Mickey 17 Review

Mickey 17 is Bong Joon-ho’s long-awaited follow-up to his Academy Award-winning film Parasite and his first English-language film since Okja.

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) signs up for a colonisation expedition to the planet Nifheim to avoid a violent loan shark. The only job he can get is being an expendable, someone who does dangerous jobs and when he dies Mickey gets replaced by a copy. When the expedition arrives in Nifheim, Mickey falls into a cave and is presumed dead, leading to the 18^th copy being printed, even though Mickey 17 is still alive.

Bong has a reputation for making politically charged sci-fi films. His filmography includes Host, Snowpiercer, and Okja, and his films beyond the sci-fi genre have been politically themed. He knows how to make entertaining films with substance: even people who disagree with his political views can still enjoy them. His films often have a sociological approach that looks at class structures and the effects of capitalism on people.

Mickey 17 looked at the perils of space exploration and influenced by the current political climate. Mark Ruffalo played Kenneth Marshall, the leader of the expedition, who was a businessman and failed politician with a cult-like following. He was modelled on Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Ruffalo has been critical of Trump on Twitter and his voice in the film was inspired by Trump’s. His followers on Earth wore red baseball caps with slogans and worshipped him as a messiah. During one scene Marshall made a speech and made a gesture resembling a fascist one which his followers copied.

Musk also has a cultist audience who believes he will save humanity with his companies. One of his stated ambitions is to set up a colony on Mars. In recent years Musk has become a more controversial figure, his grand projects and proposals have been increasingly criticised, and his behaviour has become more erratic. Marshall uses the expedition to set up his own fiefdom in the stars and along with his Ylfa (Toni Collette), form the colony in their racial image. Even though Marshall was shown to be a power-hunger megalomanic, he was also a complete idiot who was dependent on his wife and advisor.

As well as the big picture ideas, Mickey 17 sticks to Bong’s theme of workers’ exploitation. Mickey didn’t just do dangerous jobs; he was callously used for science experiments. He was used as a lab rat and canary, and his suffering was used for comedic effect. Along with Companion and The Monkey, 2025 has been the year of dark comedy.

Mickey’s plight was used to look at the ethics of cloning. Mickey 17 goes in the direction of Blade Runner where it was illegal to use a clone on Earth, so was used as labour in space. Mickey 17 setup did have some similarities to the cult sci-fi movie Moon. Both were about the use of clones as labour and two clones accidentally inhabiting the same space. Although there were differences since Moon was a restrictive, psychological drama and a mystery, Mickey 17 had a broader scope with its location and number of characters and was lighter in tone.

Mickey 17 did have some familiar elements to some of Bong’s previous films, mainly Snowpiercer and Okja. Snowpiercer and Mickey 17 both looked at the treatment of workers, and both had industrial-looking settings that were surrounded by an icy landscape. Mickey 17 shared the creature drama Okja as well as some of the humour. A chaotic scene where a couple of the Creepers infiltrated the colony felt like it could have fitted in Okja. Tilda Swinton was in both Snowpiercer and Okja and Toni Collette’s performance felt like it was influenced by the revered English actress.

Bong got to work with a big budget and a major studio. However, there was a drawback because the edges were sanded off. Bong’s films could go in dark and melancholic directions, and these were usually interwoven with his political themes. This was lacking in Mickey 17 as Bong had to be more Hollywood with storytelling. The original novel was written by an American and must have been influenced by American storytelling. Mickey 17 did feel like it was based on a novel because of the use of a voiceover and numerous subplots during the story. The film had to detour by showing why Multiples were outlawed and this backstory could be integrated into a novel, its placement in the film was jagging.

When watching Mickey 17 I thought it must have been filmed in England because of the large number of British actors. Many even kept their natural accents. It was refreshing to hear Naomi Ackie using her natural accent since her previous big film roles were as American characters in I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Blink Twice. There were a lot of big names, like Pattinson, Ruffalo, Collette, and Steven Yeun, but there were some notable supporting actors. Anamaria Vartolomei made her English language debut as a member of the security team and had empathy for Mickey. Another actor worthy of mention was Patsy Ferran, a member of the science team who had a conscience. Due to her youthful appearance, Ferran reminded me a little of Shirley Henderson.

Mickey 17 was Bong’s biggest film to date in terms of budget and star power. On its own merits, it was a perfectly good sci-fi film that explored some big themes and was darkly humorous, but compared to some of Bong’s other genre films, not as strong.