Mickey 17 (2025)

★★★★ This zany sci-fi satire from Bon Joon-ho may prove to be too wacky for some, but the visionary Korean filmmaker's ability to seamlessly blend genres from scene-to-scene remains unrivalled.

Watch Mar 29, 2025 0 11 Add to Reading List

Dir: Bong Joon-ho

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

This zany sci-fi satire from Bong Joon-ho may prove to be too wacky for some, but the visionary Korean filmmaker’s ability to seamlessly blend genres from scene-to-scene remains unrivalled

Back in 2020, Hollywood history was made when the Academy Awards announced their first ever non-English language winner of the Oscar for Best Picture. The satirical comedy-thriller “Parasite” had exploded onto the scene the previous summer, with visionary Korean director Bong Joon-ho receiving the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Despite the universal acclaim the film received, the film was initially considered to be too outlandish and ambitious for the Academy’s taste, particularly following the most recent Oscar’s at the time, where the critically acclaimed, arthouse drama “Roma” lost out to Peter Farrelly‘s problematic “Green Book”, a prime example of Oscar bait.

However the voting body of AMPAS proved us all wrong, and to this day I still cannot quite believe it. The image of Jane Fonda reading “Parasite” from the envelope is one, as a film lover, that will live with me forever, as it brought greater attention to the exceptional work done by filmmakers around the world.

Following this monumental success, movie lovers everywhere soon became heavily invested in Bon Joon-ho and his body of work, if they were not already. Having seen all of his previous works prior to the release of “Parasite” six years ago, I could not be more excited for the South Korean filmmaker, as he has proven time and time again to be one of the most exciting and innovative talents in the industry. Ever since the release of his debut feature “Barking Dogs Never Bite” back in 2000, Bong Joon-ho has become best known for his remarkable ability to seamlessly blend genres, with these sudden tonal shifts sometimes occurring within scenes. “Parasite” for example, starts of as a hilarious situational comedy, following the members of a poor family as they slowly infiltrate a rich family’s home by posing as various members of house staff, only for one scene to completely flip the film on its head, resulting in a final act showcasing tropes more akin to the thriller or horror genres. It is a difficult feat to pull of, and could only be achieved by the most precise filmmaker.

Genre-bending has become synonymous with Bong’s works, and once it was announced in 2022 that his next feature film “Mickey 17” would see him return to science-fiction, I personally could not wait to see which genres the Daegu native would implement this time around.

Production on “Mickey 17” began back in 2022, with Warner Bros. announcing the project with Bong on board to write, direct and produce. Adapted from Edward Ashton‘s novel “Mickey 7”, the film marks Bong’s third foray into the English language, following his two previous sci-fi releases, “Snowpiercer” (2013) and “Okja” (2017). I am unfamiliar with Ashton’s novel, the publication of which coincided with the movie’s announcement, but by all accounts it was liked by critics, with a sequel published the following year entitled “Antimatter Blues”. However, based on early box-office projections, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the sequel will also be adapted for the big screen, as “Mickey 17” has failed to hit the opening numbers expected by Warner Bros. and will most likely fail to recuperate its $120 million budget, plus marketing costs.

“Mickey 17” Trailer | Warner Bros.

While I believe the film adaptation of “Mickey 17” varies in tone from the novel, the narrative at its core has remained the same. Like the novel, “Mickey 17” follows Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), who in 2054 signs up to become an “Expendable” on a colonisation expedition to the distant planet of Niflheim. Using futuristic, human-printing technology that has been banned on Earth, the expedition treats Mickey as disposable, repeatedly exposing him to lethal assignments only to clone him if he dies. Four years into the Journey, the ship arrives at the snowy Niflheim, and Mickey’s seventeenth iteration is tasked to capture one of the planet’s native creatures, a caterpillar-like lifeform dubbed “Creepers”, for analysis.

Having fallen into a icy crevasse and left for “dead” by his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), Mickey 17 miraculously manages to make his way back to the ship, only to come face-to-face with the recently regenerated Mickey 18. As the expedition’s egomaniacal leader, and failed politician, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) has vowed to kill any “Multiples”, the two Mickey’s along with their girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie), decide to rotate duties, and deaths, to avoid suspicion. Meanwhile, Marshall and his condiment-obsessed wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), plan to destroy the “Creepers” with a nerve gas, with the latter also expressing the opportunity to use them to make a sauce for the masses to enjoy as they attempt to settle, and colonise their new planet.

Like all his previous works, Bong continues to blend a plethora of genres in “Mickey 17”, with the sci-fi adventure shifting wildly in tone from zany comedy, to political satire, existential drama, environmental allegory…I could go on. While I think the jumps from genre to genre to remain as seamless as ever, at times I feel Bong is trying to tackle too much with “Mickey 17”, with some plot lines and supporting characters getting lost in his most convoluted film to date. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed this a great deal, and while it is based on a novel, it is still refreshing to see world-building that has not been previously explored on the big screen, and Bong manages to bring great originality despite the central narrative coming from pre-existing source material.

I think those who love Bong’s work will still have a great time with this, and appreciate the filmmakers vision, however, those not familiar with the Korean filmmaker will most likely find his dark humour and sudden tonal shifts to be too bizarre. I think tonally, and thematically, “Mickey 17” can be compared to Bong’s previous English language film “Okja”, which was released on Netflix in 2017. Similar to “Okja”, “Mickey 17” explores, and satirises western politics, consumerism, environmentalism and even animal rights, and also matches the offbeat humour, and zany characters. The “super pigs” in “Okja”, which are purely manufactured to solve world hunger are comparable to the “Creepers” in “Mickey 17”, harmless, sentient creatures that the human race only perceive to be a food source, that displays little intelligence. I imagine when it came to writing the villainous Kenneth Marshall, Bong took inspiration from the similarly power-hunger CEO Lucy Miranda in “Okja”, who was horridly played by Tilda Swinton…in a good way. What I am curious about is the clear parallels between Mark Ruffalo’s character and the very problematic President incumbent, Donald Trump, is this something Ruffalo ran with himself, or did Bong write this as the character? Either way, it is one of the most jarring creative choices in “Mickey 17”.

I think all the topics that Bong explores in “Mickey 17” are justified given the near future narrative almost serves to be a wake up call. However, I think there is a lack of subtlety that detracts from some of the messaging Bong is trying to convey, particularly with Ruffalo’s villain. Not only are his Trump-like mannerisms clear from the start, his idiotic and single-minded political decisions are spelt out to us by the supporting cast, whether it be Toni Collette as his wife Ylfa, who seems to be the actual brains of the operation, or the fiery Nasha, who in a climactic scene outright corrects Marshall when he refers to “Creepers” as aliens, despite it being their home planet. This over-explaining maybe something lost in translation given Bong’s not-so-great English speaking abilities, and they remain excusable thanks to his creating vision, imaginative world building and technical craft.

Whether or not audiences struggle to accept Bong’s crazy vision of outer space, no one can take anything away from Robert Pattinson in this rather sensational dual leading role. When preparing for the role, Pattinson likened the characters of Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 to Ren & Stimpy, with the more confident and violent Mickey 18 (Ren), asserting dominance over the more insecure and dim Mickey 17 (Stimpy). It is a bold creative choice by Pattinson, but it pays off handsomely, as this constant back and forth between the two Mickey’s is where the film is at its best, and the subtle differences between the two characters enable us to keep tabs on them both at all times. Given the size of the task at hand, this may be some of Pattinson’s best work, having to portray so many emotions and levels of pain, whilst exploring so many themes cannot be easy, all the while nailing comedic and dramatic line delivery-hats off to the “Twilight” star.

While it may fail to meet the extremely high standards previously set by one of the greatest living filmmakers, “Mickey 17” still highlights Bong Joon-ho’s unrivalled ability as a genre-bending filmmaker. Despite being set in the not so distant future, only thirty years by the way, “Mickey 17” touches on social and political issues that plague us as a society today, and hopefully the not so subtle storytelling raises public awareness as to how our future could shape up if certain things do not change.

Mickey 17 is currently showing in UK Cinemas