'Mickey 17' REVIEW: A dark, funny, and unexpectedly vulnerable sci-fi satire for the ages
'Mickey 17' REVIEW: A dark, funny, and unexpectedly vulnerable sci-fi satire for the ages
Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes / Gateway Film Center
This review contains spoilers for Mickey 17
“Hey, Mickey — What’s it like to die?” is the repeated question that plagues the protagonist of Bong Joon-ho’s newest film, Mickey 17. This marks Bong Joon Ho’s first film following the director’s Best Picture win with Parasite at the 2020 Academy Awards. Many people, including myself, have been eager to see what Bong Joon’s blank check movie will be, and it’s finally here: an interesting yet perfect left-turn following a Cinderella awards run.
Mickey Barnes is a down on his luck guy who gets indebted to a vicious loan shark alongside his irresponsible best friend, Timo. To escape the clutches of their debt, the two decide to join a space expedition funded by failed politician, Kenneth Marshall and his wife, Yifa. There’s only one problem: Everyone else is also trying to get off of Earth, for one reason or another- debt, lack of a job or to blindly follow Kenneth Marshall’s lead. With no other option, Mickey signs up to be an Expendable. An “Expendable” is a human that the colony will use to handle dangerous situations but also to test out what a human body can tolerate. A human guinea pig, if you will.
Having seen the trailers, I was pleasantly surprised that we got how Mickey ends up being in his situation. I thought we would start out already in space, and the film would continue on without giving us a reason and asking us to accept this strange reality. Instead, the story is told non-chronologically, in a way that gives us insights into Mickey’s experiences with his deaths. The way that so many people are desperate to get off Earth in some ways actually reminded me of Nolan’s Interstellar, which eventually sees humans leave an uninhabitable Earth after The Blight. It’s even sadder when I think of how this situation no longer feels that far-fetched due to the empty-headed billionaire, Elon Musk, constantly garnering federal funding for space exploration instead of allocating them towards relief and conservation efforts.
Part of being an Expendable is that after Mickey dies, his body gets reprinted exactly as he is, but made out of the waste of the spaceship: bodily fluids, trash, apple peels, and more. His body is basically an intergalactic compost product. Mickey’s memories get backed up into a brick, literally, and reuploaded once his body is finished printing. Live, die, print, repeat.
The name of Mickey’s position is not a coincidence. One of the biggest things Mickey 17 wants the audience to think about is the people we, as a society, see as “expendable”, whether at work, on social media, or in wars. In this day and age, I feel like we are sadly being conditioned to not see these people as real people. Why should we care if our co-worker gets unfairly fired so long as we get to keep our job? Bong Joon-ho puts this right in front of our face with a man made up of our scraps, whose only job is to die. And he asks us to care enough to go on this journey with Mickey.
Robert Pattinson’s performance in this is pure magic. His Mickey is funny, vulnerable, sad, but also feral and angry, depending on the Mickey on screen. There’s a certain Buster Keaton-esque quality to his physical performance too. His weird voice, and the way he scrunches up his face and clumsily moves his body makes Mickey feel like a sopping wet loser. As we get to know him, we see that Mickey is clearly someone who carries a lot of guilt and blame for his past actions. He thinks his Sisyphean punishment is brought on by the way he treated a lab frog in high school or for him pushing a big red button.
One thing I also appreciate about what Bong Joon-ho and Robert Pattinson add to Mickey’s character is the way he still retains his fear of death. It’s such an interesting and very human detail to add to his character. It makes you feel sad as you watch him die over and over again, even if you know the premise going in. Even in faraway space, this human is afraid of what comes next. Just like all of us.
It’s not all bad on the spaceship headed to the planet Niflheim. Sure the food is terrible and incredibly rationed out, and sex is discouraged because it burns too many calories. But during one meal time while everyone is clambering for Ruffalo’s smarmy, fake-tanned politician’s attention — Mickey meets Nasha, played by Naomi Ackie. She’s an all-one-elite agent and Mickey’s first in space friend. The two quickly become enamored with each other, which then turns into a loving and supportive relationship.
Some of my favorite bits are the scenes where we just simply see Mickey helping Nasha get dressed. It’s a small, tender moment of genuine love and affection set against a bonker premise that helps solidify their relationship. Naomi Ackie is also incredibly charming in therole. She is someone who is incredibly capable, incredibly caring and has a wicked sense of humour.
Naomi Ackie as Nasha and Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes / Warner Bros. Pictures
The supporting cast in this film really shines. Timo, played by Steven Yeun, is Mickey's deadbeat best friend who is more trouble than he’s worth. Anamaria Vartolomei and Patsy Ferran as Kai and Dorothy also get to have great, but brief moments with Mickey, as both an unexpected ally and an empathetic scientist. But, of course, the standouts in the supporting cast are Mark Ruffalo and Toni Colette who bring their A-game when it comes to their comedic performances. I won’t beat around the bush. Mark Ruffalo’s character, Kenneth Marshall is very much a combination of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
He is a fake-tanned, veneer wearing politician who uses religion to cover up his fascism and draw his followers into believing his every word, no matter how dumb they are. The very reason for the expedition to Niflheim is to start a “pure, perfect, elite” colony on an all-white, snowy planet (ugh). Toni Colette’s Ylfa, who is a kind of parody of Melania, is a woman, who at first glance seems to be too busy concocting new sauces but in reality, is actually whispering in her husband’s ear and influencing the decisions he makes for the colony.. The movie doesn’t try to hide this comparison, and for some people this might be a bit too in your face. But in a time when facism and conservatism have quietly crept back into the mainstream, I think Bong Joon Ho is right to call it out loudly. These two characters are clearly the cartoon villains of the story, however their actions are not even that far from the real politicians we currently have in power. And that’s terrifying.
If you’ve seen the trailer, you know why I mentioned “depending on which Mickey”. Mickey 17 is left to slowly freeze to death in a cavern under the ice, he instead encounters an alien creature- big, grey and with many tentacles. This creature is later dubbed a “Creeper”. Mickey expects to be eaten alive by this creature and their babies and even despairs of when he isn’t, wondering if his body has gone bad after all the printing. Instead, the Creepers escort Mickey back to the surface and retreat back into their cavern home. Mickey stumbles back to the base to everyone’s surprise as they thought he had died. He collapses in his bed tiredly, and… boom. Another body in his bed.
Enter Mickey 18, who was printed 2 hours before Mickey found his way back to base. Mickey 18 is very different from Mickey 17. He’s angrier at the way he has to live, a lot more aggressive and frustrated with his other self for letting himself be pushed around by other people. It’s a delight to see Robert Pattinson play these dual roles. Mickey 17 has been so meek and passive that it’s fun to see the wild look in Mickey 18’s eyes as he holds 17’s head over the incinerator. Mickey has another problem now, though. Multiples are not allowed on the ship due to a murder case that happened on Earth, and in the event of Multiples, both of them must be killed. From there, it becomes a journey for Mickey to reckon with his other self. He starts off as completely not understanding him and trying to hide him, to both of them becoming reluctant allies.
One of the things that has fascinated me recently is how a lot of mainstream sci fi has really eaned on exploring the sense of self. From 2024’s The Substance, to the returning Apple TV+ show, Severance to Mickey 17 — it seems that we’re all going through a bit of an identity crisis about reconciling the different parts of how we view ourselves with our true selves. And in a world that breaks everything down to consumable bullet points and aesthetics, I can understand why.
Robert Pattinson as Mickey 18 and Robert Pattinson as Mickey 17 / Variety
Something else this film tackles is colonization — albeit, of a made up planet. Humanity is searching for a new home on Niflheim, which is a planet already occupied by creatures that are nicknamed Creepers. In typical fashion, Marshall wants to destroy these creatures so that humans can live ‘peacefully’, without even attempting any investigation or negotiation. He even kills a baby Creeper — an action that comes with consequences for the ship full of humans. It’s hard to ignore the comparisons with the way the West has come into different countries and pillaged and stolen from them while declaring themselves the rightful heirs to their land.
Nasha even calls it out in a confrontation with Marshall, “Don’t you get it? We’re the aliens, not them!” The Creepers turn out to be a peaceful group, which makes Marshall’s barbarity all the more horrifying. I actually really like their design, they’re both hulking in size but also have a gentle nature that makes you upset when they get hurt. (Warner Bros, if you’re reading this, who do I have to write to to get a Creeper plushie?) In contrast to the humans on the ship, the Creepers value all the members of their group, with the biggest Creeper, Mama, proposing an exchange. One human dies in exchange for the death of the Creeper baby. They have a sense of community, while the scared humans in the ship do not- too deep in their assigned roles and too scared to make the first step to change that.
While this film is not perfect, It’s something I deeply enjoyed and felt moved by. The script is kind of a mess in the second half, and some people might not like how in your face it is compared to Parasite. It tackles the way we think about people who we deem less than us, and how we treat them in society, and asks us to question who it is who gets to decide that for us.
I found this film to be a perfect representation of Bong Joon-ho’s take on science fiction. It’s a darkly comedic, exaggerated view of our world, with giant alien creatures, and multiples. It’s horrific, yet hopeful and that asks us what we can do better, not just for ourselves, but for the people and world around us.
Mickey 17 is now showing in Philippine cinemas nationwide
