Written by Susan Dijker
When failed politician and billionaire Kenneth Marshall facilitates a colonization mission to outer space everybody wants to escape earth, even if that means having the worst job imaginable.
Source: Mickey 17 (Joon Ho, 2025).
Bong Joon Ho’s newest film Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey, not once but twice! In this sci-fi comedy Mickey Barnes applies to be an expendable on a space operation in a desperate attempt to flee a bounty hunter. To say that this job isn’t the most pleasant one on the mission is an understatement. As an expendable Mickey is constantly being killed in the name of science. Each time he dies a new version of him is simply printed out. The movie follows, as the title suggests, the seventeenth iteration of Mickey, who gets buried in an alien-infested ice cave. When the scientists assume this to be lethal they print out Mickey 18. The aliens, however, save 17, meaning that there are now two versions of Mickey out there…
The film is deeply political, touching upon themes like fascism, colonisation and ethics under capitalism. This is done very well by using humor, specifically utilising satire as a mirror for the audience to reflect on reality. Mark Ruffalo’s character Kenneth Marshall is a power-hungry fascist, who only cares about his own success. In the current political climate, Trump and Musk instantly come to mind. It is truly astounding at times how closely the story imitates current real life events. There is even a scene where in an assassination attempt Marshall’s face is grazed by a bullet. This moment immediately reminded me of the July 13th attempt on Trump's life. Filming for Mickey 17, however, already wrapped earlier that year in January. I think this goes to show, in a very impressive way, that the present is merely a repetition of history. Ruffalo’s character isn’t solely reminiscent of current oligarchs, but is really a reflection of fascist leaders all throughout history. His mannerisms and speech specifically reminded me of Trump, but at multiple moments I was also reminded of nazi Germany (which is not too different from current day USA, to be fair). Joon Ho has managed to create a topical yet timeless portrayal of dictatorship and fascism. At times the comical performance came very close to feeling like a parody, but for me it always stayed on the right side of that line.
Source: Mickey 17 (Joon Ho, 2025).
The film specifically brings up colonization as a theme. Obviously, the main plot entails colonizing outer space, but one of the sub-plots also is about the indigenous inhabitants of the colonized planet; Highly intelligent (and honestly really cute) creatures called Creepers. Marshall sees them as a threat and wants them eradicated. A quote that I found really memorable and beautiful is something that Naomi Ackie’s character Nasha said: “You keep calling them aliens. We’re the aliens!” The film dissects the concept of what an alien is to us, in order to emphasize how ridiculously entitled humans can be.
Mickey is essentially treated as a disposable product. Marshall and the scientists clearly do not care about his well being, but only about their own gain from his labor. I think this poses a very interesting view on capitalism and ethics of experimenting with life. The plot seems so utterly ridiculous that it becomes funny, but if we think about it a little more, this is exactly what happens in the real world, where the elite view the working class as mere pawns in their game. Once again, the film uses satire here to make political themes feel less heavy. The film clearly does not want to be taken too seriously, so it feels okay to laugh at this ridiculousness. But for me, after laughing I was also immediately reminded of its likeness to the real world, making me reflect on the message.
I was quite surprised to find out that there is also a romance plot-line in this film, but I really liked it. I think the relationship between Mickey and Nasha is super cute and drives the story forward in a natural way. It’s the basis of many jokes and gives Mickey a motivation to keep going.
As might have become clear by now, the film has a lot of different plot-lines; multiple Mickeys, romance, aliens, bounty hunters. Though this works with the overall ridiculousness of the film, the story could have benefited from being a bit more focussed. Some of these plots could have raised some interesting points had they gotten more time, instead of being reduced to small parts of the whole, feeling random at times.
Source: Mickey 17 (Joon Ho, 2025).
I might be biased since Robert Pattinson is one of my favorite celebrities, but I think he did such an amazing acting job in this film. He plays multiple versions of Mickey and does so in a way that makes them clearly distinct. Especially 17 and 18 are completely different characters. On top of that he is often his own scene partner, so it’s really impressive how natural these scenes still feel. Because of his distinct voice work for each of the iterations (something Pattinson is known for), as well as differences in body language and personality, it didn’t feel like both Mickeys are played by the same person. I do wish we could have seen even more of Robert in this film. The main focus is on narrative instead of character, so even though there are multiple Mickeys the acting is not the priority. I can understand why this choice was made, but nonetheless would have loved to see even more of Pattinsons amazing work.
Overall I really loved Mickey 17. It raises some interesting and important topics, while still remaining incredibly funny. And even though the film sometimes tries to be a bit too much at once, it never loses its charm.
Add comment
Comments