Mickey 17 (dir. Bong Joon-ho)

by Jack Martin | Mar 6, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 137 mins

UK Distributor: Warner Bros

UK Release Date: 7 March 2025

WHO’S IN MICKEY 17?

Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Holliday Grainger, Anamaria Vartolomei, Thomas Turgoose, Angus Imrie, Patsy Ferran, Daniel Henshall, Steve Park, Tim Key

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Bong Joon-ho (director, writer, producer), Dooho Choi, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner (producers), Jung Jae-il (composer), Darius Khondji (cinematographer), Jinmo Yang (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A spaceship crew member (Pattinson) is repeatedly cloned for dangerous missions…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON MICKEY 17?

When Parasite shocked and delighted the world by becoming the first non-English film to win the Best Picture Oscar, all eyes were immediately on what filmmaker Bong Joon-ho would do next. More so, in fact, because prior to his Oscar-winning modern classic, the South Korean auteur was known for making some truly weird stuff, such as heavily allegorical monster movies like The Host and Okja, quirky detective dramas like Memories of Murder, or the train-set apocalyptic action-thriller Snowpiercer. And with the full approval of the most influential film awards voting body in the world, Director Bong essentially had the most carte blanche of all carte blanches to make whatever weird thing he wanted.

His ultimate decision to adapt Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey7 – here retitled Mickey 17, because with a filmmaker like Bong Joon-ho, you’re getting +10 extra energy – is, in typical Bong fashion, an unusual one. Both an ambitious exploration of dehumanisation in an increasingly authoritarian world, and a tongue-in-cheek political satire with a lack of subtlety to make The Substance look like pure subtext, the film is certainly the product of someone given free rein to do what they please, and often that’s a glorious thing to witness. At times, though, you wonder if a bit of restraint would have done it a favour, as it is somewhat uneven in its overall execution.

In the film, Robert Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, a skill-less loser in the near-future who, in an attempt to avoid the wrath of a sadistic loan shark, applies for a job off-world as part of a crew destined for a remote ice planet named Nilfheim. He signs up to be an “expendable”, a lowly job that sees him being cloned over and over via a “human printer” whenever he dies during any dangerous mission, which as it turns out appears to happen fairly often, and quite gruesomely in some instances. Slightly less tolerable, though, is having to endure the increasingly cult-like grasp of the mission’s leader, failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), and his controlling wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), though his passionate relationship with security officer Nasha (Naomi Ackie) eases the pain somewhat. But whilst on his 17th life, Mickey ends up surviving a seemingly unescapable situation, and upon making it back to the ship, he finds that the 18th Mickey has not only already been printed out – creating an illegal “multiples” situation – but has a keen desire to assassinate Marshall and put an end to his regime.

Fortunately, Director Bong’s vision doesn’t appear to have been lost within the studio system (one imagines he got on better with the Warner Bros lot than he did with a certain disgraced producer on Snowpiercer). Mickey 17 is undoubtedly his film, with everything from the careful pacing to the satirical overbite, right down to a gentle musical score by regular composer Jung Jae-il, all present and correct, with the enlarged budget allowing him a bit more room to develop some visual concepts like the alien inhabitants of this planet, which are essentially cutesy versions of the Sarlacc creature from Return of the Jedi. In addition to being well-shot, memorably acted, and all-around impeccably crafted, it is impressive how the filmmaker has been able to tell the story he wants to tell on his own terms, in a way that aligns with the work that had previously brought him such high international acclaim, and for someone as highly revered as Bong Joon-ho, it’s encouraging to see his work reach even larger audiences than they normally would.

That said, Mickey 17 isn’t one of his better films. It’s certainly ambitious in its ideas, not to mention some of its themes surrounding such things as colonialism, dehumanisation, and cult-like worship of the wrong sorts of people, especially out-of-touch politicians who happen to have the gift of the gab, as well as blindly loyal red-cap wearing supporters (ahem). But Bong’s script struggles to hold it all together in a narrative that tends to get a bit lost within itself, to where you almost need a moment to pause and recount what exactly is going on, something that the pacing doesn’t allow that much of, despite an over two-hour runtime. It also tends to revisit certain concepts and styles from previous Bong Joon-ho movies, notably Okja (the villains’ cruel intentions with the planet’s creatures mirror the desires for that film’s super-pig) and Snowpiercer (specifically the contrasting production design between the lowly crewmen’s quarters and the luxurious cabin that more wealthy inhabitants reside in), but they were arguably put to better use in those movies than they are here, or at least in more interesting ways.

By the time it wraps up, you won’t feel all that much for the characters and their dramatic stakes, since the filmmaker is more interested in the narrative – something given away by the constant narration delivered by Robert Pattinson’s Steve Buscemi-channelling voice – than he is with developing any genuine emotional connection. In some ways, that’s perfectly fine, since Director Bong has more than earned the right to be somewhat indulgent, not to mention the fact that it is an intriguing concept that’s got a decent enough sense of humour and some fun performances from the likes of Pattinson and an over-the-top Mark Ruffalo.

But in the end, that really does appear to be what’s driving Mickey 17, because unlike the film that undoubtedly earned him the creative freedom to make this movie in the first place, it rings a little hollow in the emotional department.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Mickey 17 is an admirably ambitious sci-fi caper from filmmaker Bong Joon-ho whose creative freedom within the studio system is refreshing, but the film’s narrative instability and lack of emotional connection leaves it a little hollow, and nowhere near as good as what came before from Director Bong.