History Main / CloningGambit

* From what ''[[JigsawPuzzlePlot appears]]'' to be the case in the ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' series, ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator'' saw the long-overdue FinalDeath of [[spoiler:William Afton, series BigBad and the infamous "Purple Guy"]], leading to an eternity of suffering in ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight''. However, in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysVR'' we learn that [[spoiler:he managed to leave a copy of either his mind or his soul in the chips for the Spring Bonnie suit he was trapped in, and tries to use it to perform GrandTheftMe on the player. Worse yet, he appears to have picked up an apprentice...]]

*** In ''ComicBook/XMenTheEnd'', it’s revealed that he once created a clone from his original, baseline human DNA as part of a plan to take down ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} (he needed a body without Apocalypse’s genetic meddling). He spliced in some DNA from ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}, believing the Summers DNA would ensure awesome superpowers. That clone would grow up to be, ironically enough: [[spoiler:ComicBook/{{Gambit}}.]]

* The Avengers' robot enemy Ultron does this routinely. He always has hidden equipment set up to rebuild him from a backed-up copy of his memories if he is destroyed. Amusingly, this happened when he was ''presumed'' dead during the original ''ComicBook/SecretWars.'' When that Ultron finally returned to Earth, he found that not only had his machines built an improved replacement copy, but he was horrified to find that the "improvements" made the copy ''[[HeelFaceTurn nice.]]'' They fought and evil Ultron won, [[StatusQuoIsGod naturally.]]

* This was the explanation created as a way to rectify the two contradictory deaths of [[spoiler:[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sate_Pestage Sate Pestage]]]] in the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' comics. Currently canon holds that the one in the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'' was real and the one who survived until ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'' was the clone. This will probably [[FlipFlopOfGod change again]] the next time someone who preferred Dark Empire gets to write for the [[AllThereInTheManual Fact File or New Essential Chronology]].

* Pretty much the entire "Les Enfants Terribles" scheme enacted by [[spoiler:Big Boss]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. (To a lesser extent, completed by [[spoiler:Liquid Ocelot]] in Guns Of The Patriots.)

* Pretty much the entire "Les Enfants Terribles" scheme enacted by [[spoiler:Big Boss]] in ''Series/MetalGearSolid''. (To a lesser extent, completed by [[spoiler:Liquid Ocelot]] in Guns Of The Patriots.)

** What screwed up Gendo's plans was that even though Rei [[SugarAndIcePersonality doesn't associate with anyone]] because she's going to die anyway, she does eventually [[spoiler:fall in love with Shinji]] so when Third Impact comes, Rei instantly [[spoiler:betrays Gendo since [[HoistByHisOwnPetard after she took Adam from his body, she no longer needs him]] to [[AssimilationPlot trigger Instrumentality and gives control over mankind's souls to Shinji instead]]]]. Tons of MindScrew, I know.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" [[spoiler:The Doctor clones himself literally ''billions of times'', one after another, to enable himself to punch through a wall made of a substance harder than diamond]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/Futurama'' Playstation 2 Videogame uses this to explain the characters' multiple lives. Every time they die their consciences are transferred to a new cloned body.

* ComicBook/LexLuthor famously did this a few years after Creator/JohnByrne's reboot of the {{Superman}} franchise, when the kryptonite ring he constantly wore to keep Superman at bay gave him terminal cancer.

** In ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'', Palpatine, following his death at Endor, inhabited a clone waiting in a storage facility on a secret fortress world. Six years later, apparently spending the whole time building superweapons, he reappeared to the Empire and launched campaigns against the New Republic, and was killed multiple times, always activating a new clone. Then things went wrong, when one of his Royal Guardsmen sabotaged the process so that each clone [[CloneDegeneration degraded quickly]], forcing Palpatine to look into other options - like, perhaps, Leia Organa's unborn son. In the HandOfThrawn duology, Mara sardonically says that she doubts this was really Palpatine, since during all that time he never called on her, his agent. [[spoiler:Nevermind that she was just one of his many agents, despite his telling her she was unique.]]

* This also explains respawning in ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans''.

** One of the (many, many, many) subplots in the Literature/HandOfThrawn duology is that Grand Admiral Thrawn, who died at the end of Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy, set up a clone to be activated ten years after his death, telling his people to be ready when it happened. It didn't fall through ([[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks, Luke and Mara]]), but there are occasional hints that ThereIsAnother. TimothyZahn [[WordOfGod has said]] that he would like to introduce a Thrawn clone one day, when the [[ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway Galaxy Far Far Away]] needs a master strategist - but, unusually, this clone will be fully aware that he is not Thrawn, and will be under enormous pressure to live up to the original.

A '''Cloning Gambit''' is a scheme involving a character cloning themselves, by [[AppliedPhlebotinum some means]] and using said clone to last out multiple deaths. Maybe they send clones out on suicide missions that they don't want to give to anyone else. Maybe they can BodySurf and transfer their mind from clone to clone, or use a set of "inactive" clones as a BodyBackupDrive. Maybe they can't transfer their consciousness between clones ''per se'', but each clone in a succession of them activates with their memories and personality. In any of the above, there's always a version of them out making trouble or [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated appearing, in person, to crash the enemies' celebration party]].

* Towards the end of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS'', [[MadScientist Jail Scaglietti]] tried to pull of [[spoiler:an Inverse Cloning Gambit by allowing his real self be killed by Fate, then having at least one of his Numbers escape and give birth to his clone with all of his memories, effectively resurrecting him in a safe place. His plan was foiled by a) Fate controlling her rage and leaving him alive and b) the Team Nanoha disabling and apprehending all twelve Numbers]].
* Manga/{{Naruto}} only uses short-lived clones, but he is very good at this. One bonus to the shadow-clone technique is that a clone's memories return to the user upon its death, which is useful for reconnaissance and fast learning.

** OutboundFlight has Palpatine sending all of the Outbound Flight Jedi to their deaths, but taking genetic samples first, making it a Reverse Cloning Gambit.

* EveOnline: The players. Upon death they transfer their consciousness (or at least some of their memories) to a prepared clone, hence explaining their ability to respawn.

* In VideoGame/HackNSlash, Alice is the result of one of these. Her creator/source code is still around, though - just incapacitated.

* The involuntary Cloning Gambit for involuntary immortality is also used in Creator/OrsonScottCard's short story "A Thousand Deaths" in his short story compilation ''Maps in a Mirror''.

* Easily done in the world of "EclipsePhase", where humans back up their brains as software on a regular basis. True clones can get expensive, though; it's more cost-effective to get an off-the-rack body and have it cosmetically engineered to match.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', a "basic" clone is not something cool in normal circumstances, but there's lots of other imitations, e.g. a simulacrum is much more... obviously [[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman expendable]].
** There's also a 'Clone' spell. The spell creates a clone of the body of the target. The clone is merely inert flesh: until the original body is killed, at which point the creature's soul enters the clone.

A '''Cloning Gambit''' is a scheme involving a character cloning themselves, by [[AppliedPhlebotinum some means]] and using said clone to last out multiple deaths. Maybe they send clones out on suicide missions that they don't want to give to anyone else. Maybe they can BodySurf and transfer their mind from clone to clone. Maybe they ''can't'' BodySurf, but each clone in a succession of them activates with their memories and personality. In any of the above, there's always a version of them out making trouble or [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated appearing, in person, to crash the enemies' celebration party]].