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Mickey 17

2025 film by Bong Joon Ho From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mickey 17

Mickey 17 is a 2025 science fiction black comedy film written, co-produced, and directed by Bong Joon Ho. It is loosely 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.

Quick Facts Directed by, Written by ...
Mickey 17
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Theatrical release poster
Directed byBong Joon Ho
Written byBong Joon Ho
Based onMickey7
by Edward Ashton
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDarius Khondji
Edited byYang Jin-mo
Music byJung Jae-il
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release dates
  • February 13, 2025 (2025-02-13) (Leicester Square)
  • February 28, 2025 (2025-02-28) (South Korea)
  • March 7, 2025 (2025-03-07) (United States)
Running time
137 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United States[2]
  • South Korea
LanguageEnglish
Budget$118 million[3]
Box office$131.8 million[4][5]
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Mickey 17 had its world premiere at 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 and grossed $131 million worldwide, becoming the ninth highest-grossing film of 2025, and it was a box office success.

Plot

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In the year 2050, Mickey Barnes and his friend Timo join a spaceship crew heading to colonize the ice-planet Niflheim, to escape a murderous loan shark. Timo becomes a shuttle pilot, while Mickey signs up as an "Expendable", a controversial job in where he takes on dangerous tasks and if he dies, a new clone of him with restored memories is created afterwards using a process named "reprinting". During the voyage, a romance develops between Mickey and security agent Nasha.

4 years later, the spaceship arrives at Niflheim. Using multiple iterations of Mickey, the ship's scientists develop a vaccine for the planet's pathogens. The seventeenth Mickey is sent to capture a native life form dubbed "Creepers," but falls into a fissure. Timo, believing him dead, reports it and leaves with Mickey's flamethrower, and the crew creates the 18th clone. However, the Creepers do not eat Mickey, pushing him out of the fissure.

Mickey returns to the ship, where he meets Mickey 18, a more aggressive clone due to an error during reprinting. The expedition's leader, politician Kenneth Marshall, has sworn that in the event of "Multiples" of clones, all clones will be eliminated. As a result, Mickey 18 attempts to kill Mickey 17, but 17 suggests they secretly rotate duties and deaths to survive. The two are interrupted when they witness Timo selling drugs made from flamethrower fuel. Angry at his Treatment of them over the years, Mickey 18 tries to kill Timo, but relents when they are interrupted by Nasha. 18 leaves with Nasha, while 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 Kai stumbles across the trio and tries to report them. When Mickey 17 informs 18 of the dinner incident, an enraged 18 decides to kill Marshall at a public ceremony commemorating a piece of Niflheim rock. Two baby Creepers, Luko and Zoco, emerge from the rock, causing panic. Mickey 17 captures Zoco, but Luko is killed by security when it attacks Marshall. Nasha stops Mickey 18 from killing Marshall, but the Multiples are exposed, leading to Mickey 17, 18, and Nasha's arrest.

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 them if he does not record himself dismembering Mickey. Mickey 18 chooses to take 17's place but then escapes his cell, releasing Nasha who overpowers Timo, but security intervenes and takes them all to Marshall.

Marshall announces his plan to eliminate the Creepers, and destroys Mickey's memory backups to prevent him from coming back. Ylfa convinces Marshall to make the Mickeys go outside and compete to collect Creeper tails for culinary usage, 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 and the Creepers when they don't follow through with their task. Mickey 17 uses a translation device to warn the mother Creeper about Marshall's plan, and the mother demands Zoco's release and the sacrifice of a human in compensation for Luko's death. Mickey 17 signals to Nasha to free Zoco. She takes Ylfa hostage to ensure Zoco's release, and security agents, secretly working against Marshall, arrest Ylfa. Mickey 18 fights Marshall and manages to detonate his vest, killing himself and Marshall to meet the Creepers' demands.

Afterwards, Mickey 17 and the rest of the humans make peace with the Creepers, Marshall and Ylfa's collaborators face justice, and Ylfa later commits suicide. The loan shark associate attacks Timo, but Timo kills him in self-defense 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 called Mickey Barnes once again, destroys the cloning device, ending the Expendable program.

Cast

Production

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Filmmaker Bong Joon Ho and actor Robert Pattinson in 2025

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.[6] Charles Yu wrote additional literary material for the film.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] Pattinson improvised many lines as Mickey 18, who starts with an aggressive personality, then grows as a person who wants to protect 17.[10]

Bong storyboarded each sequence before filming.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

Pattinson was confirmed to star in May 2022, with Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo joining the cast.[14] In July, Steven Yeun was added to the cast.[15] Tim Key was cast after a phone call, as Bong wanted him specifically for a role.[11] Production began at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden on August 2, 2022,[16] and concluded in December 2022.[17] Filming was finished in January 2023, with the director working on the ideal cut after.[18]

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).[19]

The VFX was done by Framestore, DNEG, Rising Sun Pictures, and Turncoat pictures.[20] DNEG handled all the sequences shot on the ice planet of Niflheim, and created the creepers.[21]

Similarities to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

A number of writers and critics have noted similarities to Hayao Miyazaki's first Studio Ghibli movie, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). Both movies feature misunderstood local creatures, who have some mystical powers. In the case of Nausicaa, it is the Ohm, who have a similar role as the Creepers, both as natives of the planet who are misunderstood by humans.[22][23] Some critics have noted the Creepers are visually almost the same as the Ohm,[24][25] and some of the scenes are very similar.[how?][26][27] Mickey as the main protagonist, plays a similar role as Princess Nausicaa, in trying to act as a go between with both races.[28][29] Both films share the theme of man's destruction of the environment.[30][31]

Music

Main article: Mickey 17 (soundtrack)

Jung Jae-il composed the film score in his third consecutive collaboration with Joon-ho Okja (2017) and Parasite (2019).[32] The score, recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London, was released under the WaterTower Music label on February 28, 2025.[33]

Release

Theatrical

Mickey 17 premiered at the Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom, on February 13, 2025.[34] 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.[35][36]

The film was theatrically released in the United States on March 7, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures.[37] It was originally scheduled to be released on March 29, 2024, but was taken off the schedule due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[38][39] It was rescheduled for January 31, 2025 (where it would have opened three days earlier in South Korea), but was pushed back to April 18, 2025, to take advantage of Easter weekend and avoid competition with Dog Man, and finally to March 7, 2025, swapping the latter date with Sinners.[40][41][42][37]

Home media

Mickey 17 was released on Digital HD on April 8, 2025,[43] and will be released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on May 13, 2025.

Reception

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Box office

As of April 20, 2025, Mickey 17 has grossed $46 million in the United States and Canada, and $85.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $131.8 million.[4][5] With a combined $198 million spent on production and marketing, it was estimated the film needed to gross $240–300 million worldwide in order to break-even.[44][45] Variety later reported the film would lose Warner Bros. $75–80 million during its theatrical run.[46]

In South Korea, the film opened on February 28, 2025, and scored the highest post-pandemic debut by Warner Bros., grossing $1.7 million and surpassing the record previously set by Pattinson's 2022 film, The Batman.[47] It went on to debut to $9 million in its opening weekend.[48]

In the United States and Canada, Mickey 17 was projected to gross $18–20 million from 3,770 theaters in its opening weekend.[44] It made $7.7 million on its first day, including an estimated $2.5 million from Thursday previews.[49] It went on to debut to $19 million,[50] which Deadline Hollywood described as in-line with original sci-fi films, including Jupiter Ascending ($18.3 million opening in 2015), Ad Astra ($19 million in 2019), and The Creator ($14 million in 2023). Because of the film's budget, the publication also projected that the film would not be immediately profitable for Warner Bros.[51] In its second weekend, the film grossed $7.4 million (dropping 61%), finishing third behind newcomers Novocaine and Black Bag.[52][53] It then made $3.7 million in its third weekend, finishing in fifth.[54][55] It dropped out of the box office top ten in its seventh weekend.[56]

Critical response

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Mark Ruffalo plays Kenneth Marshall, whom critics have observed to parallel real-world authoritarian figures.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 319 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Mickey 17 finds Bong Joon Ho returning to his forte of daffy sci-fi with a withering social critique at its core, proving along the way that you can never have too many Robert Pattinsons."[57] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[58] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it 4 out of 5 stars, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend the film.[51]

Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph awarded the film 4 stars out of 5, noting: "As in much of Bong's work, its chop-and-change attitude to genre keeps his audience on their toes. The film veers from slapstick to absurdism to horror and back again, often within a single shot, such as the regular sight of the latest Pattinson clone flopping out of the meat printer with a sausagey flumph."[59] Jacob Oller of The A.V. Club called the film "An unwieldy, long-winded, wildly entertaining sci-fi critique of our dehumanizing present."[60] In his review for NPR, critic Justin Chang wrote that the film's satire "wears awfully thin", but that "Bong is one of the few filmmakers who can work at this scale, with elaborate production design and intricate visual effects, and still retain his artistic signature."[61]

A less enthusiastic review came from Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair, who deemed the film a "disappointing follow-up to Parasite", while stating: "Perhaps if Bong had focused on the clone idea, more intricately exploring the corporate world's annihilating treatment of workers, he could have arrived at something rattling, even profound. Alas, he is ultimately too enamored of his wiggly animal creations, and by the broadest of jokes about TV camera-obsessed petty tyrants. In all its diminished attention span, Mickey 17 plays less like a new declaration from a great master and more like a feverish TikTok 'doom scroll' leading nowhere."[62]

Jocelyn Noveck of the Associated Press gave the movie 2 stars out of 4, saying that although having Pattinson's character repeatedly die is an interesting plot-device, and the highlight of the film, that "much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess."[63]

Kenneth Marshall, the spaceship captain and politician played by Mark Ruffalo, has been interpreted by some critics as a caricature of authoritarian leaders.[64][65][66] For instance, Polygon describes Marshall as "a distinctly Trump-like figure whose dangerous associations with religious zealotry and white nationalism are mere avenues to earn political credibility among his base."[67] Bong clarified that Marshall's character is not based on any specific individual but is "a mix of many different politicians" and "dictators that we have seen throughout history."[68]

References

External links

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