MICKEY 17, US, 2025. Starring Robert Pattinson, Stephen Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie. Directed by Bong Joon Ho. 137 minutes. Rated M (Science fiction themes, injury detail, violence, sex, coarse language and drug references)
There were high expectations for Mickey 17. Korean director, Bong Joon Ho, has had a prominent career since the 1990s with a range of genre films including the Host, Mother, Snowpiercer and his Oscars, including best film, for Parasite. Here he is taken on an American story, and has treated it both seriously and satirically.
It is 2054, much of a muchness like the present in some ways. Mickey (Pattinson) and his friend Timo (Yuen) raise money from a loan shark to start a business, which consequently fails and leaves them at the mercy of the violent aggression of the loan shark. But, in this future, there is space exploration and the setting up of planets. There is also a great deal of scientific experimentation – including processes to create multiples of human beings, living, dying, and then being printed out again, identified with successive numbers. The morality of this process is being questioned.
Enter one of those evangelical church leaders, Kenneth Marshall, played with satiric zest and prominent teeth by Ruffalo – aided and abetted by his smiling but domineering wife Ylfa (Collette). Marshall disapproves of the process but agrees that in some ways it could be useful, and that the government should set up an expedition on a new planet, four-and-a-half years travel away, and set up a process for multiples, but only one at a time. And, with the succession of multiples, they are also described as ‘expendables’.
We are introduced to Mickey 17, Pattinson enjoying his role. On the new planet, out scouting, he falls down a hole, is menaced by some strange creatures who in fact rescue him. Which gives him the opportunity to resume his original life as Mickey Barnes, and the visual succession of all the numbers between one and 17. But, when he is presumed lost, Mickey 18 is printed out, Pattinson again, quite a different personality, tough, determined, rebellious . . .
There is a range of characters on the planet. The scientists generally kowtowing to Marshall, young Dorothy (Patsy Ferran) being an exception and stepping in to help Mickey 17. Marshall has his sycophantic assistant, a yes-man, pandering to all Marshal’s whims, especially in organised religious television programs for the subservient staff on the planet. His wife is always there, but is experimenting with making sauces! In the meantime, there is an officer, Nasha (Acker) who is in a relationship with Mickey 17.
We can all this go? There is a solution but, as with most of the film, not always predictable, always some surprises, some satire, some parody – especially with Kenneth Marshall and his final vanity in confronting the aliens.
The novel on which it is based, Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, was published in 2022 and the film began production during the Biden era. But, released in the early days of the Trump era, many audiences will be making links! One reviewer noted that Bong Joon Ho was taking the Mickey out of the US. Yes!
Warner Bros
Released 6 March
Robert Pattinson as Mickey 17 in Mickey 17. Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures.
© 2025 Warner Bros Entertainment. All rights reserved.