“Mickey 17” brings sci-fi back to the movie scene, director Bong Joon-ho tells a story that challenges societal standpoints, evokes emotion and explores the human spirit. “Mickey 17” is produced based on the book “Mickey 7,” written by Edward Ashton. The movie released March 7, 2025, an awkward time between the end of award season and holidays, with little advertising and even less talk about the movie quietly came to theaters. Joon-ho has had many notable movies, he directed “Parasite,” which won an Oscar in 2020. He has no trouble bringing his talent to his cast, Robert Pattinson who stars as Mickey, Steven Yeun as Mickey’s backstabbing friend Timo, Naomi Ackie as Mickey’s girlfriend and Mark Ruffalo as the ship’s leader and president, Kenneth Marshall. With a total run time of two hours and 17 minutes, “Mickey 17” is full of adventure, commentary and action that any viewer could want.
The movie itself features an interesting storyline, following Mickey as he escapes from a debt on Earth. Unknowingly he becomes an expendable, a human that is used to improve humanity in space by dying and being reprinted for different trails. Although important to human survival on the new planet Niflheim, Mickey faces an emotional and psychological toll as he continues to die and return. Mickey’s journey continues as he must navigate interactions with the very Trump-like leadership present on the ship and his multiple (his clone). With two Mickeys on the ship there comes a societal problem, and the two Mickey’s are sent to kill the Creepers, the native inhabitants on Niflheim. A tense standoff is held as humans must trade a life for the one that they took, and it ends with a death of two. The end of the movie finds Mickey and Natasha leading humanity onto ethical life on the new planet.
“Mickey 17” is a movie that is unafraid to comment on current political leaders and their actions. An interesting fact about the movie’s production was that it was filmed in the latter half of 2022, which follows Donald Trump’s first term as president, occurring from 2016-2020. Joon-ho comments on Trump’s character and organization of his presidency through his character Kenneth Marshall. When watching this movie, I thought Marshall was a character that directly associated with Trump and his actions. Copying his infamous dance move, his face and teeth, how he speaks to others and how the people behind him are in full control of his actions. I think that the social commentary on Trump cannot be missed by viewers, forcing you to notice the differences between the movie and real life. Even though “Mickey 17” was produced years before Trump’s second term, the idea that his rule causes social disruption and harm to the environment is not to be ignored.
Joon-ho also comments on how important empathy is, being able to reach out to creatures or other people that don’t look like you. A major plot line throughout the movie and how empathy in hand with science is critical to the human spirit. The human spirit is tortured, tested, appreciated and explored through the characters of “Mickey 17.” “Mickey 17” places as one of my top movies, and I recommend anyone to go watch it, the two-hour long movie never felt boring, it never lost pace and the incredible actors brought the story to life.
