The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler

The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler is a 1971 science fiction film directed by Bob Wynn and starring Leslie Nielsen, Bradford Dillman and Angie Dickinson. This was one of the earliest films to depict medical exploitation of cloning, even though the term was not used. It was shot on videotape and transferred to film for theatrical and TV release. Gold Key Entertainment commissioned this film at the same time as it commissioned the film The Day of the Wolves, and tried to persuade Ferde Grofe to film that on video because of the cost savings, but he declined. Plot Reporter Harry Walsh (Nielsen) witnesses an auto accident in which two people are killed. Recognizing the survivor as Senator Clayton Zachary Wheeler, (Dillman) he rides with him in the ambulance. After he reports Wheeler's accident from the hospital, the staff tells him there is no such person admitted. Walsh's editor orders him to retract his story, which he refuses to do, at the cost of his job. Some detective work leads him to Alamogordo, New Mexico. Meanwhile, Wheeler wakes up in a secret hospital run by Dr. Redding (Daly) and Dr. Layle Johnson (Dickinson). He finds out he is the recipient of an incredible transplant, utilizing organs harvested from "somas". These somas are bodies artificially grown from his own DNA.