'Mickey 17' Made Me Reflect on America’s Dystopic Reality

When the Mickey 17 movie was announced, I was ecstatic to hear that Bong Joon-ho would be directing it, having followed his career more closely since watching his Oscar-winning film Parasite in 2019. By 2022, my excitement for the film reached new heights when news revealed Robert Pattinson would play the lead role. The sci-fi film is centered around Mickey Barnes, who joins an outer space expedition to evade a loan shark and joins an "expendables" program. (Note, there are spoilers ahead).

In the program, Mickey undergoes a cloning procedure with a machine that prints a new body for him with his memories and mind intact. He is then subjected to deadly conditions while exploring an inhospitable planet, named Niflheim, that offers hope for human survival on. The program was a controversial topic on Earth, to the point that it was eventually illegalized. But as humanity journeys through space, the program was allowed to resume. It has strict rules, but the most significant one is that there can't be more than one existing iteration of a person at the same time. "Multiples," as they're called in the film, are illegal. Punishment for their existence? All iterations are sentenced to death without the possibility of being reprinted. 

While watching the film, I was enamored with the visuals and Bong’s storytelling, not to mention Pattinson’s endearing accent and child-like character. However, I began to have an unshakable, eerie feeling and connection to the story: I realized that this fictitious story about the future and outer space exploration felt like a haunting reflection of what’s currently happening in America. Every day, news headlines are rife with details about the frightening state of our democracy, freedoms the current administration is stripping, and the growing wealth divide.

This sci-fi film quickly became something more. (It's deeper than it seems, just like Bong's Parasite movie.) While Bong includes sequences of comedic relief, it still hit close to home. Pattinson gives an incredible performance, and his dedication and commitment to this role are truly showcased in his portrayal of all Mickey's 18 versions. Read on as I explain how each theme in the movie—including wealth disparities and individual values—hit home for what I feel is a current dystopic reality.

Extreme Wealth Disparities

Mickey 17 focuses heavily on power dynamics between those in power and the average citizen, or passenger in this case. This feels like it mirrors what we’re seeing in the US economy, with a recession looming and tariffs imposed on imported goods. While the issues impacting the fictional world on-screen is daunting, I still find it refreshing to see those being acknowledged on a larger scale. It alleviates any sense of isolation.

Alongside Pattinson is a star-studded cast, including Mark Ruffalo, who portrays authoritarian figure Kenneth Marshall, a figure that puts the wealth and power disparity into perspective in the film. There’s a scene in which Mickey is invited to a special dinner with Marshall for all his hard work. As he arrives, Mickey is surrounded by abundant luxury, from the decor to the food itself. On the other hand, crew on the ship receive rations of food. As an expendable, Mickey’s food is limited even more. This cinematic image from Mickey 17 feels like it echoes a current reality, with USAID funding being cut, for example.

Individual Value Is Diminished

By choosing to join the expendable program, Mickey signs up for an endless cycle of death, followed by regeneration. He thought he was escaping death by signing up, but he didn’t read the full terms and conditions before signing the program contract. As Pattinson's character keeps dying, being disposable becomes burdensome to him. The people around him make him feel invaluable and worthless. I’m not a federal worker, but to me, this feels like another mirror to the reality federal workers are facing now.

The way Marshall treats and labels the film’s alien creatures—he labeled them "Creepers" because they’re creepy to him—felt like a parallel to the alienation-based discourse about immigrants or the LGBTQ+ community, for example. 

My Final Thoughts

Mickey 17 made me question a lot. The film holds an eerily accurate mirror to our society, despite its filming being about three years ago and its fictional setting in another time. The film left me bereft and wondering about the part I play in our society. There’s no doubt that, especially lately, bigotry and hatred have been tainting "American values." Sometimes, it feels like empathy is being lost, yet, at the same time, communities grow stronger in the face of opposition. I won’t say how Mickey 17 ends or if it left me hopeful or not, but it did remind me how much each of our individual efforts matter. They add up and can change the course of how this whole thing goes.