“Hey Mickey, I’m sure you’re used to it by now, but what’s it feel like to die?”
After Bong Joon-ho’s victory at the 92nd Academy Awards, where his 2019 film “Parasite” became the first non-silent movie not in the English language to win the Oscar for Best Picture, he was given a blank check by Warner Bros. to greenlight whatever he wanted. Bong settled on an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s 2022 sci-fi novel “Mickey7,” but wanted to up the ante just a little. Now, with a $118 million budget, we may just have the most inventive and original blockbuster of the year.
The plot follows a low-level space colonist from the near future of 2054 named Mickey Barnes (played by Robert Pattinson, star of 2022’s “The Batman” and the “Twilight” series) who signs up to work as an “expendable” to get off world as quickly as possible. What this entails is that every time his body dies, a version of himself is 3D printed out of a machine and has his memories re-implanted in him. As is abundantly clear from the title, this is the 17th version of Mickey.
When exploring the planet Niflheim with his friend Timo (played by Steven Yeun, star of the 2020 Best Picture nominee “Minari”), Mickey gets trapped in a chasm and is expected to freeze to death. Timo abandons him, and has another body printed out: Mickey 18 (also played by Robert Pattinson). Mickey 17 survives, and he is forced to fight Mickey 18 for the right to live as “Mickey.”
This is because in their world, human cloning is seen as wildly controversial and an affront to nature. The worst part is the potential for “multiples“ to exist, a person with more than one body currently alive. Mickey 17 has to deal with his multiple soon, or risk being found out and sentenced to a permanent end.
The rest of the ensemble cast also give great performances. Naomi Ackie plays Nasha Barridge, the girlfriend of Mickey 17 (and 18…), Anamaria Vartolomei plays Kai Katz who acts as another potential love interest to Mickey 17, Mark Ruffalo plays the failed politician Kenneth Marshall, who serves as the leader of the settlers with his sauce obsessed wife Ylfa (played by Toni Collette, star of 2018’s “Hereditary”).
Much like Bong’s other films, there is a lot of political satire and parody. Marshall is set up to be an analogue of multiple fascist leaders, such as his relationship with Ylfa paralleling Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu’s reign of terror over Romania, and the red hats with white lettering worn by Marshall’s supporters bearing a striking resemblance to a certain media-obsessed American politician. The consistent inability of the security forces to properly do their jobs also reminds me of Bong’s brutal takedown of the South Korean government’s inability to catch a serial killer in 2003’s “Memories of Murder,” which I believe to be one of the greatest films of all time.
Pattinson’s multiple performances are also surprisingly distinct from each other. His accent was jarring at first, but eventually helped immerse me into the world of the film. Despite looking identical for most of the movie, Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 have such differing personalities, to much hilarious effect.
Another of Bong’s past films that I was reminded of when watching “Mickey 17” was his 2006 Kaiju monster movie “The Host.” It also critiques politics, showing the deadly effects of the American military’s order to dump 24 gallons of formaldehyde into the Han River. The design of the Creepers in “Mickey 17” bear a resemblance to the central monster from “The Host,” as they were both designed by the same crew.
The film is tonally out there, like his other two English films (2013’s “Snowpiercer” and 2017’s “Okja”). Although the film does not fully work, such as in the third act, it is at least unique enough to still be enjoyable and Bong’s biting wit still shines through. How else would we get a character that dresses up like a pigeon for the entire movie with no explanation?
In the end, while this film may not be quite as good as “Parasite,” it would be almost impossible to create something better than one of the best films of the last ten years. My final rating for “Mickey 17” is an ambitious and enjoyable 8/10.