MICKEY 17 (2025)
Mickey 17, known as an "expendable," goes on a dangerous journey to colonise an ice planet.
Six years ago, writer-director Bong Joon-ho made history with the award-winning Parasite (2019), the first foreign language film to win ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards. Now, the South Korean filmmaker returns to the big screen with the sci-fi dark comedy Mickey 17. Initially planned for a March 2024 release but pushed back a year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Mickey 17 may not be as momentous as Bong’s previous dark comedy/social critique, but it’s a blast of a time at the cinema with a fantastic performance from lead Robert Pattinson.
Based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, Mickey 17 follows Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) as he travels to an uncharted planet in the role of an “expendable”: a new scientific achievement that allows a human to be reprinted after they die, allowing them to perform the most dangerous jobs in space travel. After his friend, Timo (Steven Yeun), convinces Mickey to take out a loan from notorious loanshark, Darius Blank (Ian Hanmore), on a doomed macron business, Mickey must flee the planet before being brutally murdered by the sadistic moneylender.
With no real skills, Mickey enlists as an expendable, a much-criticised scientific discovery that is outlawed on Earth but tested in the vacuum of space on an expedition led by failed politician, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), and his sauce-obsessed wife, Ylfa (Toni Collette). On the journey, Mickey meets Nasha Barridge (Naomi Ackie), a security officer, who he immediately is smitten with and begins an intense relationship with. By the time we meet Mickey, he’s lying at the bottom of an icy cave at the end of his 17th life. Renamed from the novel only so Bong Joon-ho could kill off Pattinson a few more times in the film, Mickey 17 does give us 18 renditions of Pattinson’s Mickey, and we should be even more grateful for that.
Robert Pattinson plays one of his most insane performances yet as Mickey. He’s known to transform his voice into silly accents for films like The King (2019) and The Boy and The Heron (2023), and for getting down and dirty in films like Good Time (2017) and, well, The King. He’s an incredibly physical actor, commanding the screen in his roles that shows he isn’t afraid of completely losing himself into the character and this is one shining example of it. Each variation of Mickey comes out a little different, so even if there’s much of the same in him, each time a new personality shines through. From the timid caretaker to the murderous substance abuser, it’s incredible to see multiple characters come alive from Pattinson. Mickey 17 is the heart and soul of the film, and without Pattinson’s commitment, it wouldn’t work as well as it does.
Especially with Mickey’s near constant voice over. As we work our way from flashbacks back to the start of the film, Mickey fills us in on everything, imbuing the visual action with his nasally, craven voice. Voiceover rarely works on screen, as most films fail to use it as a living breathing part of the film. They tend to rely on it for a few minutes to give backstory they fail to convey naturally. Films like Goodfellas (1990) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994) are great examples of voiceover used well. And Mickey 17 leans towards those cinematic works. But, it’s sad to lose Mickey’s voice once we catch up to the action. Perhaps the film’s biggest weakness is in failing to maintain the same energy throughout.
Like most Bong Joon-ho films, Mickey 17 delves into his critiques of capitalism in a unique way. Like Okja (2017), the film leans heavily into our relationship and exploitation of the environment around us. But, instead of a two-ton mutated pig, it’s the adorable indigenous alien race, the “creepers”. The misunderstood natives inhabit the planet of Niflheim, the dark, icy world of the dead in Norse Mythology. What the thematic development may lack in subtlety, it makes up for in earnestness. Leaning into the obviousness of disparity between the rich and the poor here plays for much of the comedic tone of Mickey 17.
This is greatly showcased by Mark Ruffalo’s Kenneth Marshall. Having lost two elections on Earth, Marshall captains his own space exploration vessel, leading his cult-like followers on a vanity-filled mission where the camera is always on to show how self-important he is. All this while settling on an “all-white” planet where they can birth the “purest” souls. This amalgamation of a certain re-elected president of the United States and the right hand oligarch obsessed with space travel is clearly intentional. And Ruffalo portrays it with the same sense of absurdity he brought to Poor Things (2023). Even funnier is Toni Collette’s Ylfa whose constant discussions of sauce is so over-the-top and apathetic that it’s a great personification of the callous evil of the elite.
However, the tropes do become a little tired by the end. The comedy dissipates into a run-of-the-mill sci-fi thriller that doesn’t work as well. Though, much credit has to go to both Pattinson and co-star Naomi Ackie (Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody). The chemistry and emotional arc of their characters provides clear heart to the film that makes it not just a social critic, but a resounding investigation into love, especially the love even those used as literal test dummies deserve.
Mickey 17 is exactly the type of film a director should make after winning three Oscars. It’s a big budget blockbuster where Bong gets to have as much fun as possible. With assured direction, great production design from Fiona Crombie, and a great cast playing absurd characters. Mickey 17 looks gorgeous, especially in its grandest scale on IMAX screens.
While it may not hold the same richness in story, thematic brilliance, and the occasional unnecessary dropkicks as Bong’s best, like Parasite, Memories of Murder (2003), and even Mother (2009), Mickey 17 is still what to expect from Bong, who is perhaps one of the best working directors today. Enjoy it for the spectacle and be glad after six years, we have Bong Joon-ho back on our big screens.
SOUTH KOREA • USA | 2025 | 137 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH
Cast & Crew
director: Bong Joon-ho.
writer: Bong Joon-ho (based on the novel ‘Mickey7’ by Edward Ashton).
starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Anamaria Vartolomei, Patsy Ferran, Cameron Britton & Holliday Grainger.
