How to fight someone who knows your every move, because he is you? That’s the plot of Gemini Man, the new sci-fi film from Ang Lee that has older Will Smith going up against younger Will Smith. Using sophisticated de-aging visual effects, Lee is able to pit the present-day Smith against himself, de-aged to his youth. But how effective does it look? See for yourself: The first Gemini Man trailer await you below.

Gemini Man

Back in the olden days, if you wanted to have a movie feature young and old versions of a character, you either used extensive make-up effects, or you cast different actors. But as technology has advanced, we’ve reached a point where digital effects can be employed to de-age a performer in a realistic way. Marvel has been doing this for years now, and mastered the technique with Captain Marvel, featuring highly convincing de-aged Samuel L. Jackson. Later this year, Martin Scorsese will use similar effects to de-age Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for the Netflix film The Irishman. And then there’s Ang Lee’s Gemini Man, which digitally de-ages Will Smith.

In Gemini Man, Smith plays Henry Brogen, an aging assassin who is suddenly confronted with his younger clone. The clone, nicknamed Junior, is trying to kill him, a fact further complicated by the fact that Junior can predict Henry’s every move. Story-wise, it’s hard to draw comparisons between Gemini Man and Rian Johnson’s Looper, in which assassin Bruce Willis had to deal with a younger version of himself. But Johnson’s movie involved time travel, whereas Gemini Man throws cloning into the mix. In addition to Will Smith and Will Smith, Gemini Man stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Benedict Wong, and Clive Owen.

Despite a few bumps here and there, Ang Lee is a great filmmaker, and I’m highly intrigued at what he does with all of this. If the filmmaker can bring his unique voice to this sort of sci-fi thriller, we might be in for a treat. I’m also interested in seeing Will Smith front and center again. Whatever you think of some of his recent career choices, it’s hard to deny that Smith is a bonafide movie star, the type that can command the screen if he has the right material to work with. Here’s hoping that’s the case with Gemini Man. Although I have a feeling this is the type of movie where the special effects work is the real star.

Gemini Man opens October 11, 2019 .