# Mickey 17

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 near-future, 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 premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 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 positive reviews from critics and has grossed $91 million worldwide.

## Plot

In the year 2054, Mickey Barnes and his friend Timo are financially destitute after a failed business venture. Unable to repay a murderous loan shark, the pair flee by signing up as crew for a spaceship that leaves Earth to colonize the planet Niflheim — Timo as a shuttle pilot and Mickey as the spaceship's only "Expendable". Using Earth-banned technology to clone Mickey and restore his memories, Mickey is treated as disposable, given lethal assignments and regenerated after death. During the voyage, a romance develops between Mickey and security agent Nasha.
Four years later, the spaceship arrives at snowy Niflheim. Using several Mickeys sequentially, the spaceship's scientists develop a vaccine against Niflheim's pathogens. Mickey 17, the seventeenth Mickey iteration, is tasked to capture Niflheim's tardigrade-like lifeform ("creeper") for analysis. He falls into a fissure in the ice, beyond the reach of Timo, who leaves and reports Mickey 17's death. The creepers arrive and collectively push Mickey 17 out of the fissure.
Mickey 17 returns to the spaceship and meets the newly generated Mickey 18, who is more aggressive. As the expedition's leader, politician Kenneth Marshall, has vowed to kill any "Multiples" (simultaneously living clones), Mickey 18 tries to kill Mickey 17, who resists, suggesting that the Mickeys live by secretly rotating duties, meals and deaths. Mickey 18 then tries to kill Timo, but is interrupted and leaves with Nasha. Mickey 17 is brought to dinner with Marshall, his wife Ylfa, and security agent Kai. Mickey 17 suffers severe pain after being served experimental meat and being treated with experimental painkillers. Kai intervenes to stop Marshall from executing Mickey 17. Kai later woos Mickey 17, who flees.
Nasha learns of the Mickeys and accepts them both. Kai discovers the Mickeys and goes to report them, but is stopped by Nasha. When Mickey 17 informs Mickey 18 what happened at dinner, an enraged Mickey 18 decides to kill Marshall at a public ceremony commemorating a piece of Niflheim rock. Chaos ensues when two baby creepers emerge from the rock. Mickey 17 arrives and captures creeper Zoco, but creeper Luko jumps onto Marshall and is killed by Kai and other security agents. Nasha stops Mickey 18 from killing Marshall, who discovers the Multiples. Mickey 17, Mickey 18 and Nasha are arrested. Numerous creepers arrive outside the ship, calling out to Zoco.
In the brig, Mickey 17's description of the creepers helping him makes Nasha realize they are sentient. Timo tries to kill Mickey 17 to satisfy the loan shark, but Nasha and Mickey 18 overpower him. The Mickeys and Nasha are brought to Marshall, who wants to exterminate the creepers. Marshall destroys Mickey's stored memories, while Nasha saves Zoco from being executed by Ylfa. Marshall's assistant Preston persuades Marshall to task the Mickeys to compete in collecting creeper tails, which Ylfa wants for making edible sauce, with the winner being allowed to live. The Mickeys are forced to wear remote-detonated bomb vests to ensure their compliance.
When the Mickeys are sent out, they peacefully seek out the creepers' leader, which prompts Marshall to go outside himself with a security team, intending to personally kill the creepers. Using a translation device, Mickey 17 communicates with the creepers' leader, informing on Marshall's plan. The creepers' leader threatens to kill all humans, unless Zoco is returned alive and one human is killed in recompense for Luko's death.
Mickey 17 communicates to Nasha via camera to free Zoco. Nasha takes Ylfa hostage to ensure Zoco's release. Nasha releases Ylfa, who tries to kill Zoco, but Nasha again saves him. The security agents arrest Ylfa. Nasha returns Zoco to the creepers' leader, while Mickey 18 attacks Marshall. Mickey 18 detonates the bomb planted on his vest, killing himself and Marshall to fulfill the demand by the creepers' leader.
In the aftermath, Ylfa commits suicide in a psychiatric ward, while Preston and other Marshall collaborators are imprisoned. An associate of the loan shark tries to kill Timo, but Timo manages to kill him. Nasha is later elected as a colony political leader. She officiates a groundbreaking ceremony on Niflheim, where Mickey 17 (now "Mickey Barnes") detonates the cloning device to symbolically end the Expendable program.

## Cast

* 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

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. Charles Yu wrote additional literary material for the film. 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. 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. Pattinson improvised many lines as Mickey 18, who starts with an aggressive personality, then grows as a person who wants to protect 17.
Bong storyboarded each sequence before filming. 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. 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.
Pattinson was confirmed to star in May 2022, with Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo joining the cast. In July, Steven Yeun was added to the cast. Tim Key was cast after a phone call, as Bong wanted him specifically for a role. Production began at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden on August 2, 2022, and concluded in December 2022. Filming was finished in January 2023, with the director working on the ideal cut after.
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).

## Release

Mickey 17 premiered 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.
The film was theatrically released in the United States on March 7, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was originally scheduled to be released on March 29, 2024, but was taken off the schedule due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. 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.

## Reception
### Box office

As of March 17, 2025, Mickey 17 has grossed $33.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $57.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $91.1 million. With a combined $198 million spent on production and marketing, the film needs to gross $240–300 million worldwide in order to break-even.
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. It went on to debut to $9 million in its opening weekend.
In the United States and Canada, Mickey 17 was projected to gross $18–20 million from 3,770 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $7.7 million on its first day, including an estimated $2.5 million from Thursday previews. It went on to debut to $19 million, 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. In its second weekend, the film grossed $7.4 million (dropping 61%), finishing third behind newcomers Novocaine and Black Bag.

### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 295 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." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 59 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. 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.
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." Jacob Oller of The A.V. Club called the film "An unwieldy, long-winded, wildly entertaining sci-fi critique of our dehumanizing present." 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."
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."
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."
Kenneth Marshall, the spaceship captain and politician played by Mark Ruffalo, has been interpreted by some critics as a caricature of authoritarian leaders. 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." Director Bong Joon Ho 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."