“MICKEY 17” (2025, 137 min., directed by Bong Joon-ho)
Bong Joon-Ho is back with his first film since the Best Picture-winning “Parasite.” His latest is called “Mickey 17,” adapted from the 2022 science-fiction novel “Mickey7” by Edward Ashton.
“Mickey 17” stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, the hero of the piece. Mickey is a member of an interplanetary colonial effort which has recently made landfall on Niflheim, an icy Hoth-like world solely inhabited by half-mammoth, half-roly-poly creatures called “creepers.”
Not every member of the space colony has a number by their name. That distinction is reserved solely for the colony clone, or Expendable, an individual assigned to dangerous missions with the assurance they’ll be printed out anew if they don’t make it back alive.
If the number after Mickey’s name is any indication, the missions are more often lethal than not.
The film’s plot kicks into high gear after Mickey 17 is left for dead during a mission by his best friend, Timo, played by a roguish Steven Yeun. When the creepers unexpectedly deliver Mickey back to the colony’s home base, he is greeted by a familiar face: Mickey 18.
Clone copies, or “multiples,” are not allowed in the world of “Mickey 17,” leading to 17 and 18 forming a shaky alliance with the help of Mickey’s love interest, Nasha, a sparkling Naomi Ackie. Nasha and the Mickeys are pitted against two obstacles: keeping Mickey’s multiplicity a secret and the Trumpian colony leader, Mark Ruffalo’s Kenneth Marshall, obsessed with eradicating the creepers from Niflheim.
“Mickey 17” is the perfect vessel for Bong’s signature blend of black comedy, social commentary and creature-filled sci-fi. In fact, the film could even be accused as a multiple of some of Bong’s previous films: the snowy satire of “Snowpiercer” and the animal rights activism of “Okja” are both duplicated in “Mickey 17.”
To that effect, if “Okja” or “Snowpiercer” didn’t work for you, neither will “Mickey 17.” Bong doubles down on the oddball satirical tone and grotesque comic timing from those films. “Mickey 17” is also a huge departure from “Parasite,” likely leaving audiences embarking from that film in search of a familiar world lost in space.
However, for those of you out there who find Pattinson doing weird accents or Toni Collette commenting on animal cruelty and class inequity through an obsession with “sauces” – essentially and horrifyingly, animal purée – your idea of a good time, “Mickey 17” is the film for you.
It’s important to note that even if “Mickey 17” doesn’t feel like new ground for Bong, it’s not the same old thing, either. Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 are ostensibly copies of the same person. However, the film – supported by a fabulous, versatile, empathetic and bonkers Pattinson performance – takes great pains to paint 17 and 18 as distinct personalities. They may come from the same place, but they’ve got vastly different ways of going about things. “Mickey 17” does too.
The movie is rock-solid sci-fi satire. Bong throws a lot against the wall in “Mickey 17,” including various Mickey entrails and body parts, but most of it sticks. “Mickey 17” is a sauce I recommend trying.
Rating: 4/5