Life of Pi,” he won an Oscar. With “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” he weirded out the, like, 12 people who saw that movie. “Gemini Man” is another high frame-rate film from Lee, and this time he also used technology to have Will Smith act against a younger version of himself that really looks like Smith when he was a younger man.

There are two twists to Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige.” One is that Christian Bale’s magician was able to pull a lot of his tricks off because he secretly had a twin, and the two went to extreme measures to keep that under wraps. The second, though, is that Hugh Jackman’s magician pulls off the same tricks not with a twin, but with a cloning machine. To make that work, though, time and time again Jackman has to kill a clone of himself, or otherwise possibly be the one who dies during the trick as well.

Sure, it’s “The Matrix” that has most of the iconic moments in this franchise, and “The Matrix Reloaded” is the worst movie of the four. What it has, though, is the fight where Neo takes on a bunch of Agent Smith clones. It is, perhaps, the one redeeming element of that film.

Speaking of Keanu Reeves! Before he was an actor star, he was in this comedic romp through time playing the jovial, if dim, Ted Logan. Briefly, Bill and Ted meet the future versions of themselves (Strange things are afoot at the Circle K), and then later we see that same moment through the eyes of the future Bill and Ted.

Doctor Parnassus was originally played by Heath Ledger, and that was the plan. Then, Ledger tragically died during production. Terry Gilliam, never afraid of getting trippy, concocted a plan. In addition to Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law also play different versions of Parnassus as well.

We mentioned Sam Raimi earlier, and “Multiverse of Madness” wasn’t his first time implementing multiple versions of the same character. Poor Ash faced off with evil, Deadite versions of himself on a few different occasions in the “Evil Dead” trilogy. The height of that, though, comes in “Army of Darkness,” the silliest of the films.

“Prometheus” was a polarizing film, but it did well enough (and Ridley Scott had enough cache) to get that film its own sequel. Michael Fassbender plays Walter One, the synthetic android aboard the Covenant. This is the newer model of David, the android Fassbender played in “Prometheus.” However, David survived the destruction of the Prometheus, so he meets Walter, the newer version of himself.

The first “Men in Black” is a ton of fun, but it has yielded two lousy sequels. However, as a silver lining, we did get a pretty-good movie in “Men in Black 3” in the process. Will Smith’s Agent J goes back in time where he works alongside a younger version of K, played with aplomb by Josh Brolin. We get two versions of multiple characters, including the villainous Boris the Animal, and while they largely don’t interact, there is a bit of that.

The film adaptation of “Lost in Space” was a big swing and a miss, especially for Matt LeBlanc during his “Maybe I can be a movie star” run. It’s not a good film, but it does feature an interesting time jump thanks to a “time bubble,” at which point we see young Will Robinson, as a grizzled, frantic adult version of himself.

Sam Rockwell plays a man working on the Moon alone…or is he? Well, yes and no. It turns out, unknown to him, Rockwell’s character is the latest in a long line of clones of the same man. However, a previous clone did not die, and he’s around and ready to blow the roof off of what the company is up to. Hey, who doesn’t want more Sam Rockwell in their movies?

The logic of “Us” doesn’t hold together, and when you make cerebral horror films like Jordan Peele, that means more than in a mindless slasher or monster movie. This isn’t about quality, though. It’s about “tethers,” and also the wild performance Lupita Nyong’o gives in this film.

Back in their heyday, Beavis and Butt-Head did America. Many years later, after a short-lived TV reboot, they did the universe. The duo was brought back and, in classic modern fashion find themselves traversing the multiverse. That means multiple versions of Beavis and Butt-Head, including smart versions! The film also served up the premise of the Paramount+ reboot of the show, which is set in this multiverse as well.

Say what you will about this Best Picture winner – Like that it is simply great acting bolstering bad writing – but “Everything Everywhere All at Once” definitely embraces multiple versions of the same character. We get several versions of multiple actors, and since the acting is the best (only good?) part of this film, that’s not a bad thing. Even James Hong gets in on the fun!

We mentioned Spidey earlier. In “No Way Home,” we got three different Peter Parkers, all played by different actors. That would have counted. There is also “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” but that involves more different versions of Spider-Man, i.e. Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, a pig. “Across the Spider-Verse,” though, needs to be mentioned. We mean, there seem to be dozens upon dozens of different variants of Spider-Man in this movie, including some of the same people from different universes.