Splitting Adam

Adam Baker leads a hectic summer, juggling a handful of jobs at the noisy water park Crash n’ Splash while nursing a crush on the park’s lifeguard, Lori Collins. He endures lighthearted bullying from Vance Hansum as he struggles to pass a lifeguard test, and he never forgets the embarrassing moment when his swim trunks got trapped in a pool filter. The daily grind is relentless, but Adam keeps pushing, hoping to prove himself and win a moment of calm with the girl he adores.

When his parents leave town for a week, Adam is left in the care of his uncle Mitch, a struggling magician who runs a van-based act under the name “Magic Mitch.” Mitch arrives with a broken-down tanning bed that he believes might double as a new gimmick, a ridiculous device that will supposedly help him reclaim his spotlight. The family’s routine is already chaotic, but the sun-drenched summer takes an even stranger turn when Adam’s little sister Gillian—anxious to fit in and quick with a prank—becomes entangled in the evening’s misadventures. That night, while Adam plays video games with his best friends—including Danny and Sheldon—a prank goes wrong, Gillian slips into mischief, and a sudden tumble into the garage yields a discovery that will change everything: the tanning bed is not just a curiosity; it is a cloning machine.

The next morning, Adam wakes to find a clone of himself sleeping in his bed. He introduces “Adam #2” to his friends, explaining that the tanning bed can create copies with distinct personalities based on what the inside user desires. The group quickly sees the potential for mischief—and for relief from chores—if Adam can delegate his duties to his clones. They enlist the help of Lori to organize a fundraiser to rescue Crash n’ Splash’s finances, a plan that triggers a cascade of unintended consequences. As the clones multiply, they create Winston, a copy of Adam #2 with reduced intelligence, meant to handle chores while they focus on the social front.

What begins as a clever workaround reveals a deeper truth: the clones inherit traits from the originals, and the more copies they make, the more the house of cards can topple. Adam #2 embodies organization and reliability, which makes him useful at the park and in Lori’s eyes, but the dynamics grow thornier as the clones start to compete for attention and power. The team experiments with private moneymaking schemes and party dynamics, including a high-energy appearance by Party Boy (a loud, party-loving clone) who is designed to appeal to social crowds, and Sensitive (a gentle, emotionally open poet clone) who attempts to connect with Lori through artful displays. This trio of clones helps Adam juggle responsibilities, from mowing lawns to helping guests at the fundraisers, but their antics also create escalating trouble: they trap Vance in a dumpster, and the park’s atmosphere grows tenser as more clones enter the scene.

Lori begins to warm to the real Adam when a more “perfect” version emerges—one designed to mirror Vance’s personality. The new clone, nicknamed Perfect, quickly earns trust by performing heroic deeds—saving a drowning woman and earning a promotion for Adam at the lifeguard station. Perfect takes Lori on a date, and for a moment it seems like Adam has finally found a way to present his best self. Yet the ruse strains the group’s fragile balance: Perfect’s bold charm risks alienating the other clones and the people who rely on the real Adam.

As Perfect asserts influence, the other clones rally to protect their place in the world and push back against Vance’s interference, complicating the fundraiser and threatening the park’s future. The truth behind the clones begins to leak out when Adam #2 uncovers a crucial detail: the cloning process is unstable, and the shares of pain are real—every hit or blow is felt by all copies, including the original. The gravity of the situation becomes clear when it is revealed that the setting’s core component—the duplex ignitor—has been damaged, and someone (the unmasked Perfect) has sabotaged the device.

With Mitch’s help, the group stages a magic show to raise enough money to save the park, but the plan hinges on reclaiming the cloning machine’s core and stopping Perfect once and for all. The performance brings the crowd to tears and applause as the Adams appear onstage, but the calm is short-lived. In a tense confrontation, Lori discovers the truth and confronts Adam about his use of clones to win her affection, forcing him to reveal his fear of not being good enough in the real moment. The confession is interrupted by the emergence of Perfect, who exposes the rift between Adam’s authentic self and his manufactured persona.

The climax unfolds on Crash n’ Splash’s waterslide, where the ignitor’s fate and the clones’ lives hang in the balance. Lori executes a bold move, grabbing the ignitor and racing toward safety, while Adam confronts Perfect in a final showdown. The devices at the bottom of the slide—now transformed into a makeshift winder—activate, generating enough speed to dissipate the clones. One by one, Winston, Party Boy, and Sensitive slip away into their own fading echoes, and even Adam #2 discovers that their shared pain can only end when they return to a single, unified self. In the end, the clones collapse back into the original, leaving a relieved, more confident Adam to pick up the pieces with Lori.

The night settles over the park’s reopening and the family’s return. Lori reaffirms that she loves the real Adam, and they share a quiet kiss as the river of events winds down. Mitch packs up the core component of the duplex ignitor, hinting at a plan to repurpose it into a tanning bed, while expressing gratitude for the boost of courage he found in the experience. Back at home, the house is unusually spotless, the mother’s voice rings with a hint of astonishment at the llama in the backyard, and the father’s reaction to Gillian’s unexpected duplication becomes a comical aftershock of the summer’s chaos. The closing scene hints at a future in which the park’s renewed spirit and the bond between Adam and Lori continue to grow, with the two of them walking toward the sunlit gates of Crash n’ Splash, ready for whatever summer might bring next.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:03