History Main / CloningGambit

* In the fifth ''Literature/TheGardenOfSinners'' movie, [[spoiler:Aozaki Touko]] is revealed to have created [[spoiler:a perfect puppet of herself (a clone, for all intents and purposes) out of pure scientific interest, then went into hibernation until it is killed by Araya]]. [[MindScrew Or it may have been the other way around]].
** More clear in the novel: [[spoiler:since the copy is completely identical, she doesn't care which one is original, completely discarding concept of identity. So she makes several bodies, links their memories with some ersatz HiveMind spell, and stuffs all but one in multiple freezers, achieving punctuated linear existence: once the currently active body is killed, nearest one activates and pick up on wherever she stopped. And then she makes new copy, both for practical reasons and to prove that she is still the same being.]]

* Played with in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. The evil twin-type clone, despite being created by the villain, manages to fill this role nicely due to a ''really'' last-minute HeelFaceTurn.
** [[spoiler: He then reincarnates back in time to reappear five minutes later (though it was decades to him), and dies for his original(s)/[[MyOwnGrampa sons]] a ''second time'']]

* A variant is used in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': when Gendo cloned [[spoiler:his wife Yui]] to create Rei, he also created dozens of clones he keeps in a tank of LCL somewhere around Central Dogma. In the event she dies (happened twice so far), a new clone is pulled out and uploaded with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia some]] of her memories. Rei knows that she's replaceable so she lets herself be used by the Commander since she would be killed and replaced at the first sign of defiance. He knows she knows this and uses it as leverage against her... until [[spoiler:Ritsuko destroys the clones in [[TheReveal episode 23]]]]. One could only wonder how far Gendo took this leverage...
** 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:grow fond of Gendo's son Shinji (and likely fell in love with him, [[BrotherSisterIncest despite them technically being half-siblings]])]] 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, indeed.
* Used in an early episode of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex''. A resistance leader appears to keep surviving assassinations by using clones. Somewhat subverted in that its actually other high ranking members of the organization who keep the charade going, while the original has been dead for years.

** 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 comics. Currently canon holds that the one in the ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'' series is real and the one who survives until ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'' is the clone. This will probably [[FlipFlopOfGod change again]] the next time someone who prefers ''Dark Empire'' gets to write for the [[AllThereInTheManual Fact File or New Essential Chronology]].
** In ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'', Palpatine, following his death at Endor, inhabits a clone waiting in a storage facility on a secret fortress world. Six years later, apparently spending the whole time building superweapons, he reappears to the Empire and launches campaigns against the New Republic, being killed multiple times and always activating a new clone. Things then go wrong when one of his Royal Guardsmen sabotages the process so that each clone [[CloneDegeneration degrades quickly]], forcing Palpatine to look into other options -- like, perhaps, Leia Organa's unborn son. In the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology, Mara sardonically says that she doubts that this was really Palpatine, since during all that time he never called on her, his agent. [[spoiler:Never mind that she was just one of his many agents, despite his telling her that she was unique.]]
* [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] famously does this a few years after Creator/JohnByrne's ComicBook/PostCrisis reboot of ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'', when the kryptonite ring which he constantly wears to keep Superman at bay gives him terminal cancer.
* The creation of Brianna Diggers in ''ComicBook/GoldDigger'' manages to be an accidental version of this. Gina ''was'' deliberately trying to fake out a deadly curse by copying her and Brittany's auras onto a non-sentient blob of protoplasm. They did not, however, expect the curse to interact with the protoplasm and become a TwoDonorClone.

* ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'' uses this for a major twist at the end of the Dark Hand arc. [[spoiler: The Bartholomew Chang arrested by Section 13 after Harold Hale "changes sides" is actually a magically created clone. This enables the real Chang to keep running the Asian branch in secret, while Harold takes over the American branch, while [[DoubleAgent pretending to be]] Section 13's MoleInCharge.]]

* Ernest Stavro Blofeld pulls this trick on Film/JamesBond with variable success in ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' -- albeit it's a case of CloneByConversion instead of genetic replicas.
* Like many of Christopher Nolan's other movies, ''Film/ThePrestige'' [[GambitPileup has its fair share of Gambits anyway]], but through the course of this film [[spoiler:Robert Angier receives a steampunk matter duplicator from UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, and in one of the most glaring cases of (intentional on the writer's part) MisappliedPhlebotinum ever, uses this device to perform a stage magic trick: He tells the audience that the device is a "teleporter", he activates the machine, his clone materializes behind the audience, and his original self falls below the stage through a trap door, into a tank of water, where he drowns. The entire shtick may have been [[EvilPLan an elaborate ploy to frame Alfred Borden for his own "murder".]]]]
* ''Film/StarWarsTheRiseOfSkywalker'' opens with Palpatine [[UnexplainedRecovery inexplicably alive]]. There are a few hints, confirmed by the novelization, that he's {{Body Surf}}ed into a clone, taking a cue from the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' franchise.

* Variation in ''Literature/ArtemisFowl: The Opal Deception.'' [[spoiler: Fairy cloning technology can create a clone that is physically and genetically identical to the original, but has no brain functions beyond life support. Opal Koboi clones herself, fakes a coma, then leaves the clone apparently catatonic in the hospital while she skips off to ruin the heroes' lives.]]
** Played straight(-er) in the final novel [[spoiler:by Artemis himself, who realizes that the reason these clones are catatonic is because they have no soul. So he gets Foaly to create a clone of himself, pulls off a HeroicSacrifice to ruin Opal's final revenge plan, then later allows his spirit to inhabit the clone's body, effectively bringing him back to life, albeit at the cost of his memories.]]

* Played straight and inverted in J.C. Hutchins' ''7th Son'' novels. [[spoiler:While John Alpha's clone willingly and knowingly sacrifices himself, Klaus/Special K sacrifices ''his original self'' so that his clone, into which he's downloaded his memories and personality, is free and clear to carry on with the EvilPlan.]]
* In Iain M Banks' ''Against A Dark Background'' The central character gets lucky with this - [[spoiler:the big bad has a clone made of her, which is killed. The corpse is soon found by the religious fanatics who want her dead.]]
* In the Literature/XWingSeries novel ''Isard's Revenge'', Isard [[EnemyMine tells the Rogues]] that she had clones, each of which believed herself to be the original, which she activated and used regularly to be where she could not, and [[ExpendableClone killed]] once they were no longer useful. One of them was sent to scatter the prisoners from the ''Lusankya'', managed to survive afterward, and unwittingly opposed Isard by working with a warlord the real one wanted dead.
** Also in the series, a clueless Imperial talking to a disguised Wedge speculates, based on the number of times the most famous Rogues have seemingly come BackFromTheDead, that Wedge Antilles, Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson, Hobbie Klivian, and others have died again and again, but the New Republic just keeps activating new clones.
** 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. Creator/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.
** Literature/OutboundFlight has Palpatine sending all of the Outbound Flight Jedi to their deaths, but taking genetic samples first, making it a Reverse Cloning Gambit.
** The novel ''Darksaber'' had an involuntary Cloning Gambit: Whenever Bevel Lemelisk did something to displease the Emperor (such as failing to notice a certain thermal exhaust port in the Death Star designs), Palpatine had him killed in a variety of hideously painful manners (eaten alive by piranha beetles or slowly dipped into a smelter full of molten copper, for example), and then transferred his mind to a clone at the moment of death so that the Empire would not lose his services as a master engineer. When finally captured by the New Republic and sentenced to death for designing numerous weapons of mass destruction, Lemelisk is actually relieved that he will be KilledOffForReal this time, and asked the New Republic to make sure they got it right this time.
* The involuntary Cloning Gambit for involuntary immortality is also used in Creator/OrsonScottCard's short story "A Thousand Deaths" in his short story compilation ''Literature/MapsInAMirror''.
* Inverted in Creator/BrandonSanderson's Firstborn in which [[spoiler: the clone is created by someone else for the sole purpose of being pitted against the original who has grown too powerful]].

* One of the many things Jackson's Whole is infamous for in the [[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Vorkosigan Saga]] is the clone brain transplant business, where the brains of the rich are transplanted in the bodies of their younger clones. The clone's brains are then discarded.
* In the ''Literature/AgeOfFire'' series, this is revealed to be the secret behind why the Red Queen [[NotHyperbole can't be bothered to die]]. She has a magic tree that grows copies of her; every time her body's killed, her spirit just [[BodySurf moves to another]]. [[spoiler: [=AuRon=] destroys the tree after killing her... but then she just [[GrandTheftMe possesses Infamnia]]]].
* In ''Literature/SandpaperKiss'', Lucretia discovers that [[spoiler: her best friend Lucy is a clone grown to give her disease free spare parts]]. She doesn't like the idea, and instead [[spoiler: gives the clone her diary so a part of her can live on]],

** The Vorta have several clones on standby at all times, all of whom share their predecessor's memories (including how they died), and can be restocked almost instantly. The main Vorta of the series, Weyoun, was actually the fourth one when he first appeared. [[spoiler: He was on his eighth life when the base holding his clones was destroyed, and was finally KilledOffForReal in the GrandFinale.]]
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', [[spoiler: Lana Lang does this to get away from Lex Luthor.]]
* This is the m.o. of Ba'al for the last few seasons of ''Series/StargateSG1''. The viewer is never sure which is the real one, [[spoiler: but it's strongly implied in ''Film/StargateContinuum'' that Col. Mitchell killed the last one off]].
* ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'': Z uses one of her duplicates as a decoy to fool a monster that turned people into dolls.
* A season finale in ''Series/FirstWave'' ends with Cade's best friend shooting him on live TV in front of a Gua. The first episode of the next season flashes back to Cade and Eddie finding a clone of Cade created to house their [[TheAntichrist Antichrist]]. While Gua/human hybrids normally dissolve after death, they gambled that this "feature" is activated by the process of BrainUploading. It's only a short reprieve, though, as the Gua find out they've been duped fairly quickly.
* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' features something like this trope. Those closest to the dollhouse elite can back up their memories every month, ready to be uploaded into a new body after death. Of course, they don't actually have the body-cloning tech that goes with it, so you have to "borrow" someone else's body to make it work. Good thing there's so many dull, unimportant poor people around who don't matter.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" [[spoiler:The Doctor clones himself literally ''billions of times'', one after another in an endless loop, to enable himself to break through a twenty foot thick wall made of a substance harder than diamond, with ''[[CherryTapping only his bare fists]]'' at his disposal. It takes him a total of '''''4.5 BILLION years''''' to break through]].

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':

** There's also a 'Clone' spell. The spell creates a clone of the body of the target. In AD&D the clone has all of the original's memories up to the point where the tissue sample was taken and if it meets its' original they each have an irresistible urge to [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne kill the other]], though the clone can be grown after the original dies. After 3rd Edition the clone is merely inert flesh until the original body is killed, at which point the creature's soul enters the clone.
** Used in ''Trial by Ordeal'' (TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms anthology ''Realms of Shadow''). Original is responsible for the actions of "spell effect" anyway and not vice versa, but what judge has to do if it's impossible to tell ''who'' of these two was an offender and who is original now, even using strong magic?.. The plan was ''almost'' impeccable...

* TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} has a lot of stated ways to do this. In the basic rules a clone spell and the Advantage "Extra Life" exist to help facilitate this (and keep players alive).
* This is one of the main mechanics in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}''. Should one of the [[PlayerCharacter PCs]] die - [[EverythingTryingToKillYou and if someone DOESN'T die at some point during the session]], [[KillerGameMaster the GM is not doing their job right]] - their next clone is just shipped off to the scene with the same personality as before, and thanks to [=MemoMax=] technology, the same memories as well. Including how they died.
** One PARANOIA module even suggests a way to get the clone to the party Outside: the new Sub-Orbital Clone Insertion Module! When somebody dies Outside, the GM starts a long, descending whistle ... the number of descending whistles shortly afterward depends on how many Troubleshooters have the presence of mind to ''take cover'' at that point.
* In the ''TabletopGame/CarWars'' universe, it's possible to buy ''true'' life insurance from Gold Cross, which will maintain a clone body and memory tape, enabling you to pick up where you left off (as of your latest memory update session) if you die. Just don't miss a payment or the clone gets used for spare parts.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'': The robotic villain Mechanon (an Ultron {{Expy}}) can either detach his head and send it off if he's about to be destroyed, or upload his mind to his closest base. Either way, when he builds his new body he'll be able to tweak things to adapt to whatever caused his failure the ''last'' time.

* Pretty much the entire scheme enacted by [[spoiler:Big Boss]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGear''. (To a lesser extent, completed by [[spoiler:Liquid Ocelot]] in ''Guns Of The Patriots''.)
* A major, [[TitleDrop title dropping]] plot point in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''. At least the clone is completely mindless.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' has this in its expansion pack where Halastr Blackcloak (not a big man in the sanity department at any time) tries this, only for the clone to be saved by the Player before he wanted it to be saved by him. Or not, it might be that the original that was captured and the clone who came to save him... They can't agree.
* Sort of used in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'': [[spoiler:BigBad Van needs Ashe's powers for his EndOfTheWorldSpecial, but a prophecy had dictated that Ashe was going to die at the age of 17. So Van creates a clone to take Ashe's place in the world, including his death. Things get complicated when the clone actually ''survives'' the event that would have killed him...]]
** Another example is in the case of [[spoiler:the original Fon Master Ion, who was also prophesied to die. So Ion creates a bunch of clones in the hope that one of ''them'' will die instead (or that their mere existence will be enough to throw off the prophecy). Unfortunately for him, it doesn't work]].

* [[spoiler: [[BigBad Frank Fontaine]]]] of ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' pulled one of these by using [[AppliedPhlebotinum Plasmids]] to turn one of his subordinates into his BodyDouble. When the double was killed, all of Rapture thought that the illustrious criminal mastermind had finally fallen, allowing him to [[spoiler: organize LaResistance in the guise of the charismatic rebel leader Atlas]].
* ''VideoGame/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.

* This also explains respawning in ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' and the reason why Cryptosporidium-137 is there on Earth in the firs place. The Furon have cloned themselves so much that they run the risk of going extinct so Crypto and his clones have to collect Furon DNA contained in human brains to add fresher blood into his species.

* Implied in ''VideoGame/LittleBigAdventure'', since [[BigBad Dr FunFrock]] has perfected cloning technology. You have to kill him twice in the first game, [[spoiler: and twice more when he [[HijackedByGanon reveals himself as the]] BigBad of the second as well]].
* In ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'', Zenitonian Admiral Rubriko has a base full of clones standing by to receive uploaded memories in the event of his death. After fighting him four or five times, the player party finds the base and [[spoiler: activates all of them, resulting in psychic feedback that kills all of them in a pretty horrifying way]].
* In the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum game ''Astroclone'' (definitely a MeaningfulName) the in-universe explanation for the player's extra lives is that the mission has been entrusted to a squad of clones.
* In ''VideoGame/HackNSlash'', Alice is the result of one of these. Her creator/source code is still around, though - just incapacitated.
* 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.
* ''VideoGame/AkatsukiBlitzkampf'' uses this trope with some twists:
** The Elektrosoldat PraetorianGuard are all clones of the SmugSnake Adler, but one of them begins to grow a mind of his own and realizes how expendable they all are. So he decids to rebel and fight back...
** [[spoiler: Murakumo]] is known to have cloned himself twice ''and'' having placed his two clones in huge positions of power in [[spoiler: a Chinese Triad]] and [[spoiler: the Japanese Army]]. At least [[ExpendableClone one clone has been ultimately offed]] [[spoiler: after trying to seize power for himself instead]].
* From what ''[[JigsawPuzzlePlot appears]]'' to be the case in the ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' series, ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator'' saw the long-overdue [[KilledOffForReal real death]] of [[spoiler:William Afton, series BigBad and the infamous "Purple Guy"]], leading to an eternity of suffering in ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight''. However, in ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysVRHelpWanted'' 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 ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'', the main character is a clone of the Empire’s greatest admiral. He comes from a secret facility dedicated to churning out clones of him and his crew: if the current clone dies, his memories will be transferred to a fresh one.
* ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'': ''2000'' hinges on one of those backfiring; Zero has a clone created of him to continue NESTS's agenda, but unfortunately [[TheStarscream Clone Zero]] goes behind his back and ends up causing unchecked mayhem. Needless to say, in ''2001'' the original Zero is not happy with the results.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' DLC, we learn that Cerberus created a clone of [[spoiler:Shepard]] for the express purpose of harvesting his/her organs should the original need a transplant. They never do, but the clone escapes and is understandably angry. Unfortunately, they turn this anger against the original and their friends and try to kill them in an attempt to take the original's place.

* The Creator/GerryAnderson series ''{{Series/Terrahawks}}'' has its lead character, Doctor "Tiger" Ninestein (or should that be characters?). An early episode sees him unambiguously killed...then, in the aftermath, as his friends are grieving, he calmly walks in. Ol' Tiger has a SignificantName. He's been cloned nine times, so if one of him is killed, a full memory/personality download is made on the next clone in line, who promptly fills the gap of his predecessor.

** This is the most second most common use of the Quick-clones, behind being simple decoys. The clones only last for a few hours anyway before [[CloneDegeneration melting]], so [[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman it's no big deal]]. In one episode, a bunch of Quick-clones play a basketball game once their job was done, since their lifespan isn't long enough to worry about much.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Invincible2021'', [[spoiler:Robot hires the [[GeniusBruiser Mauler Twins]] to clone him a new body with a copy of his consciousness, as his original one was horribly deformed. They inform him that the process [[BrainUploading doesn't copy over his consciousness]] and that he'd still be stuck in his original body, but he doesn't care and wants to [[DeathSeeker die in peace]] while someone with his SuperIntelligence can help save the world in his place.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'':

-->'''Gav-0:''' That begs a question: Does it count as selfless sacrifice if you clone yourself before your suicide mission?
-->'''Kevyn:''' I'm putting it in my resume and hoping nobody asks.

The clone may or may not be subject to CloningBlues; they may or may not realize that they're not "the original", but they are ''very'' disposable, they rarely come up with their own unique identities, and they are very rarely prone to WhichMe. Only rarely does this overlap with SendInTheClones, since typically neither the other characters nor the viewer see more than one or two of that character walking around at any one time. Floating in PeopleJars, perhaps, after the reveal that the character is using this trope, but not up and talking.

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

*** [[Characters/MarvelComicsUltron 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 happens when he's ''presumed'' dead during the original ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984''. When that Ultron finally returns to Earth, he not only finds that not only have his machines built an improved replacement copy, but he's also horrified to find that the "improvements" have made the copy ''[[HeelFaceTurn nice]]''. They fight and the evil Ultron wins, [[StatusQuoIsGod naturally]].

** Knowing that he's liable to die at some point, [[Characters/MarvelComicsLoki Loki]] sets up one of these. After his demise in ''ComicBook/{{Siege}}'', Loki is reborn as a young boy, with none of his older self's memories or issues. [[spoiler:Then a copy of the original Loki's personality appears, planning to take possession of the child Loki and thereby get away with more schemes. However, the process doesn't go exactly according to plan, as the new Loki feels guilt over killing a child and part of the child Loki's personality seeps through into them. After their self-loathing nearly destroys reality itself in volume 2 of ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers'', they attempt to make a genuine HeelFaceTurn in ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard''.]] In this case, WhichMe is extremely common and {{invoked|Trope}}/{{exploited|Trope}}/{{lampshade|Hanging}}d/etc. like there's no tomorrow (it's in Loki's nature to create as much confusion as possible).

** After a few rather poor showings by [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]], Creator/JimStarlin [[AuthorsSavingThrow wrote a story]] in which [[{{Retcon}} it is revealed]] that those various Thanosi have all been clones, much weaker than the original. As a [[ArmedWithCanon snarky response]] to this, another writer later wrote a comic in which [[ComicBook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl Squirrel Girl]] defeats Thanos, with [[AllPowerfulBystander Uatu the Watcher]] right there to confirm that it's the real Thanos, and not a "clone, robot, or doppelganger". Starlin, being [[SeriousBusiness petty enough to take this joking incident seriously]], then wrote a comic in which Thanos is revealed to have created a new type of clone that can fool even the Watcher's cosmic senses. [[TakeThatTitForTat Another comic]] was then written in which Squirrel Girl confronts Thanos again, pointing out that if she defeated a doppelganger that was ''completely indistinguishable from the real Thanos'', then she's equally capable of defeating the real thing, at which point Thanos [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere cuts and runs]].

*** In ''X-Men: ComicBook/TheEnd'', it's revealed that Sinister once created a clone from his original, baseline human DNA as part of a plan to take down [[Characters/MarvelComicsApocalypse Apocalypse]] (he needed a body without Apocalypse's genetic meddling). He spliced in some DNA from [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Cyclops]], believing that the Summers genes would ensure awesome superpowers. He was right; the clone would grow up to be, ironically enough, [[spoiler:[[Characters/MarvelComicsGambit Gambit]]]].
*** Sinister is also known for doing this with his chief minions, [[Characters/XMenMarauders the Marauders]] (though he hasn't used them so much in recent years), activating cells of them when they're needed. In the run-up to ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] finds and hijacks them, reprogramming the clones as disposable minions.

[[folder:Film]]

* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "A Man Alone", the villain clones himself and then kills the clone in order to frame Odo for murder.

* In the fifth ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'' movie, [[spoiler:Aozaki Touko]] is revealed to have created [[spoiler:a perfect puppet of herself (a clone, for all intents and purposes) out of pure scientific interest, then went into hibernation until it is killed by Araya]]. [[MindScrew Or it may have been the other way around]].