Mickey 17 Footage Reaction: Words Cannot Describe The First Bonkers Look From Director Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite Follow-Up
When your last film won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film, what in the heck could you possibly do for an encore? When you're Bong Joon-ho, a one-of-a-kind cinematic visionary who's yet to make a less-than-great movie, you go to Warner Bros and you go epic.
Bong's follow-up to his 2019 triumph "Parasite" is "Mickey 17," an adaptation of Edward Ashton's critically acclaimed science fiction novel about an expendable space explorer (Robert Pattinson) sent on a perilous mission to colonize the ice planet Niflheim. When the first Mickey dies, a human print is generated with most of the deceased's memories intact. In Ashton's book, the human printing process is set to continue indefinitely after the newest iteration of Mickey dies. But when one Mickey survives after being presumed dead, there are now two Mickeys on Niflheim – which would result in both being eliminated.
"Mickey 17" may not sound like a slam-dunk blockbuster (which it kinda needs to be given its reported $150 million budget), but Bong has more than earned the benefit of the doubt. The film has encountered some turbulence on the way to theaters. Its March 29, 2024 release date was scrubbed due to post-production delays caused by the SAG-AFTRA strike. "Mickey 17" will now open internationally on January 31, 2025, which has raised eyebrows around the industry. Unless there's a late-December Oscar-qualifying run planned, this means WB does not consider the film awards-worthy. Variety's Tatiana Siegel reported last February that WB execs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy are "said to be less pumped" for the movie, though a WB rep countered, "There is, of course, enthusiasm for it."
Well, according to /Film's Ryan Scott, who was present to check out some brand-new footage from the movie, "Mickey 17" looks exceptional, and De Luca himself called it a "big, bold original swing."
They human printed R-Patz for Mickey 17
"Mickey 17," like "Mickey 7," follows an employee named Mickey (Pattinson) on a human expedition to colonize an ice planet called Niflheim. The colonizers are considered expendable, and whenever one dies a human print copy is sent to replace them, with most of their previous iterations' memories intact. The 7 in "Mickey 7" comes from the numbers added to each version of a person, and "Mickey 17" had to have the title changed because, Bong jokes, they killed Mickey 10 more times. As far as casting goes, Mark Ruffalo ("Poor Things") plays the "bad guy," a strange dictator who rules this bizarre future world, and Toni Collette ("Hereditary") plays his wife. Naomi Ackie ("Doctor Who") plays Mickey's girlfriend.
Warner Bros. shared footage from the film which included a shot of a huge ship hovering over a planet (likely Niflheim) as Pattinson does a voice-over in a rather strange voice. He explains that he's an "expendable," a choice that baffles the people in his life who aren't themselves also expendables. He has experiments done on him and gets maimed and killed, though it seems kind of irreverent and darkly funny. Mickey seems fine with his whole arrangement until there's a situation with multiples, as in two Mickeys (Mickey 17 and 18). According to Scott, the footage was "huge, ridiculous, and shocking. It's big budget with a personality." He also said, "Holy s*** that looks insane. Words do it no justice," and when you see as many movies as we do, those are not easy words to come by.
An interesting challenge for an actor
(Note: The above image is from the 2019 film "High Life.")
Pattison took the stage at CinemaCon to talk about the film a little bit, sharing that Bong is his "hero" and that "he's got a crazy thing in his eyes," while Bong described Pattinson as "creative" and joked that he knew he was right for the role because he "felt like he could do all of the different variations of Mickey in this story." There are probably at least a couple of different Mickeys we see beyond the titular one and the one directly after him, which should give Pattinson plenty of room to stretch his acting muscles. He did say that it was difficult differentiating between Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, however, because the two have to try and pretend they're the same person because multiples aren't allowed to exist. He said that "18 has no impulse control and has no time for how 17 has been surviving," which is something that will be harder to convey when they have to try and keep their very different personalities on the down low.
We will have to wait until 2025 to see the full greatness of "Mickey 17," but hopefully there will be a trailer or two before then that gives us a sneak peek of double Robert Pattinsons. Y'know, for science.