Mickey 17 ★★★★

Released: 7 March 2025

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette & Steven Yeun

Poor Mickey Barnes (The Batman’s Robert Pattinson): when we are first introduced to him in Bong Joon-ho’s first film since the award-winning Parasite, his life has been nothing but pain. He’s an expendable, escaping his destitute life on Earth (and a bad loan shark deal, thanks to his so-called friend, Steven Yeun’s Timo) for a life signed away to become a disposable clone worker. With his brain-mapped and 3D-reprinted at the time of his death, he’s designated frontline tasks for the colonisation of Niflheim, a desolate ice planet that gives Hoth from Star Wars a run for its money. After 16 iterations where he’s lost a hand during a space exploration and become a testing lab rat for planetary viruses and vaccinations, 17’s day looks like it’s about to get worse. He’s fallen through the ice, Timo refuses to help him (because he doesn’t care and leaves him to die), and is about to be eaten by what can only be described as space-woodlouse style creatures called creepers.

In hindsight, it’s the classic case where reading the small print does matter, but where would the fun be in that if we got a film that followed the rules? So, with that in mind, let’s cut straight to the chase: Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 is a batshit, crazy film, the type of madness that unapologetically celebrates the weird, absurd and chaotic swings of this sci-fi/comedy caper, and truth be told, we wouldn’t expect anything less from the award-winning director.

Bong has always picked leading actors who bring something different to his films, be it Chris Evans or frequent collaborator Song Kang-ho, and this story and the former Twilight star is a match made in heaven. It’s right up Pattinson’s street where he can explore the multifaceted tragedy of Mickey’s life as an expendable in search for humanity in an inhumane world. He gets to be idiotic and put on a silly accent, embodying awkwardness to a tee and narrating this eccentric world where capitalism and political fascism have gone wild. He delightfully matches Bong’s tone and energy, and in return, you get the best of both worlds from director and actor, despite some bumpy, if somewhat messy, execution along the way.

We see this combination come into play when Mickey is on board the spacecraft on route to Niflheim. As the outsider, he’s mocked, treated like trash, and taken for granted. When he dies, his body is tossed into a fiery pit and his reprinted self flops out of the machine as if it was business as usual. The only person that cares about his wellbeing? His security guard girlfriend Nasha (Blink Twice’s Naomi Ackie), who supports him from the mistreatment and abuse he suffers – and there are plenty of scumbags onboard to defend him against. They’re surrounded by self-absorbed idiots, who wear red MAGA-style baseball caps, believe in race purification and answer to the egotistic and cowardly whims of the tan-skinned, Trump-inspired Marshall Kennedy (played by the brilliant Mark Ruffalo) and his devious wife Ylfa (Toni Collette). 

The themes are not subtle here. Also serving as writer, Bong adapts Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7 to examine slavery, worker exploitation, colonisation, classism, racism, fascism, capitalism, popularity politics, religion and grifter energies. Under a different director, tackling such heavy themes could crumble a film, but Bong masterfully takes this into his stride. 

Mickey 17’s explorations are very “on the nose”, and yet, it’s important to note that the director has never shied away from societal and political injustices. Snowpiercer gave us classism on a never-ending train. The poor were treated like the dregs of society, eating bug food, and stuck in cramped, dark conditions while the rich bathed in the light of privilege, luxury and fine-dining as we moved through the carriages. Okja explored animal rights and the exploitation of food consumerism while Parasite explored a family dreaming of wealth, doing whatever it took to climb the social ladder to be respected. Mickey 17 feels more of an amalgamation of those themes, encapsulating a greatest hits tour of Bong’s work. It does lead to an imperfect and inconsistent execution. It creaks under the pressure of its 2 hours and 14 minutes runtime, and ends up feeling overstuffed and longer than expected, particularly in the final act. But in this ‘carte blanche’ exercise where Bong deploys unapologetic blunt force, it comes with the astute observation that the world we’re living in is no longer subtle, especially with Trumpism and far-right extremism on our doorsteps. So why pretend? In this dystopian future where the human race has further digressed into a dire collective state that is succumbing to the most hateful, cruel and self-serving traits, Mickey 17 happily calls the quiet part out loud, knowing the collective patience for nonsense has run out. With that kind of energy seeping through its celluloid veins, it’s everything Captain America: Brave New World wishes itself to be if it had an ounce of courage.

Even with some predictable elements, at least it has a full throttle commitment to its thematic decisions, setting the stage for an enriched platter of storytelling. The morbid fascination that surrounds Mickey when characters ask him “what’s it like to die?”, doesn’t come from a care for Mickey. These characters are too preoccupied in their own stupidness when the real question to be asked is “what is it like to live?” Each time Mickey is reprinted, he carries the memories from his predecessor. Besides Nasha, his routine of jobs and death is hell and slowly grows to understand that these traumatic spells are not normal.

That train of thought comes into topical context with the introduction of Mickey 18 (also Pattinson), printed by mistake at the supposed death of 17. Comparatively, he’s more aggressive, combustible and volatile, as if 17 iterations of himself have reached a breaking point. In one scene where 17 survives an ordeal after eating some artificial meat (probably one of the most disgusting meals I’ve seen committed to screen), he angrily reacts towards his counterpart for his naivety and meekness before channelling it towards Kennedy and the entire broken system. 

Which is why Pattinson is fantastic at what he does, operating on the frequency of double the trouble, double the fun. There’s plenty of dark humour between them, an ‘odd-couple’ vibe of tit-for-tat blows, and 17 and 18’s survival are dependent on each other, knowing their existence as “multiples” is a violation and risks permanent deletion. Ackie is equally fantastic who, like Mickey, begins to question the authoritarian decision-making on the ship. These performances are only elevated by the exquisite production design by Fiona Crombie and Squid Game’s Jung Jae-il’s score.

One can only imagine that on repeat viewings, Mickey 17 will be duly recognised as a sci-fi classic. But until that pinnacle, it’s a welcomed return from Bong Joon-ho, who proves he still possesses the magic. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait long for his next adventure.