Mickey 17 (2025)
Directed by Bong Joon Ho
Starring Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Michael Monroe
In cinemas
Bong Joon Ho, the Oscar award winning director of Parasite, has released a new film that skewers the despair and wackiness of capitalism.
Mickey 17 is set in a not-too-distant future where humanity is ravaged by climate disasters and rampant poverty. Mickey, played by Robert Pattinson, is on the run from a vicious loan shark and signs up to join the crew of a spaceship set to colonise a far-off planet.
Without any requisite skills, and unable to afford to pay the exorbitant fees to join a voyage, Mickey unwittingly signs up as an “expendable” crew member.
This means his memories and body are scanned so he can take on lethal tasks and then be “regenerated” after death.
The montage of Mickey’s various excruciating deaths over the four year journey is disturbing and hilarious, with Pattinson’s voiceover giving an insight into Mickey’s thoughts, resigned to his fate.
The Mickey we spend most of the film with is the 17th regeneration of Mickey, his previous iterations dumped in an incinerator once they have served their purpose.
His role as an expendable calls to mind how big corporations like Amazon treat their workers as disposable and replaceable, an excuse to constantly erode their rights.
The team of scientists in charge of using Mickey and “printing” off his duplicates are mostly uncaring, treating him as a tool rather than a person, though some take pity on him.
Mickey’s journey through space to the icy planet of Niflheim is led by the egomaniacal failed politician Kenneth Marshall, played by Mark Ruffalo, and his sauce-obsessed wife Ylfa Marshall, played by Toni Collette.
Ruffalo’s performance clearly draws on a certain United States president and mixes a broad, comedic take with smug idealism and genocidal rage.
A clear class dynamic emerges as the Marshalls tighten rations on the ship, cutting Mickey’s rations further when he breaks the rules.
In one memorable scene, Mickey gleefully devours a glob of artificially produced meat that Marshall gives him at dinner, only to realise everyone else is eating real steaks.
However Mickey’s life on the space shuttle is not all bad, he quickly finds love with Nasha, a security agent played by Naomi Ackie.
This romance plays a central role in the story and shows that even in the most dire situations, human connections and relationships are important.
Mickey’s life takes a turn when he crashes through the ice on Nilfheim and his crew decide it will be easier to print a new Mickey than rescue him.
They leave him for dead, expecting him to be eaten by the planet's indigenous life forms, named “creepers” by Marshall.
Instead, the creepers work together to help Mickey return to the surface.
When he finally returns to the ship, he finds that his replacement, Mickey 18 has already been printed. Duplicates are illegal, so the two Mickey’s must work out if they can co-exist.
Pattinson’s performance as the two Mickeys is brilliant and a highlight of the film, their different characterisations highlighting different elements of Mickey’s personality.
Meanwhile, Marshall wants to unleash a genocidal extermination plan on the creepers and the Mickeys become part of a bigger battle for control of the colony and the fate of the planet.
Mickey 17 is an original, whacky and thought-provoking take down of capitalism, colonialism and the idea that billionaires could save humanity by taking us to space.
The film's farcical style and humour may turn off some viewers (the film is failing at the box office), but it works as a clear satire of our own often-unbelievable world.
Bong Joon Ho is a master of class-conscious filmmaking and fans of his previous films Okja and Snowpiercer will enjoy this one.