12 Years Later, ‘The Simpsons’ Biggest Sci-Fi Mistake Still Makes No Sense
This Collider retrospective revisits "Days of Future Future," a Season 25 episode of The Simpsons, arguing it represents a rare misfire in the show's long-running "flash-forward" format, which had previously worked well in earlier future-set episodes. The piece contends the episode's central science-fiction premise — cloning Homer repeatedly after his death — collapses under its own internal logic and undermines the emotional stakes the format usually relies on.
In the episode, Homer dies of a heart attack, prompting Professor Frink Jr. to reveal he has cloned him; each successive clone then dies in increasingly absurd ways, from electrocution to falling off a pile of previous clones. When Frink eventually runs out of clones, he preserves Homer's memory on a flash drive instead, while subplots follow Bart's regrets over his failed marriage to Jenda and Milhouse being turned into a zombie after visiting Lisa at a charity soup kitchen for the undead. The article uses these plot details to illustrate why it views the episode's sci-fi conceit as poorly thought through compared with the show's other future-themed instalments.
- Collider revisits The Simpsons' 2013 episode "Days of Future Future."
- Article argues its cloning-based sci-fi premise doesn't hold up logically.
- Episode features Homer's repeated deaths and clones, plus Bart and Milhouse subplots.