Director: Bong Joon Ho
Mickey 17 is a film adapted from the novel Mickey7 (which I did not read and cannot comment on the authenticity of the film vs the book) and presents the story of a colony project in 2054 when a space vessel (a huge one, mind you) of volunteers goes to conquer space to set up new human colonies. They do that by also using Mickey (Robert Pattinson) who goes to the mission as the so-called expendable, which means that he is an underclass human who gets sent to dangerous missions because his body and mind are copied. Therefore, when he dies, he can be reproduced and sent to the mission endlessly until completed.
The jobs Mickey does are dangerous ones the others do not want to do, for example, testing cosmic radiation so that researchers can check how long it takes before his skin starts to burn or until he goes blind. Also, he is used to developing a vaccine to cure a virus on the new planet, Niflheim. Mickey did not know what he signed up for and just took any job to escape debt collectors on a shattered Earth, so he is also portrayed as a doofus. In his 17th iteration, the crew believes he died when falling into an ice ravine, so they produce Mickey 18 but it turns out that Mickey 17 survived because native species of the new planet, some version of a giant woodlouse saved him. Now that there are two Mickeys, which is not allowed by rules and previous experiences on Earth when a duplicate was used for murder by one of the scientists who invented reproduction, this means that one Mickey must die. Two Mickeys then engage in a battle for survival, which also involves an attempt to win Mickey’s girlfriend, Nasha (Naomi Ackie).
Mickey 17 also features a populist leader obsessed with personal image and making himself look good. However, he easily gets manipulated by his wife and subordinates and will change his decisions based on what he thinks others will think of him. This includes handling the rebellion of alien creatures who come to rescue one of their own, those same creatures that saved Mickey 17. This was made well, and it is clear the story tackles the greed for popularity that many politicians show. Equally, the notion of Mickey’s suffrage is questioned well and brings about ethical questions on reproducing humans and making them suffer, even if the human is an alleged one.
Mickey 17 is an unusual film but a good one. The production was excellent, as well as the pictures, particularly Niflheim and its ice caves, and also the portrayal of the spaceship, lighting, etc. Pattinson is also excellent as Mickey. Dialogues are not always the best, and the film gives the viewer a sense it is about to start, so more story and action would have been good, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Thank you for reading!