Duck is a daring deepfake short that follows Sean Connery’s unravelling after he witnesses Marilyn Monroe’s return from the dead. Set in the instantly recognisable world of a British Spy Thriller, Connery plays the role he knows all too well: collecting clues, wrongfooting assailants, and eliminating the femme fatale – only to find that all is not what it seems.

Starring classic Hollywood icons Marilyn Monroe and Sean Connery, Duck is a deepfake film that ingeniously blends spy movies, film noir, and video games to create a virtual world of trickery, deception, and intrigue. In this digital resurrection, Connery reprises his iconic role as a spy on a mission to gather clues and eliminate a shadowy femme fatale, only to discover that reality is not what it seems. Inspired by the duck test —"If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck"—Duck serves dual purposes. It celebrates the potential of fragmented pieces to be reassembled into new realities while also warning about the deceptive power of these constructed worlds. Director Rachel Maclean skillfully subverts pop culture and media tropes, challenging conventions about male-defined female imagery and gender power dynamics.

“If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and acts like a duck, then it is, most probably, a duck”. Duck is ultimately the story of what happens when this type of reasoning fails, and we find ourselves in a world where we don’t know what to believe. By using deepfake as the central conceit, Duck captures prevailing anxieties around AI-generated imagery and the threat it poses to the status quo.

• ProducerBeth ALLEN, Ciara DUNNE
• Screenplay Rachel MACLEAN
• Cinematography Jamie QUANTRILL
• Edit Ciaran LYONS
• Production Design Shipei WANG
• Sound William AIKMAN
• Music Julian CORRIE
• Cast Rachel MACLEAN

Too Happy Studios

ciara@rachelmaclean.com​