Mickey 17

★★★☆

Mickey 17 (2025)

Runtime: 137 minutes

MPAA: Rated R for violent content, language throughout, sexual content and drug material.

Parasite made history by being the first non-English language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Its legacy is still being actively discussed up to this day, and it's easy to see why. A seemingly light and breezy story descended into madness, then bleakness, as the film subtly provided a scathing commentary on the socioeconomic status and privilege of people in this cruel system of capitalism. While I'll admit that subtlety isn't my biggest strength - I tend to have slight trouble interpreting points - it's packed with so many details, twists and turns in the best way possible.

Mickey 17, Bong Joon Ho's follow-up work, is anything but subtle, as it spells out the themes of immigration, colonisation and makes broad political statements in its somewhat caricatured figures. A co-production with Hollywood, it's more talkative and is completely in the English language, despite featuring several Korean actors, notably Steven Yeun. Yet, even though it's a step down from the tight and controlled Parasite, it's still quirky and goofy enough to check it out, thanks to an unhinged dual performance by Robert Pattinson, interesting themes and an exploration into the human condition.

Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, an ordinary person who unfortunately finds himself in a precarious situation after a failed business venture with Timo (Steven Yeun). Owing huge debts, he signs up as an expendable on a space mission, thanks to technological advancements that have made it possible to print humans while storing their memories in a hard drive the size of a literal brick. However, legal and ethical issues prohibit the cloning to be done on Earth, hence failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) initiates a journey to an ice planet Niflheim to colonise it, bring the cloning machine for Mickey to be reprinted repeatedly. See, in 2054, Earth is facing climate crisis, overpopulation and dangerous dust storms. Bringing Mickey along as an expendable means he can complete mechanical repairs if necessary, test radiation severity and habitability of the ice planet, which turns out to have a pathogen that causes him to cough out blood.

Mickey 17 refers to the 17th iteration of him, after going through repeated vaccine trials. The film begins with him falling into a ravine and him expecting a quick death, then cuts to 4 years before. It cuts back another time, which somewhat interrupts the narrative momentum, but we get context into his journey, including meeting his partner Nasha (Naomi Ackie), Kai Katz (Anamaria Vartolomei) and Marshall's wife Ylfa (Toni Collette). Niflheim, as they learn later, is home to a species that they call "creepers", which surprisingly saves Mickey 17 and brings him back to the surface. However, when he returns to the base, an 18th iteration has been printed.

The film expands to much more. Mickey usually dies and wakes up in a newly printed body. Now, with multiple clones of him, once he dies, he truly does forever. Mickey 18 is more maniacal, violent and aggressive, in contrast to the rather timid and reserved Mickey 17. Here, Pattinson gets to have a ton of fun playing two different versions of the same character. It's also a ton of fun for the viewer. As an expendable, Mickey is constantly lied to, like the radiation he's exposed to in space, resulting in his humanity being stripped away by those in authority. Since there are two Mickeys, what is their true identity? Is it through shared recollection of memories? The system requires that multiples need to be exterminated to prevent legal and ethical confusions. Midway through the film, a prime example is demonstrated. If someone's clone commits a crime, who is sentenced? Are they all complicit or innocent?

Later on, the film also pivots to the nature of humans and creepers. The creepers aren't inherently hostile, yet humans react to it with violence and the need for extermination. In this situation, who truly is the monster? Wouldn't that make humans the aliens? These are presented quite bluntly, mostly through Nasha's monologue, but I'm not particularly bothered by it. Ruffalo and Collette's characters are, however, reduced into rather simplistic political figures, but they bring as much fun and menace to their roles as possible.

So yes, it's a little dense at times and less focused at times, but it also ends on a more optimistic note. Bong must have had tremendous pressure and the need to rise to that same level of perfection, coming off from Parasite, making it pretty obvious that Mickey 17 is more of a free-wheeling affair. Fortunately, it's silly enough when it leans more into comedy and satire, than pure science-fiction or drama. As we wait for what he'll tackle next, it's perfectly serviceable comfort food.