Mickey 17
In Bong Joon-ho’s whacky sci-fi parable, Robert Pattinson is dying to stay alive.
Two for the price of one: Robert Pattinson and Robert Pattinson
Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Bong Joon-ho does like to shuffle genres. South Korea’s preeminent filmmaker, Bong brought us the first foreign-language feature to snare a best picture Oscar. One might have described Parasite (2019) as a black comedy-cum-psychological thriller-cum-arthouse tragedy. Mickey 17, which Bong adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, could best be defined as a black comedy with a strong dose of sci-fi heartily mixed with satire and a dollop of dystopian allegory. If you can imagine Charlie Kaufman adapting Frank Herbert’s Dune for the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, you’d be in the right ballpark – but then nowhere close. At times there’s a whiff of Terry Gilliam, a smidgen of David Cronenberg and maybe a soupçon of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. All of which attests to the film’s arch originality, its smack-in-the-eye for mainstream cinema and, like much of Bong’s work, impossible to pigeonhole.
A whiny Robert Pattinson provides the voiceover (think Kieran Culkin taking over from Malcolm McDowell on the soundtrack of A Clockwork Orange), to explain to us where things stand. The opening shot sees Mickey’s face encrusted with ice and we know not where we are. A caption then explains that we are on the planet Nilfheim in the future (2054) and that Mickey – Mickey Barnes – is probably about to die. Peering down at our protagonist in his icy tomb, a cheery, nonchalant Steven Yeun hollers, “Nice knowing you. Have a nice death. See you tomorrow.”
You see, Mickey is used to dying. That’s what he’s born for. He’s what’s known as an “expendable,” a multi-cloned version of the original Mickey who has volunteered to be re-printed every time the last copy meets its untimely end. The technology is “ridiculously ahead of its time” and so we witness various editions of our hero meeting a variety of grisly ends, before we catch up with Mickey #17. “What’s it like to die?” people keep asking the carbon copy. The truth is that it’s not much fun. But still, all Mickey’s old memories are re-imprinted, his physique re-cast and he’s ready to go – used for dangerous missions once the preserve of robots. When Steven Yeun’s Timo, once a friend of the original Mickey, duly reports his demise, Mickey #17 is rescued by the native lifeforms of the planet which help push him back to the surface. On his return to the station, and the arms of his mistress Nasha (an engaging Naomi Ackie), Mickey 17 is more than a little shocked to encounter his doppelganger – Mickey #18…
Robert Pattinson, who we last saw in outer space in Claire Denis’s entirely more serious High Life (2018), has seldom been more annoying, but nowhere near as irksome as Mark Ruffalo’s idiotic, bombastic, dentally-enhanced Kenneth Marshall, who appears to be in charge of the mission to mine the planet Nilfheim. Doubtless modelled on the current US president, Marshall is presented as a Fascist figure (complete with black uniform) who is largely controlled by his wife (Toni Collette). This is heavy-handed satire, and more than a tad retrograde (Shakespeare got there first), while Marshall flaunts his egomania like a particularly cheap aftershave, believing himself to be a cut above his technically accomplished crew and the superior lifeforms – which he calls “creepers” – that inhabit the planet he has invaded. The latter, which vaguely resemble the aliens in Arrival and the sandworms in Dune, steal the show. While playing with old ideas, Bong does provide a visually diverting palette, and no doubt Mickey 17 will accumulate its advocates over time. But Bong, with three Oscars on his mantlepiece, must learn to control his actors better. Ruffalo, having run amok in Poor Things, has now taken farce to ludicrous lengths in the name of Horatian satire. Or something like that.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Patsy Ferran, Cameron Britton, Daniel Henshall, Steve Park, Anamaria Vartolomei, Holliday Grainger, Angus Imrie, Thomas Turgoose, Ellen Robertson, Bronwyn James, Haydn Gwynne (to whom the film is dedicated).
Dir Bong Joon-ho, Pro Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bong Joon-ho and Dooho Choi, Ex Pro Brad Pitt, Screenplay Bong Joon-ho, from the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, Ph Darius Khondji, Pro Des Fiona Crombie, Ed Yang Jin-mo, Music Jung Jae-il, Costumes Catherine George, Sound Eilam Hoffman, Dialect coach Roisin Carty.
Plan B Entertainment/Offscreen/Kate Street Picture Company-Warner Bros.
136 mins. USA/South Korea. 2025. UK and US Rel: 7 March 2025. Cert. 15.
