“Mickey 17” Theatrical Poster
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Holliday Grainger, Anamaria Vartolomei, Thomas Turgoose, Cameron Britton
Running Time: 137 min.
By Paul Bramhall
When it comes to any artist following up whatever it was that gave them their breakthrough – be it a song, a movie, or any other form of creativity – it’s always a challenge. That challenge is exasperated when we’re talking about an international breakthrough for a work made in a foreign language. Koreas had a few examples over the years – K-pop star Psy followed up his massively popular 2012 hit Gangnam Style with the already forgotten Gentleman in 2013. In 2024 director and writer Hwang Dong-hyuk followed up his surprise 2021 Netflix hit Squid Game with, well, Squid Game 2, of which the jury may still be out. Then we have director Bong Joon-ho, whose 2019 movie Parasite not only became a box office hit, but also became the first non-English language production to win Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards (along with 3 more, including Best Director!).
In the case of everyone mentioned their international breakthrough was far from being their first work, with Joon-ho already an established name amongst cinephiles thanks to masterpieces like Memories of Murder and The Host. Perhaps the most ironic thing about a Korean language production being the one that made Bong Joon-ho a recognizable name in Hollywood, was that before Parasite’s success he had in fact directed English language productions before. 2013’s Snowpiercer starred Chris Evans and adapted the French comic written by Jacques Lob, while 2017’s Okja featured the likes of Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal in prominent roles. What does all of this prove? Perhaps nothing more than it’s impossible to predict what’s going to strike a chord with audiences, and once you do, the attempts to figure it out so that it can happen again rarely reap similar results.
For Joon-ho, to follow up Parasite he’s taken a leaf out of the inspiration playbook for Snowpiercer, and once more decided to adapt a piece of literature. This time it’s Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey 7 from 2022, and if you’re already wondering how faithful his adaptation is going to be to the book, then the fact it’s called Mickey 17 gives some indication. For full disclosure I haven’t read the source material, so this won’t be the review for page to screen comparisons. What is interesting is how Joon-ho seems to gravitate towards the sci-fi genre whenever he chooses to dabble in the world of English language productions, be it genetically enhanced pigs to trains endlessly travelling through a dystopian future, and his latest isn’t going to be the one to buck the trend.
Robert Pattinson (Tenet) is the titular Mickey 17, who at some point in the future has joined a ship of human colonists who’ve left the decaying Earth behind, choosing to take the 4-year journey to the icy landscapes of the planet Niflheim. The reason for his departure is driven by the fact he’s heavily in debt (the result of a failed macaron shop, echoing the failed castella shop the family in Parasite had experienced) to a loan shark that enjoys torturing those who can’t pay up, so a planet millions of miles from Earth seems like as good a place to hide out as any. Lacking any qualifications or skills, Pattinson signs up to be an ‘Expandable’, not bothering to read the details and therefore also failing to realise why no one else has applied to be one – his job is to basically be a human guinea pig for the new planet, and each time he dies his body is reprinted (literally), with his memories transferred into the new body.
The Mickey 17 of the title is a reference to the number of times he’s already died and been reprinted, with an 18th seeming like an inevitability when we first meet him in the opening scene. Sprawled at the bottom of an ice crevice, the result of the ground giving way while out on one of the exploratory missions that make up part of his job, it’s only when he’s rescued (at least that’s what they appear to do) by the isopod like lifeforms inhabiting the underground cave that he’s able to make it back to base. Unfortunately the powers that be also thought it was inevitable, so when he arrives back to his room to find a Mickey 18 in his bed, things get complicated.
Social commentary has always played a significant role in Joon-ho’s productions, subtly weaved into the stories he chooses to tell as metaphors, from the monster representing the ‘Miracle on the Han River’ in The Host to the semi-basement social hierarchy of Parasite. His ability to imbue that commentary with moments of unexpected humor, usually placed at moments when you’d least expect to laugh, feels like one of Joon-ho’s most distinctive traits, however it’s a trait which is approached in a very different manner when it comes to his English language productions. In the likes of Okja and Snowpiercer the humor feels much more at the fore, usually projected through characters who are portrayed as pantomime like caricatures, be it Jake Gyllenhaal’s gratingly obnoxious celebrity vet or Tilda Swinton’s buck toothed Margaret Thatcher inspired minister.
Here the scenery chewing duties go to Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers), blatantly riffing on Donald Trump as a failed politician turned cult like leader of the colony, it feels like all is missing is a Make Humanity Great Again cap. Clearly having a great time in the role and paired with Toni Collette (xXx: Return of Xander Cage) as his sauce obsessed wife, together their portrayals feel the most brazenly political all of we’ve seen from Joon-ho so far, including a bullet grazing assassination attempt on Ruffalo while he’s giving a speech. The panic that unfolds during said scene proves again that Joon-ho is a master of capturing chaos onscreen, echoing the likes of the garden party scene from Parasite, only with more aliens and a whole lot more firepower.
There can be no doubt that Mickey 17 is Pattinson’s show though, with his take on the character coming across like a nihilistically futuristic version of Forrest Gump, with his somewhat naïve outlook on life resulting in some of its funniest moments – usually involving his death. Frequently told after the fact that he’s being used as a guinea pig, his willingness to go along with whatever he’s asked to do makes him easy to sympathize with. Whether that be taking off his glove during a space walk that’s exposing him to unfathomable amounts of radiation, or being the first person to step outside on the new planet, he conveys a kind of resigned reassurance knowing he’ll wake up in a new body following whatever it is that kills him. The disparity between the classes may feel like familiar territory for long time Joon-ho fans, but he continues to find new ways to present his go-to themes, of which Mickey 17 offers up definite proof.
If anything it’s only the final third of the 135+ minute runtime that wavers a little, seemingly obliged to throw in an invasion of the isopod like aliens after Ruffalo and his team capture one of their young ones. It provides a fitting conclusion to the story, however it’s also the least interesting part, the equivalent of the obligatory mass destruction action scene that usually closes out an entry in the Marvel Universe. Thankfully the sequence is saved by the ability to communicate with the aliens, which offers up some of Joon-ho’s most deadpan humor, ensuring it doesn’t just feel like an action scene because one was called for.
Throw in strong supporting turns from the likes of Steven Yeun (Burning) as Pattinson’s fellow in debt macaron shop partner and Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice) as his girlfriend, and you’re left with one of the more original entries in Hollywood’s cannon of science fiction flicks from recent years. While Mickey 17 doesn’t quite reach the heights of Bong Joon-ho’s best work, it’s a movie which feels like it couldn’t have been made by anyone else, and for that alone it deserves to be seen.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8/10
