Mickey 17(watching movie)
Mickey 17 is a 2025 science fiction black comedy film written, produced, and directed by Bong Joon Ho, based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. The film stars Robert Pattinson in the title role, alongside Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo. Set in the year 2054, the plot follows a man who joins a space colony as an "Expendable", a disposable worker who gets cloned every time he dies for research purposes.
Mickey 17 had its world premiere at the Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom, on February 13, 2025, and was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in South Korea on February 28, 2025 and in the United States on March 7. The film received generally positive reviews from critics but was a box office bomb, grossing $121 million worldwide.
Plot
[edit]In the year 2054, Mickey Barnes and his friend Timo join a spaceship crew heading to colonize the ice-planet Niflheim, in order to escape a murderous loan shark. Timo becomes a shuttle pilot, while Mickey signs up as an "Expendable", an illegal process where he takes on lethal tasks and a new clone of him with restored memories is created after each death. During the voyage, a romance develops between Mickey and security agent Nasha.
Four years later, the spaceship arrives at snowy Niflheim. Using multiple iterations of Mickey, the ships scientists develop a vaccine for the planet's pathogens. The seventeenth Mickey is sent to capture a native lifeform dubbed "Creepers," but falls into a fissure, where Timo, believing him dead, reports it and leaves, and the crew creates the Mickey 18 clone. However, the Creepers rescue Mickey 17, pushing him out of the fissure.
Mickey 17 returns to the ship, where he meets Mickey 18, a more aggressive clone. The expedition's leader, Kenneth Marshall, has sworn that in the event of "Multiples" of clones, all clones will be eliminated. As such, Mickey 18 attempts to kill Mickey 17, but Mickey 17 suggests they secretly rotate duties and deaths to survive. The two are interrupted when they witness Timo selling drugs made from flamethrower fuel. Blaming him for the situation that caused them to leave Earth in the first place, Mickey 18 tries to kill Timo, but relents when they are interrupted by Nasha. Mickey 18 leaves with Nasha, while Mickey 17 is taken to dinner with Marshall, his wife Ylfa, and security agent Kai. At the dinner Mickey 17 reacts severely to being fed experimental meat and painkillers. Kai rescues Mickey 17 from being executed and brings him to her quarters, but Mickey 17 flees back to Nasha when Kai attempts to seduce him.
Nasha learns of the clones and accepts them, but when Kai tries to report them, she stops her. When Mickey 17 informs Mickey 18 of the dinner incident, an enraged Mickey 18 decides to kill Marshall at a public ceremony commemorating a piece of Niflheim rock. Two baby Creepers, Luko and Zoco, emerge from a Niflheim rock. Mickey 17 captures Zoco, but Luko is killed by security when it attempts to jump on Marshall. Nasha stops Mickey 18 from killing Marshall, but with the Multiples exposed, Mickey 17, 18, and Nasha are arrested. Meanwhile, thousands of Creepers gather outside the ship, calling for Zoco. In the brig, Mickey 17's description of the Creepers helping him makes Nasha realize they are sapient. Timo arrives and tries to kill Mickey 17, revealing that the loan shark has an agent onboard who will kill him if he doesn't record himself dismembering Mickey. Nasha and Mickey 18 overpower him, but security intervenes and takes them all to Marshall.
Marshall wants to eliminate the Creepers, and destroys Mickey's memory backups to prevent his re-cloning. Marshall's assistant, Preston, convinces Marshall to make the Mickeys go outside and compete to collect Creeper tails, with the winner allowed to live. The Mickeys are fitted with remote-detonated bomb vests to ensure compliance.
Once outside, the Mickeys seek out the Creepers' leader. Marshall follows with a security team to eliminate them. Mickey 17 uses a translation device to warn the Creeper leader about Marshall's plan, and the leader demands Zoco's release and the sacrifice of a human in return for Luko's death. Mickey 17 urges Nasha to free Zoco. She takes Ylfa hostage to ensure Zoco's release, and security agents, secretly working against Marshall, arrest Ylfa. Mickey 18 detonates his vest, killing himself and Marshall to meet the Creepers' demands.
Afterward, Preston and Marshall's collaborators face justice, and Ylfa is arrested before killing herself. The loan shark associate attacks Timo, but Timo kills him in self defence and uses the incident to testify against the loan sharks. Nasha becomes the colony's political leader and, during a groundbreaking ceremony, Mickey 17, now just called "Mickey Barnes", destroys the cloning device, ending the Expendable program.
Cast
[edit]- Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes / Mickey 17 / Mickey 18, an expendable employee on Niflheim on his seventeenth (later eighteenth) iteration
- Naomi Ackie as Nasha Barridge, a security agent and Mickey's love interest
- Mark Ruffalo as Kenneth Marshall, an egomaniacal failed politician with sinister designs for Niflheim
- Toni Collette as Ylfa Marshall, Kenneth Marshall's devious and controlling wife
- Steven Yeun as Timo, a pilot and Mickey's friend from Earth
- Patsy Ferran as Dorothy, a scientist
- Cameron Britton as Arkady, the head of the Science team.
- Daniel Henshall as Preston, Kenneth Marshall's personal assistant
- Steve Park as Agent Zeke, the head of the Security team
- Anamaria Vartolomei as Kai Katz, a security agent
- Holliday Grainger as Red Hair, the head recruiter of the Niflheim expedition program
- Angus Imrie as Shrimp Eyes
- Tim Key as Pigeon Man
- Thomas Turgoose as Bazooka Soldier
- Ian Hanmore as Darius Blank
- Bronwyn James as Receptionist
- Samuel Blenkin as Borrower
- Anna Mouglalis as the voice of the Creepers' leader
Production
[edit]
A film adaptation of Edward Ashton's novel Mickey7 was announced to be in development prior to its publication in January 2022, with Bong Joon Ho writing, directing, and producing for Warner Bros. Pictures and Robert Pattinson in talks to star.[7] Charles Yu wrote additional literary material for the film.[8] Bong was intrigued by the concepts presented in the book, though he made many changes to the characters, including modifying Mickey's personality to be a little more simple minded.[9] He wrote the screenplay in 2021 based on an early draft of the book, and said that none of the characters portrayed were meant to be mirroring active politicians. Robert Pattinson was the first actor to come to mind for a performance that required dual roles, and he agreed immediately to take the role after being offered it.[10] Pattinson improvised many lines as Mickey 18, who starts with an aggressive personality, then grows as a person who wants to protect 17.[11]
Bong storyboarded each sequence before filming.[12] Pattinson helped to revise part of the script to give what Bong described as "humor and knowledge of slang that I would have never come across otherwise." Pattinson also partially based his performance on Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, citing similar comedic injuries. Bong maintained that he had final cut privilege, though there was a delay in the editing.[13] To differentiate the two main Mickeys, Pattinson changed his accent for each character, comparing them to Ren and Stimpy from the show of the same name. In the initial script reading, he imitated the voices of Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O from Jackass. Bong told him not to do the Steve-O impression.[14]
Pattinson was confirmed to star in May 2022, with Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo joining the cast.[15] In July, Steven Yeun was added to the cast.[16] Tim Key was cast after a phone call, as Bong wanted him specifically for a role.[12] Production began at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden on August 2, 2022,[17] and concluded in December 2022.[18] Filming was finished in January 2023, with the director working on the ideal cut after.[19]
The film's creepers were designed by Bong and Jang Hee-chul, who has been collaborating with Bong to create monsters for his movies since The Host (2006).[20]
Release
[edit]Theatrical
[edit]Mickey 17 premiered at the Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom, on February 13, 2025.[21] The film was screened at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2025, before opening in South Korea on February 28, 2025, a week before its global rollout.[22][23]
The film was theatrically releas
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