Mickey 17 (2025) Warner Bros./Sci-Fi-Comedy RT: 137 minutes Rated R (violent content, language throughout, sexual content, drug material) Director: Bong Joon-Ho Screenplay: Bong Joon-Ho Music: Jung Jae-Il Cinematography: Darius Khondji Release date: March 7, 2025 (US) Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yuen, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Holliday Grainger, Anamaria Vartolomei, Steve Park.
Rating: ***
The new film from Bong Joon-Ho, the dark sci-fi-comedy Mickey 17, is interesting and ambitious. The director of Parasite, which won Oscars for both Best Picture and Best International Feature, takes a big swing with his latest feature. He explores some big themes- i.e. economic disparity, destruction of the planet and the dangers of authoritarianism- but fails to connect all the dots. It’s a hit, but the runner only makes it to third.
Set about 30 years from now, the main character in this dystopian tale in Mickey Barnes (Pattinson, The Batman), a luckless sort on the run from loan sharks on earth after a failed business venture with his opportunistic friend Timo (Yeun, Beef). He signs on as an “Expendable” for a mission to colonize an ice-covered planet somewhere in the far reaches of space. An Expendable is somebody who does all the dangerous jobs nobody wants. When (no ifs about it) he gets killed, a clone is reprinted to take his place. By the time we meet him, he’s on his 17th iteration hence the title Mickey 17.
The thing about cloning tech is that it’s absolutely forbidden on earth. It can only be used in space. So it is that politician Kenneth Marshall (Ruffalo, Poor Things) and his wife Ylfa (Collette, Hereditary) have set up an autocracy on a vessel headed to the ice planet thought to be uninhabited. It’ll take four years to get there. Under his tyrannical rule, Expendables are treated as disposable objects used as slaves and/or lab rats to test experimental drugs on.
There’s a rule stating that two clones of the same person cannot exist at the same time. If that happens, both clones are destroyed and the template for the original is deleted. That’s the threat faced by Mickey 17 when he survives a fall through a fissure and an attack by the planet’s native lifeforms (aka “Creepers”). He makes it back to his quarters where he finds Mickey 18 already settling in. Aware of what will happen if they’re found out, the more aggressive M18 tries to kill the passive M17. Then they agree to try and coexist which pleases M17’s girlfriend Nasha (Ackie, I Wanna Dance with Somebody), a security officer with a healthy sexual appetite.
Mickey 17 is bizarre. To its credit, it’s never boring. There’s always something to hold your interest be it Pattinson’s dual performance, some aspect of the film’s production design or one of the many ideas floating around. On the downside, the scattered nature of the narrative diminishes any power the movie might have had with more focus on Bong’s part. Some story elements, like Mickey’s guilt over causing his mother’s death as a child, go unexplored. Others, like the obvious model for Ruffalo’s character, are about as subtle as a semi with a busted axle. It’s all over the place both narratively and thematically. It’s kind of frustrating, but not to the point where you just want to give up on the whole enterprise. There’s something to it that keeps you holding on.
I must compliment Pattinson on his double performance playing two different versions of the same character. You can hear it in how he expertly modulates his voice and body language. I’d even say it’s brilliant. He’s come a long way since the Twilight series. The special effects that allow the two Mickeys to talk to each other are seamless. If Mickey 17 succeeds anywhere, it’s in the visuals. The production design by Fiona Crombie, along with Darius Khondji’s cinematography, is both striking and ugly. The interior of the space craft is depressing and bleak, a perfect representation of the society Marshall wants to build.
Ruffalo goes OTT with his depiction of a power-mad political leader out of touch with reality. He lost two elections on earth, so he puts himself in power somewhere else. Collette matches him as the wife convinced that sauces are the height of civility. Together, they are one scary couple. However, this particular scary crosses over into parody so you can’t take it too seriously. Yuen adds comic relief as the so-called “friend’ who consistently acts in his own best interests. We all know people like that, don’t we? He nails it.
The creature effects are pretty good even if the Creepers’ role in Mickey 17 is too obvious- i.e. they’re symbolic of immigration and colonization. They look like gray armadillos clad in suede. They might not be pretty, but they’re better than Ewoks any day.
I believe I will end my review here. Mickey 17 is a movie you should see for yourself. It’s one you have to get your mind around. It’s not wholly successful at what it sets out to do, but it’s smart enough that you won’t mind connecting the dots yourself.
