Gemini Man: Will Smith Faces Off With Himself In New Trailer

What's more awesome than a killer action flick starring Will Smith? How about one starring two Will Smiths?

The second trailer for Ang Lee's action thriller Gemini Man has dropped, and it's looking like a serious showcase for its star's talent — not to mention one of the most intriguing films of the year. The spot was released to Paramount Pictures' YouTube channel.

Gemini Man had us on the hook with its premise alone: a highly-trained professional killer, played by Smith, finds himself pursued by a younger version of himself — a clone, also played by Smith. But this trailer has us downright pumped, and it should give you an idea of the level of cray action Lee is going for when we say that if we had a dollar for every time Smith gets a motorcycle literally thrown at him in this spot, we could buy ourselves a nice cup of coffee at Starbucks.

The trailer opens with the narration of Smith's Henry Brogen, as we see him on the run from a mysterious pursuer. "When I saw him," he says, "it was like I was seeing a ghost." Bullets are exchanged, and then the chase continues on motorcycles; Brogen's pursuer ditches his, and that's when the hired gun has to dodge Flying Motorcycle #1.

We then see Brogen cornering his younger self, as the narration switches to a conversation between him and Junior, his young doppleganger. "How did he start you?" Brogen asks. "Hunting birds, rabbits... I'm guessing 19, 20 years old the first time he asked you to shoot a person." We see then "he" in question: Clay Varris (Clive Owen), Brogen's one-time boss, who is now apparently intent on wiping him out so that Junior can take his place. 

"25 years ago, he took my blood," Brogen's voiceover continues. "He made you... from me." We get a few brief glimpses of this confrontation, as intercut shots show us a cavernous lair which could be Varris' base of operations, and Junior receiving an assignment. "He's been lying to you the whole time," Brogen says. "He told you you were an orphan... of all the people in the world to come after me, why would he send you?"

We then get a look at another motorcycle chase; Brogen is knocked off his bike, and Junior comes in with a brutal followup aboard Flying Motorcycle #2. Then, back to the confrontation, as Junior answers, "Because I'm the best." Training his gun on his younger self, Brogen retorts (in Smith's classic deadpan fashion), "You are obviously. Not. The best." "You're just trying to rattle me," Junior says, prompting Brogen to shout, "I'm trying to save you!"

The next sequence teases Junior's frustration with his handler, as he's seen shouting at Varris, "You made a choice to do this to me!" To which Varris replies, "The whole point of this was to give you all of Henry's gifts, without his pain."

Then, something we guarantee you've never seen before: Brogen is taking cover behind a pillar on the second floor of an old building, while Junior targets him from a doorway on the ground floor. "I don't wanna shoot you!" Brogen calls, to which Junior calmly retorts, "Mind if I shoot you?" Brogen steels himself, and chucks a grenade at Junior — and the clone shoots it in mid-air, deflecting it back at Brogen, who barely manages to dodge the resulting explosion.

After a brief exchange between Brogen and his ally Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), we get an idea of the kind of emotional manipulation Varris has employed to get Junior to do his bidding. As we see a quick montage of action sequences (including Junior just straight-up chucking Flying Motorcycle #3, Captain America style, at Brogen), we hear Varris talking to the clone in voiceover. "Everything that we've worked for is at stake," he says. "He has to die. He's your darkness, you have to walk through this on your own." We then see Varris hugging the teary-eyed clone, telling him, "I love you, Junior."

The spot hurtles toward its conclusion with a blistering series of quick cuts featuring plenty of gunfire and bone-crunching hand-to-hand combat, and an exchange between Varris and Brogen. "Look what we created... you were the inspiration for all of this," Varris tells his target. "Why not make a whole army full of them?" Brogen asks, to which Varris replies, "Why not? You should be flattered." Brogen responds with another badass one-liner, delivered in Smith's inimitable style: "You should be dead."

The spot then comes to a close by taking us back to the initial standoff between the aging hitman and his young clone, as Brogen tells Junior, "This has to be stopped. Because what if somebody actually knew what we really are?"

We're thinking that Brogen's use of the word "we" in that last exchange will reveal itself to be significant. Also, we submit that this movie looks completely bonkers, and we are so on board.

Gemini Man is arguably the first foray into pure action by director Lee, who made his name in the '90s with quiet, expertly staged dramas such as Sense and Sensibility, Eat Drink Man Woman, and The Ice Storm. His international profile was raised considerably with 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won four Academy Awards and gave Lee carte blanche to choose his next project.

Oddly, that project turned out to be 2003's Hulk, a unique outlier among superhero movies. Its highly comics-informed visual sense was quite different from other films in the genre, and while it featured some solid performances and action set pieces, it sharply divided critics and fans alike, mainly due to its deliberate pacing and sometimes questionable CGI. (Oh, and the Hulk dogs. We're sorry to have reminded you of that.)

Lee would go on to collect two Best Director Oscars for 2005's Brokeback Mountain and 2012's Life of Pi, but over the last seven years, he's only fielded one feature: 2016's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which failed to even gross $2 million dollars domestically, and which we're guessing you had never heard of before just now.

We think it's safe to say that Gemini Man will fare slightly better, because it looks entertaining as all get-out. Smith has been a box office draw for as long as many of you reading this can remember, and he's lost none of his appeal — plus, the man is a far better actor than he's often given credit for, a fact that it appears Gemini Man will illustrate nicely. (Pro tip: if you're skeptical, you should check out 1993's Six Degrees of Separation, which contains one of his most thoughtful and nuanced performances, and which he shot at the height of his fame as the Fresh Prince.)

Gemini Man was penned by David Benioff (Game of Thrones), Billy Ray (Overlord, Terminator: Dark Fate), and Darren Lemke (Shazam!), an eclectic trio of scribes if ever there was one. In addition to those mentioned, it stars Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange), Douglas Hodge (Lost in Space), Linda Emond (The Big Sick), and Ralph Brown (Death in Paradise). 

Circle your calendars, action fans: the flick hits screens on October 4.