Mark #2

From director John Richmond comes solo project Mark #2 – an ambitious and innovative short sci-fi that unfortunately fails to adequately realise an aimless plotline that feels somewhat out of its reach.

Mark #2 (John Richmond) is the world’s first clone. The original Mark passed away from cancer, and now Mark #2 holds the secret to create replicas of himself – although his own DNA is breaking down. When his shadowy government hear of his technology, he goes on the run – determined to protect humanity’s new hope from being used to create super-soldiers. As Mark #2 begins to think for himself, and as a devastating attack threatens humanity’s survival, he realises the potential he holds to create a new peaceful dawn for mankind.

For a homemade, auteur sci-fi short, Mark #2 deserves an extra layer of acknowledgement for the areas in which it is a success. Director, writer and star John Richmond’s vision for his story is bold and ambitious, and creatively realised in how the world he has aimed to create is framed. The film opens with Mark, only a year old, narrating the audience through his relatively unexceptional ‘birth’ day. Richmond’s deadpan-style delivery, and the tragicomic activities Mark partakes in to celebrate make for an amusing introduction – and a promising opening of the film as a ‘day in the life’ of a clone that acts for an intriguing hook.

Unfortunately, as the film’s story begins to crumble as soon as it really picks up. Little is explained relating to Mark’s technology that is so in-demand, or how it evolves into a miracle cure-all for humanities ills. The ‘government’ chasing Mark down are never given any kind of motivation or characterisation beyond shadowy and evil. And a pivotal attack from ‘that biological weapon’ which wipes out most of humanity (triggering Mark’s saviour story) happens seemingly at random, with no explanation offered to the viewer and little done to contextualise the event’s purpose. It leaves a plotline that is seriously disjointed and confusing, with little stakes or engagement points for the audience to involve themselves with.

Furthermore, the film’s storytelling increasingly relies on Mark’s narration – which loses its early charm in favour of exposition dumps which race through earth-changing developments at lightspeed. This is understandable to an extent given the film’s lower budget not allowing the realisation of a biological attack or visuals of an actual cloning process, but little is offered in lieu to engage the audience with the characters in the film or the poorly defined themes. By the end, it feels like the director gives up trying to find logical solutions to his plot, which has long since left the tracks.

It's a shame, as Mark #2’s opening quarter genuinely engages with viewers and outperforms its limitations as it establishes a world where cloning is possible and in realising a seemingly normal man with an abnormal origin. Aiming for too grand a scale is where the film falls apart both production and plot-wise. It feels like the director’s intended message – that humanity is what makes someone human – would have been achievable without inflating the story’s scope beyond anything the film could hope to present. Points for ambition, but engaging characters, story and stakes shouldn’t be abandoned for magnitude.