REVIEW: Mickey 17 (2025)
*SPOILER-FREE* Robert Pattinson playing another weird guy? Give him his Oscar.
One thing to know about me, I love Robert Pattinson. He is my number one celebrity crush, I love Twilight, he’s why I suddenly have a love for Batman, and the list goes on and on.
Mickey17 marks the first introduction I’ve had to Bong Joon-ho. Yes, I still haven’t seen Parasite, it’s on my watchlist. Let me be late to the party.
I didn’t know a single thing about the movie going into it. All I knew was that it was based on the book Mickey7 by Ashton Edward and it involves cloning.
As per my Severance analysis, this is another one of those pieces of media that I think could become a reality in the future. That’s terrifying to think about because humans never learn.
It’s about thirty years in the future and Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a failed politician, is funding a project to find a new planet for humans to inhabit. They settle on a planet called Niflheim, undergoing research on the planet’s conditions.
In comes Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), an “expendable” who acts as a human test subject against viruses and possible dangers that could pose a fatal risk to the population.
The job has led to him dying sixteen times in different ways, so the Mickey we meet in the film is “Mickey 17” the 17th version of him.
How does he keep coming back? Mickey undergoes “human printing,” a process that allows him to essentially be cloned and brought back to life with all of his memories intact.
However, one time during a mission, the scientists and administration presume Mickey 17 is dead. Even though he secretly returns to the spaceship, he discovers they’ve already printed a new version of himself: Mickey 18.
This is usually not something that is supposed to happen. Two expendables cannot exist at the same time, and an early experiment in the human printing program explains why this is a problem.
If the spaceship is to discover “multiples” existing, that means their entire existence must be wiped out, never to be printed again. Instead of dying and waking up, this means Mickey would die for good.
It doesn’t help matters that Mickey 18 has more psychopathic tendencies than Mickey 17, which is essentially a case of history repeating itself when the last expendable had multiples.
The film comes off as a sci-fi thriller, but that wasn’t the case for me. While it did have those elements as a backdrop, a lot of the feelings and plot are held together by a romance.
Nasha (Naomi Ackie) and Mickey establish a relationship early on in the film. Nasha is someone who pushes Mickey to keep going and be who he is. In turn, she’s there for him through everything.
Their romance takes up a good portion of the movie, from more than one “love scene” to Nasha yelling at her crewmate for wanting to “share” Mickey. She has him (or both of them?) wrapped around her finger.
Even when Mickey 18 comes around and they’re dealing with the issues of multiples, she loves them both equally. Maybe a little too much because she wanted Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 to herself.
If there were any moments that Mickey was in danger or hurting, Nasha was always there. They make it a point to explain that without Nasha, there is no Mickey.
Marshall eventually discovers that there are multiples of Mickey and immediately calls for his death. Running off of ego (reminiscent of someone in office), he turns their deaths into a “game.”
Already on Niflheim, there is an alien species called “creepers.” For Marshall, they’re in the way of colonizing “his” planet, so he decides that whichever Mickey kills the most creepers gets to survive while the other one dies.
Both Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 are thrown out onto the field, but rather than following Marshall’s orders, they try to resolve the conflict and stand up to him.
In the end, it’s an inside joke at the beginning of Mickey and Nasha’s relationship that ends up saving humanity, pushing Marshall and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) out of power, and ending the expendables program.
That’s nice and all but I’m scared.
I find it interesting that as of late, there has been a lot of media taking place in the “future” of practices that can make life “easier,” but are inhumane in the process.
Severance? Sure, you never have to spend another hour at work again!
Human printing? Sure, you can live forever and never die!
I don’t need to bring up Black Mirror, they have more than enough episodes trying to warn us.
What’s scary to me about it is the way technology is advancing so fast, things like that are going to seem more possible than “impossible.”
I mean, look at what happened to the artificial intelligence HAL 9000 in 2001. That film was released close to 60 years ago and I feel like it won’t be long before that’s our reality.
But maybe I’m just fear-mongering for a bit!
Robert Pattinson and Naomi Ackie contribute and become the most memorable parts of the film.
Pattinson acting as two different versions of his character and being able to make distinctions between them is a testament to how overlooked he is as an actor. Hopefully, this finally gets him some well-deserved recognition.
Ackie easily steals every scene that she’s in. Her character on-screen and during the spaceship is someone who can command very easily, and without her performance, the story could’ve easily fallen flat.
Mark Ruffalo’s portrayal of an egotistical politician who talks with his hands and happens to have a group of supporters who wear red…is an interesting choice.
There’s no indication of him basing his character off of the President, but the parallels are there, which added some comedic effect and a sense of chaos we know all too well.
I gave the film an overall rating of 4/5. That rating could change the next time I rewatch, but it’s an interesting approach to a future of science fiction, romance, and comedy.
Mickey 17 isn’t a perfect movie, but I wasn’t let down by its choice of execution. It makes me even more excited to watch Parasite and Memories of Murder by Bong Joon-ho.