‘Mickey 17’ review: Bong Joon-ho’s oddball sci-fi satire is out of this world

No one could accuse Bong Joon-ho of playing it safe. The South Korean filmmaker’s follow-up to Parasite – a searing class war satire that won Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars – is a kooky curio that hopscotches between tones. Yes, Mickey 17 is a high-concept sci-fi film that hoovered up a rumoured $118million production budget – the deliberately dingy spaceship set certainly looks expensive.

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But it also has Robert Pattinson committing to a wacky accent that he apparently borrowed from Steve Buscemi’s character in Fargo. Oh, and British actor-comedian Tim Key – aka “Sidekick Simon” from Alan Partridge – as a lackey marooned in a pigeon costume. Fortunately, the whole endeavour has too much heart for it to feel like anyone is taking the mickey.

Adapted by Bong from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey7, this sprawling film actually has quite a straightforward premise. Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, a dopey drifter with the worst job on a space colony. Because he’s up to his eyeballs in debt after being duped by childhood bestie Timo (Steven Yeun), Mickey signs up to become an “expendable”.

This lowly role is even worse than it sounds: Mickey has essentially been turned into a disposable clone who can be thrown into any life-threatening situation. Whenever he dies, which is often, his bosses simply “print off” another iteration of Mickey and start again. His memories remain intact because they’re stored on a pimped-up hard drive.

So-called “human printing” has already been banned on earth for ethical reasons, but it’s allowed on the fledgling colony of Niflheim with one proviso: no “multiples” of the same clone can exist simultaneously. So when Mickey 18 is printed a tad hastily – Mickey 17 seemed dead, but wasn’t – the clones have to reach an agreement. Can they share their grisly workload – and Mickey’s high-flying girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie) – while staying undercover as one person?

A different film might have fully explored the head-spinning weirdness of sharing your life with a literal clone. Instead, Bong gives us an awkward sort-of-threesome involving Nasha and the two Mickeys, then offers Pattinson’s antiheroes a potential redemption arc.

The colony’s despotic leader Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), who bears a certain resemblance to a real-life politician who slated Parasite, wants to nuke Niflheim’s native species, the Creepers. Marshall’s wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) says their matriarch “looks like a croissant covered in shit”, but Bong gives them dignity – the same quality he afforded to a GM super-pig in 2017’s Okja. Because the Creepers show kindness to Mickey, he might just be their saviour.

Bong’s film isn’t always cohesive or even coherent: Ylfa’s strange fascination with cooking sauces doesn’t add much flavour. But there are laugh-out-loud moments – especially when Nasha calls anyone a “dumb fuck” – and Bong’s flair for satire remains gleeful. Marshall’s plan to create a “pure” human race populated with superior genetic specimens is an effective allegory for fascism in all its forms. But above all, there’s an infectious warmth to proceedings that makes you stick with Mickey 17 (and 18) through thick and thin. This kooky curio is well worth seeking out.