Movie Review: 'Mickey 17' is a Wonderfully Weird Film

Mickey 17

Directed by Bong Joon Ho

Written by Bong Joon Ho

Starring Robert Pattinson, Naomie Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun

Release Date March 7th, 2025

Published March 7th, 2025

Mickey 17 is a dark sci-fi comedy from the brilliantly unique mind of writer-director Bong Joon Ho. The film covers topics that Bong Joon Ho has addressed in his previous films, sympathetically examining the lives of those at the bottom of the economic ladder, rot and corruption in the moneyed class, and the little things that make life matter. In the case of Mickey 17, the question boils down to whether you believe death gives life meaning. Does living life to the fullest mean nothing when you know you’re not actually going to die?

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) has a tendency to trust the wrong people. A lovely guy, Mickey first placed his faith in Timo (Steven Yeun), and paid the price when Timo lost all of their money to a gangster with a fetish for watching people die. Narrowly avoiding the gangster, Mickey and Timo sign up for a dangerous job off of planet Earth. A failed politician, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife, Yifa (Toni Collette), are leading an expedition to colonize an alien planet and they need a crew.

There are few available positions on this expedition and while Timo lands a gig as a pilot, Mickey is stuck with a job that no one else wants, Expendable. What is an Expendable? He’s someone who is designated to die, repeatedly, in order to provide scientific breakthroughs intended to sustain and protect the lives of the rest of the crew. Mickey is thus exposed to all sorts of deathly dangers with the goal of allowing scientists to study his death to cultivate survival strategies, create vaccines, and generally make life easier for everyone, except Mickey, of course. Each time Mickey dies he’s printed out again, memories and body intact, so that he can die all over again.

Mickey’s only solace on this expedition comes from Nasha (Naomie Ackie), a security agent who takes a liking to Mickey, each and every version of Mickey. The two first connect sexually but as the trip arrives at its far off destination, the relationship becomes more than just killing time while naked. The genuine bond between Mickey and Nasha is at the heart of Mickey 17, creating a romantic through-line that is not typical of the dystopian sci-fi genre. Naturally, this relationship will be tested. That test comes when Mickey number 17 survives unexpectedly and returns to the expedition to find Mickey 18 already having been printed to take his place.

Where the movie goes from there, you will need to see for yourself. Mickey 17 is inventive, strange and always engaging. Robert Pattinson’s performance is remarkably sweet and sensitive. Pattinson’s Mickey is timid and odd but he’s also genuine, sweet and caring. It’s not hard to see why Nasha falls for Mickey, though it helps that he has the handsome face of Robert Pattinson. The romance is unlikely and the challenges to their relationship are unpredictable and exciting. There is adventure, danger, and all of it unfolds against a very familiar sci-fi backdrop, providing an oddly engaging alchemy of genre mashup.

Mark Ruffalo steals scenes throughout Mickey 17 as a venal, dopey politician. Ruffalo’s Marshall is consumed by creating a myth around himself, a legend of a great leader and conqueror. This is all comically undercut by his sniveling, sneering, cowardice as expressed in his relationship to his domineering wife, played by Toni Collette. Think Bill and Hillary’s worst qualities crossed with more than a little Donald Trump, and you get a good sense of the satire Ruffalo and Collette bring to Mickey 17.

Bong Joon Ho is a brilliantly irreverent filmmaker, an unpredictable director whose films never seem to arrive where you think they should. Bong Joon Ho has a cracked sense of humor that finds laughs in odd places like a well placed bit of slapstick violence or a broad caricature in an otherwise straight genre piece. Mickey 17 has all of the trappings of a sci-fi adventure and yet, the film bubbles with romance, eroticism, and a comic tone familiar to the best of Woody Allen’s oddball comedies like Bananas or Sleeper.

As I mentioned earlier, the film has a central theme: Does death make life more meaningful? That’s not a question that is going to be answered, per se. Rather, it’s a question that is posed and you’re invited to decide for yourself how you feel. Bong Joon Ho appears to fall on the side of making the most of life while you have it. Mickey hates dying, even as he knows he’s always going to wake up the next day. Dying is scary because it’s supposed to be final, it’s supposed to be the end. It never stops being scary for Mickey even as his life always continues. It’s a reminder that if you spend all of your life worrying about your death, you’re going to fail to live.

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