The Alternate (2021)

Plotzle Sci-Fi · Puzzle #2 · April 29, 2026 · Sci-Fi / Thriller

Six plot descriptions for The Alternate (2021). One is the real plot. Five are convincing fakes. Read them and guess which is real.

1. A woman addicted to memory-replacement therapy visits a clinic weekly to overwrite traumatic childhood experiences but realizes the technician has been inserting fabricated moments from his own past.
2. Two astronauts return from Mars with samples but quarantine protocols fail and one begins exhibiting the behavioral patterns of the other's deceased twin brother who funded the mission.
3. An insurance adjuster reviewing a suicide claim discovers the deceased had been systematically replacing family members with bioengineered duplicates grown in a rural facility outside Portland.
4. A geneticist implants lab-grown neural tissue into death row inmates as experimental therapy but one recipient develops his donor's memories and identifies the scientist as his killer.
5. A struggling filmmaker discovers a portal to an alternate dimension where he encounters a version of himself who has achieved all the success he dreams of and must confront this idealized counterpart.
6. In a city where citizens rotate jobs annually by law, a man assigned to morgue duty recognizes bodies that match people he sees alive on the streets.