If Mickey isn’t such a good sport about this, we might find it intolerable. Well, golly gee, let’s face it: it IS intolerable. The only thing that makes palatable the continued (literal) slaughter of Mickeys over and over is the fact that Mickey himself takes every death with slightly-bemused-if-exasperated acceptance.
Cloning for the purpose of forced sacrifice is the tool of the oligarchs, the fascists. Bong Joon Ho’s vision is an un-subtle critique of stratified societies – like the one we live in now. Heck, if some people are better than others, why the heck not let “lesser” beings opt for repeated self-sacrifice? Mickey 17 is literally the 17th iteration of Mickey (Robert Pattinson), an ordinary man who signs up to be “Expendable” to avoid some leg breakers (or in this case, leg-chain-sawers).
Let me backtrack, because this is funny and only of minor relevance: Mickey and Timo (Steven Yeun) borrow mob money to invest in macarons, claiming they’ll be “bigger than burgers.” When the inevitable happens, the mob gives them a very short amount of time to come up with the cash [read: time enough to say “goodbye”] This is when Mickey gets the bright idea to get on a spaceship to Ice Planet Hoth, which we all are calling “Niflheim” for the purposes of this experiment. Mickey, lacking a skill set that would make him a quality astronaut, opts for “Expendable,” a role in which he voluntarily sacrifices himself in the name of scientific advancement again and again and again and is regenerated again and again and again. Ironically, while the skilled positions on the spaceship are select, there is always need for Expendables.
The montage of Mickey deaths is pretty amusing, partly because Robert Pattinson has decided to attack this role with an uncompromising blasé – he approaches every self-destructive mauling with and air of: “Sure, another death, why not?” And before long, the “Who cares?” feeling rubs off on his puppeteers. The people who send him to death after death stop caring about Mickey N (where N > 10) and happily ignore when the replicating machine dumps the new body on the floor.
Plot happens when Mickey 17 is called upon for a solo hunting expedition, falls into a crevasse, and is set upon by a horde of the insect-like mammalian population (which look a great deal like Okja, btw) that inhabits the planet. Left for dead, Mickey 17 is replaced by Mickey 18, which becomes a problem when Mickey 17 doesn’t die. Oh no. What do you do when they don’t die?
Mark Ruffalo keeps acquiring juicy roles. This is another good one as he and Toni Colette play spaceship Hoth royalty, making the rules and delivering the penalties from a perch of oblivious
governance. They are one end of the spectrum as Mickey 17 is on the other. Mickey 17, the film, openly questions, “What makes this pair the ones in charge? They have literally none of the skills one would want for either true leadership or practicality. It’s no wonder security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie) prefers the replaceable guy to any of the MAGA-like jokers aboard this doomed mission.
It’s easy to like Mickey 17 despite the dark undertones. It happily pokes fun at space exploration, the ruling class, and modern science. Behind all the tongue-in-cheek humor, however, is a simple story asking what a life is worth, even a life that has given up on itself. This film is by no means Bong Joon Ho’s best (most would say Parasite, but I prefer either Mother or Snowpiercer), and yet, this is certainly a quality watch and a must-see for fans of Bong Joon Ho or Robert Pattinson.
There was once a loser named Mickey
Who got himself into a wicket most sticky
He escaped on the fly
By opting to die
Instead of first dying for real?! This is tricky.
Rated R, 137 Minutes
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Writer: Bong Joon Ho, Edward Ashton
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Sci-fi fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Oligarchs
