Over and Over and Over Again

Bong Joon Ho is a pretty interesting filmmaker. He tends towards movies that comment on the disparities between the haves and have-nots, such as in most famous works, Snowpiercer and Parasite. Snowpiercer is the film I’m certain most reading this site are familiar with, both because of its sci-fi setting – a train holding the last of the world’s population, steadily zooming around the world year after year while the Earth goes through a man-made ice age – as well as its famous cast (Chris Evans, John Hurt, Ed Harris, and Tilda Swinton) all in attendance, and I think that is a film that really does prime someone for watching just about anything else Bong Joon Ho directs.

Certainly because I’d seen Snowpiercer I was ready for some of the weirder feints and shifts of story that came in his latest work, Mickey 17. Based on the novel Mickey 7 about a man signed up to be an “expendable” for a deep space colony, getting cloned over and over again as deadly trouble befalls him, the film explores many of the themes that Ho seems most interested in: the divide between the haves and have-nots as well as the idiocy of those sitting at the top of the world (financially, political, et al). I got into this film because I understood what Ho was going for and I appreciate his weird, filmmaking tics.

And yet the film pretty thoroughly failed at the Box Office. Developed on a budget of $118 Mil (not taking into account advertising and other expenses), the film made only $182 Mil during its theatrical release. Without home video sales and other ancillary income to help offset those costs, and considering all expenses (as well as theaters taking their cut of the proceeds), Mickey 17 was a financial loss for Warner Bros. While I do feel like that’s a pity as Mickey 17 is a really good film, I also can’t say I’m surprised. This is a weird film, with a weirder hook, that is hard to sell to audiences. You have to want to get into this movie as it’s strange and challenging and doesn’t invite you in easily. It’s a film worth discovering, but I just don’t think most people were up for that challenge.

The film focuses on Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), specifically the seventeenth clone of it. While on Earth Mickey made some regrettable decisions, including taking a lot of money out from a loan shark to open up a cookie shop, a decision made at the behest of his “best friend”, Timo (Steven Yeun). When the cookie shop inevitably fails, Mickey and Timo have to leave the Earth quickly lest they fall victim to the violent machinations of the loan shark. So they get jobs aboard the outgoing space colony ship led by religious and political nutjob Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his equally nutty wife Ylfa Marshall (Toni Collette).

But while Timo is able to con his way into a pilot job aboard the spaceship, the simple (and frankly pretty dumb) Mickey has to take a job as an “expendable”. These crewmembers are there to do all the dirty, dangerous, and suicidal jobs no one else is willing or able to do. Expendables are, as the name implies, expendable. When they die a new clone of them is printed off, with their memories loaded back in. This happened a number of times to Mickey, often due to disease on the planet they’ve landed on, Niefelheim. Thankfully Mickey found someone to help him get through his days, Nasha Barridge (Naomi Ackie), a security officer on the ship who loves Mickey no matter how many times he has to be reprinted. But when Mickey nearly dies out in the cold wastes, a new problem comes up: his crew thought he was dead, so they printed off a new clone, Mickey 18. But Mickey 17 wasn’t dead, and now there’s two of them, in clear contravention of the laws and regulations around clones. If one of them doesn’t die, they’ll both be killed and their memory data will be permanently erased. That could spell the end for Mickey, in all his forms.

I won’t deny I skipped over this film when it was out originally. I find it harder to get to the theater now, in this post-COVID era, so I’m much choosier about what films I’m willing to see (and sometimes see again, such as in the case of Sinners) in theaters and what I’d rather wait for on one of the streaming services I pay for. While I like the works of Bong Joon Ho, I have to admit that the trailers for this film didn’t really sell it well and, well, I wasn’t much of a fan of Robert Pattinson.

I know Pattinson primarily from two film franchises, Twilight and The Batman, and he didn’t impress me in either. I know I shouldn’t blame him for that. In Twilight one of the leads is a bland, soulless creature no one should love, and the other is played by Robert Pattinson. I joke, but really neither of the leads in that film series are great, despite the fact they’ve both been in (so I’ve been told) much better works outside that series. Then I saw him in The Batman, which I hated, and I just decided much of the reason is because I didn’t gel with the actor.

Credit to him, then, because I actually really gelled with him here. Pattinson is great as Mickey, in all his forms. As Mickey 17 there’s a sweet, slightly dumb, kindness to the character, and Pattinson gives the clone a kind of soulfulness that really makes you care about him. He’s able to sell all the emotional beats of the role, while keeping you invested in a character that should, for all intents, be utterly expendable. Sure, credit for that is due to Ho’s script as well, but it wouldn’t work without Pattinson in the lead role… and secondary role as well.

One trick the film pulls, and that Pattinson is able to pull off, is that Mickey 18 is a very different character. As we learn early, each clone is slightly different from the one before, despite what the scientists in the movie profess. Mickey 18 is more bloodthirsty, crueler and meaner, where Mickey 17 is sweet and kind. It allows for a nice contrast between the characters, and it also means that Pattinson gets to sink his teeth (his glittery, vampiric teeth) into a meatier role than you’d expect at first glance. This works to the actor’s advantage, and he’s really able to explore his character in multiple (cloned) ways in this film. It’s great.

Of course, Ho is also able to use the whole setup for the film to explore his favorite topic of the haves and have-nots. Mickey is certainly a have-not, not just because he was broke and had to take whatever job he could get, but also because he’s essentially treated like the lowest man on the ship by everyone other than Nasha. He’s expendable, so no one actually cares about him, figuring he’s disposable so why should they treat him well? In contrast, Kenneth and Ylfa are the haves, spoiled and coddled and allowed to get away with anything and everything. They’re the ineffectual leaders of the expedition, getting by on luck and the hard work of Mickey, but while he’s treated like dirt they reap all the benefits. It makes you care more about Mickey while hating Kennneth and Ylfa, and the film gets a lot of mileage out of this whole dichotomy.

I think what many trying to get into the film would struggle with, though, is all the weird flourishes that Ho throws in. There’s strange food and stranger substances meant to inspire a certain amount of disgust and horror from audiences. These moments are played in a joking fashion, but it’s a kind of humor that wouldn’t resonate with everyone in the audience. There were similar moments in Snowpiercer, but those times the horror was more intentional and it was paired with a very tightly plotted, quite literally linear action story that propelled viewers through its odd moments. Mickey 17 is meandering by comparison, looping and whorling back around itself as it takes narrative asides to fully explore its world, and I think this wouldn’t really work for everyone in the audience, likely turning away some viewers.

I wasn’t turned away, though. I really enjoyed the film, from its strange start to its gonzo finish. The film has a lot of big, great ideas and it explores them all, creating a very complete vision of its world and the colonists within. I enjoyed all the strange beats and its multiple storylines, as well as all the actors involved. This is a very specific, finely crafted vision from Ho, and I enjoyed it start to finish.

It’s a pity that Mickey 17 didn’t do well in theaters, but now that it’s out on HBO MaxThe oldest and longer-running cable subscription service, HBO provides entertainment in the force of licensed movies along with a huge slate of original programming, giving it the luster of the premiere cable service. Now known primarily for its streaming service, HBO Max (formerly Max, HBO Max, HBO Go, HBO Now, et al). I certainly hope people come around to it. It’s a great film with really good ideas. Mostly, though, I hope that Ho is able to keep making weird movies like this because, frankly, he’s got an interesting vision that I want to see more of.