‘They Cloned Tyrone’ Ending Explained: What Do the Clones Represent? (2024)

Barbie this, Oppenheimer that, but there’s another new movie out this weekend, and you don’t even have to go to a theater to watch it. They Clone Tyrone began streaming on Netflix today, a new sci-fi mystery starring John Boyega and Jamie Foxx.

Directed by Juel Taylor, with a screenplay written by Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier, They Cloned Tryone tells the story of a drug dealer, a pimp, and a sex worker who stumble into a conspiracy of clones, mind control, racism, and eugenics. It combines the tone and ambiance of a ’70s Blaxploitation film with the plot of a ’90s sci-fi thriller. It’s a fascinating concept to be sure, and one that involves a lot of moving parts.

Because there is simply so much going on in They Clone Tyrone, it’s easy to get confused. Never fear, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a detailed breakdown of the They Cloned Tyrone plot summary and They Cloned Tyrone ending explained, including an analysis of the clone metaphor for assimilation.

When does They Cloned Tyrone take place?

They Cloned Tyrone takes place in the modern-day, despite the fact that many of the costumes and production design feel like the ’90s or earlier. Characters reference bitcoins and blockchains, and use smartphones, suggesting this is the modern era. In an interview for the film’s production notes, director Juel Taylor said he intentionally played with the viewer’s sense of time. “It’s not a period piece, but when you go certain places it feels like you’re in a different period, so I wanted the Glen to just be out of space and time,” Taylor said. “This could be in any city, in any year. And obviously we put a couple of clues in there. You see an iPhone but you also see old flip phones and tube TVs, and the decor is dated, and all of that is by design to kind of create a level of temporal dissonance.”

They Cloned Tyrone plot summary:

Fontaine (John Boyega) is a formidable drug dealer in a city known as the Glen. Fontaine pays a visit to a local pimp, Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), to collect on Slick’s debt. On his way in, Fontaine runs into Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), a sex worker who works for Slick.

Fontaine gets his money but is promptly shot and killed outside Slick’s apartment, by a rival drug dealer named Isaac (J. Alphonse Nicholson). So you can understand why Slick is surprised to see Fontaine show up at his door the very next day, alive and well, and expecting his money. Slick informs Fontaine he has come back from the dead. He suggests Fontaine ask Yo-Yo, if he doesn’t believe him.

Yo-Yo confirms to Fontaine that she saw him at Slick’s place the day before, and she saw where the gunmen drove off to. Fontaine drives himself, Slick, and Yo-Yo over to the house where Yo-Yo believes the gunman lives. Fontaine sees a car in the driveway that he remembers seeing earlier in the day. He decides to investigate the house. Yo-Yo and Slick reluctantly follow.

Inside the house, the three amateur detectives discover an elevator that leads to a secret underground lab. They interrogate a light-skinned Black man, who tells Fontaine, “We’re everywhere.” Slick, while battling a fit of laughter, accidentally shoots the lab tech. Our three heroes high-tail it out of the lab… but not before Fontaine discovers an unconscious corpse that looks exactly like him.

Yo-Yo convinces the other two to help her investigate this mystery. The three gather at a chicken restaurant that’s been advertising a new special secret recipe. They all begin laughing, and realize everyone else is laughing, too. Slick realizes this is the same way he felt in the lab when he inexplicably began laughing in a serious situation. Our heroes conclude there must be some sort of happy-making drug in the chicken.

Yo-Yo seduces the restaurant manager—another light-skinned Black man—and discovers that the entire city is being surveilled. Thanks to a cryptic hint from the local drunk, our heroes go to investigate the local Black church. Sure enough, they discover another entrance to the secret lab. This time when they explore the lab, both Fontaine and Slick discover clones that look exactly like them. They also realize that the scientist can control the clones via various forms of mind control—through the chicken, through music, and through trigger words.

Our heroes escape the facility but are pursued by the army of brainwashed clones—including one of Fontaine’s clones, who is dressed in a suit. The attack is called off by a villainous Kiefer Sutherland. Kiefer explains that scientists are conducting experiments on poor, Black populations like the Glen in the name of achieving peace in America. The trap, so to speak, is a “control setting.” If the area remains an undesirable place to be, then wealthy, white people won’t examine it too closely, and these scientists will be allowed to conduct their shady experiments, undetected. The criminals and other desperate people living there are clones, intentionally meant to keep the neighborhood dangerous.

That includes Fontaine and Slick. It’s revealed both men are clones when Kiefer says the trigger word, “Olympia Black,” and both men lose control over their bodies. (Yo-Yo retains control of her body, suggesting that she is not a clone.) Using mind control, Kiefer forces Fontaine to nearly blow his own brains out. Satisfied that he has successfully threatened our heroes, Keifer lets them go, under the condition that they stop investigating.

They Cloned Tyrone ending explained:

Fontaine falls into a depression. His entire life is a lie. He discovers that the person he thought was his mother—a voice behind a bedroom door, who always said she was busy watching TV—is nothing more than a voice on a tape recorder. He’s no longer sure if his younger brother who was killed by the police was ever real or not, either.

Meanwhile, Yo-Yo decides to confront the evil scientists on her own and goes missing. After questioning one of Yo-Yo’s co-workers, Fontaine and Slick realize she must be in danger in the secret lab. They come up with a plan to rescue her. Fontaine will fake his own death in a confrontation with Isaac, his rival drug dealer. Isaac is in on the plan as well. To the evil scientists, it will look like just another Black-on-Black shooting in the ghetto. In reality, Isaac will only shoot Fontaine in the shoulder.

The plan goes off without a hitch. Fontaine’s “dead” body is taken to the lab. Meanwhile, Slick and Isaac rally the entire neighborhood to storm the lab. Thanks to his trick, Fontaine is able to overtake one of the scientists and force him to let in the people. The crowd begins to trash the lab and free the clones. Yo-Yo frees herself and reunites with Slick. Fontaine faces off with his clone-in-a-suit and loses. He is taken to a room where he meets an old man who is… him.

Yes, that’s right, it’s John Boyega in old age make-up. John-Boyega-In-Old-Age-Make-up—who I’ll call JBioam to avoid confusion—explains that he is the original human who loaned out his DNA for all of those Fontaine clones. He is helping the scientists create “peace” by essentially turning Black people into white people.

Why did JBioam do it? Well, it turns out Fontaine’s little brother who was shot and killed by police was real. JBioam was so traumatized by this experience of deadly racism—which is even more horrific in real life than in the memory he gave Fontaine—that he decided this was his only hope to stop the violence. “Assimilation is better than annihilation,” JBioam tells Fontaine.

But Fontaine has one more trick up his sleeve. He says the trigger phrase, “Olympia Black,” and orders the clone-in-the-suit to shoot JBioam. The clone obeys. (This feels like the film’s biggest plot hole—so anyone who says that word can control the clones in any way they choose? Even the clones themselves? That doesn’t seem like a very efficient way to run a clone army! But I digress.) The point is, Fontaine, Yo-Yo, and Slick are able to save the day and free the clones.

Back above ground, the “mysterious naked people” are all over the news. Fontaine, Yo-Yo, and Slick decide to travel to Memphis together. The movie appears to end… but wait, there’s more!

Who is Tyrone in They Cloned Tyrone?

In the last sequence of the film, another clone played by John Boyega wakes up and bed and goes through his daily routine (which is very similar to Fontaine’s routine). While this John Boyega is watching TV with his friends, he sees the news story about the naked clones. On the news, the reporter approaches yet another John Boyega clone. “Hold up,” says one of the friends. “Ain’t that you Tyrone?”

And with that punchline, the movie finally ends. (So even though all the clones have the same memories of the original John Boyega, apparently they all have different names…? It doesn’t really make sense, but it does justify the admittedly brilliant movie title.)

They Cloned Tyrone explained with analysis:

They Cloned Tyrone is a movie about forced assimilation. The clones are a metaphor for the way in which white America only finds Black people and Black culture palatable—and worthy of the money, power, and comfort of white society—if they are white-washed. At the same time, the clones are also a metaphor for the ways in which white people maintain the power imbalance by intentionally keeping certain Black people impoverished and oppressed.

Some clones, like Fontaine, exist simply to keep the neighborhood undesirable so that authorities look the other way. But other clones, aka the light-skinned Black people we’ve seen around the neighborhood, exist in the name of assimilation. If the scientists have their way, eventually all Black people will be white. “Assimilation is better than annihilation,” JBioam tells Fontaine. (Though, as JBioam notes, they haven’t figured out how to assimilate the hair yet.)

It’s not a perfect metaphor, and careful viewers will likely note a few plot holes here and there. But you have to respect They Cloned Tyrone for having something to say and coming up with a completely new way of saying it.