Bong Joon-ho returns with an audacious, offbeat space thriller starring Robert Pattinson, blending existential dread with biting social commentary.
Bong Joon-ho, the South Korean auteur who shook up Hollywood with Parasite, is back—and this time, he’s taking audiences on a wild, mind-bending ride through space. Mickey 17, his latest feature, is an ambitious, offbeat sci-fi thriller that doesn’t just dabble in high-concept storytelling but goes full throttle into existential horror, class warfare, and Bong’s signature dark humour.
Robert Pattinson, shedding any remnants of his Twilight past, fully embraces the absurdity of Mickey Barnes, a disposable “Expendable” assigned to deep-space missions. His job? To die—repeatedly—and be resurrected via cloning technology. But as Mickey starts questioning his place in this brutal system, the film morphs into a chaotic, trippy existential crisis wrapped in dazzling visuals and biting satire.
Pattinson plays Mickey with a broad American accent (which alone is getting reactions) and an air of resigned doom. “I really hate dying,” he groans, and with good reason—each demise is more gruesome than the last. Watching his body disintegrate, burn, and be torn apart over and over again is as disturbing as it is darkly hilarious.
Back on Earth, Mickey was drowning in debt before signing up for the job that promised a better fate—only to end up on the ice-covered planet Nilfheim in 2054, where the elite continue to pull the strings. Mark Ruffalo hams it up as Kenneth Marshall, a space-age dictator in a red hat (Bong’s nod to certain real-world figures). Toni Collette is equally outrageous as his power-hungry wife, Ylfa.
While Mickey tries to navigate this hostile new world, he finds himself caught between different factions, including his supposed best friend, Timo (Steven Yeun), who may or may not be on his side. Meanwhile, Naomie Ackie’s Nasha offers Mickey something he thought was impossible—genuine human connection.
Bong isn’t new to dystopian storytelling (Snowpiercer, Okja), and Mickey 17 continues his exploration of class struggle, corporate greed, and the expendability of human lives. Here, he pushes the concept to an extreme—what happens when a human being becomes truly disposable?
The film, loosely based on Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7, already expands on the book’s premise (adding more iterations of Mickey, including a rogue Mickey 18). While the plot occasionally wobbles under its own weight, Bong’s maximalist vision and visual grandeur keep things engaging.
Is Mickey 17 as precise and tightly woven as Parasite? No. It’s messy, overstuffed, and sometimes indulgent. But it’s also wildly entertaining, brimming with ideas, and powered by Pattinson’s magnetic performance. If nothing else, it proves that Bong Joon-ho remains one of the boldest filmmakers of our time—fearlessly pushing boundaries, breaking genre rules, and ensuring his films remain unpredictable, provocative, and visually stunning.
