---
title: "Mickey 17"
year: 2025
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/mickey-17"
fi1m_id: "mickey-17"
imdb_id: "tt12299608"
tmdb_id: 696506
wikidata_id: "Q112977213"
fi1m_score: 70
critics_score: 71
critics_reviews: 23
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:51.839765+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Mickey 17 (2025)

Directed by Bong Joon Ho · 2h 17m · MPA R · Science Fiction, Comedy, Adventure

## Identity

Mickey 17

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/mickey-17
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** mickey-17
- **IMDb ID:** tt12299608
- **TMDB ID:** 696506
- **Wikidata ID:** Q112977213
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12299608/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/696506, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112977213

**Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 71 from 23 reviews

*In a sentence:* Everyone aboard wants to know what dying feels like; nobody asks how he is

> Bong Joon Ho’s clone comedy is funny, kind and overstuffed. Robert Pattinson, playing two versions of the same disposable man, is reason enough to see it; Mark Ruffalo’s shouting and a baggy middle hour are the reasons it is not more.

## Synopsis

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) is broke, hunted by a loan shark after a failed macaron business with his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), and signs on as an Expendable aboard a colony ship bound for the ice planet Niflheim. The job is to die. He is sent into radiation, disease and cold, and each time his body is reprinted and his memories poured back in. The ship is run by Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a failed politician, and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette); Mickey’s lover Nasha (Naomi Ackie) works security.

## Review

Bong Joon Ho’s first film since [*Parasite*](https://film.one/film/parasite) takes Edward Ashton’s novel about a man who is printed afresh every time he dies and turns it into a broad, warm, argumentative comedy about who gets used up so that everyone else can carry on. It is the kind of film he has made before in English, loud and shaggy and full of ideas that arrive faster than they can be put away. We laughed a great deal and we checked the time twice, and both are the film’s doing. It is funny for most of its length and about twenty minutes too long.

Robert Pattinson holds it together. Mickey 17 is a soft, apologetic man who speaks in a thin, high voice with his shoulders up round his ears, and Pattinson plays him as someone who has come to regard his own deaths as a mild inconvenience to other people. Mickey 18 comes out of the printer angry, stands up straight and looks people in the eye, and the two are so distinct that we stopped noticing the trick within a scene. There is a moment early on when the crew in the canteen ask him, again, what dying feels like, and he tries to answer politely, and it caught us off guard: we had been laughing at his deaths for twenty minutes and suddenly found them sad. That is Pattinson’s doing. Nobody else on board asks how he is.

Fiona Crombie builds the ship as a workplace: narrow corridors of dull metal, a canteen where portions are measured and pudding is a reward, and the printer itself, which ejects a wet new Mickey with the indifference of an office machine producing a form. Darius Khondji lights the interiors a greenish grey and saves the white for the planet, where the snow goes on until it hurts to look at and the creepers, armoured things somewhere between a woodlouse and a pastry, come rolling out of it. Catherine George puts the crew in boiler suits and Marshall’s followers in red caps, which is not subtle and is not meant to be.

Mark Ruffalo plays Kenneth Marshall, the failed politician who has bought himself a planet, with a set of teeth, a strut and a preacher’s cadence, and he is funny for about three scenes. After that he has one setting, and the film keeps going back to it. Toni Collette has more range as Ylfa, his wife, who cares about sauces the way he cares about destiny, and their dinners have a nasty domestic comedy the rallies lack. Naomi Ackie’s Nasha is the heart of the thing, a security officer who loves Mickey without reservation and says so, and her one furious speech to power is the best written scene in the film. Steven Yeun’s Timo, the friend who got Mickey into this, is a sketch the film needs and never fills in.

The trouble is shape. The first forty minutes, narrated by Mickey and cut by Yang Jin-mo as a brisk history of his lives and deaths, are the film at its best: clear, fast and cruel. Then the film acquires more plots than it can hold and moves between them without deciding which one it is telling. Somewhere past the ninety-minute mark, during another of Marshall’s addresses, we found ourselves waiting for it to get on with it, which we did not expect from a film that feeds a man to the ice for laughs. Jung Jae-il’s score keeps a jaunty, slightly lopsided theme under the deaths so that each plays as a beat in a routine, and it works until the routine runs long.

Against Bong’s own record this sits with *Snowpiercer* (2013) and *Okja* (2017) rather than *Parasite* (2019) or *Memories of Murder* (2003). His English-language films have always been broader than his Korean ones, the villains cartoons and the sympathies plain, and this is the broadest yet. What it has that *Snowpiercer* lacked is a kind centre: Mickey is a good man who has been told he is nothing, and the film never once agrees with the people who told him.

The ending ties things off more neatly than the two hours before it have earned, and we will not describe it beyond that. See it for Pattinson, twice, for Ackie, and for a printer that spits out a man like a bad photocopy. It runs 137 minutes and carries a 15.

*Fi1m score 70, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like it, and the praise lands in the same place: Robert Pattinson. Nearly every review, including the hostile ones, singles out his dual performance as the two Mickeys, and several call it his best work. Naomi Ackie’s turn is the next most mentioned, with The Guardian picking out her speech to power as the scene the film builds to. The humour and the satire of capitalism and cloned labour are widely enjoyed, though a recurring reservation is that the ideas are ones Bong has handled before, and handled more tidily. Messy, shaggy, sloppy and uneven recur as adjectives even in warm reviews.

The spread is wide. Variety finds it shrill and preachy, the Financial Times says it never locates a plot, The Ringer calls it Bong’s first real stumble, and Film Comment simply finds it boring. Several of the enthusiasts concede it is not Parasite; the dissenters treat that as the whole verdict.

## Straight answers

**Is Mickey 17 worth watching?**

*Mickey 17* is worth watching for anyone who likes their science fiction broad, funny and a little too long, and we scored it 70. Robert Pattinson, playing two versions of the same disposable man, is the reason to see it; Mark Ruffalo's one-note villain and a baggy middle hour are the reasons it is not more.

**How long is Mickey 17, and what is it rated?**

*Mickey 17* runs 2h 17m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a science fiction and comedy film.

**Where can I watch Mickey 17 in the US?**

*Mickey 17* is streaming on HBO Max, The Roku Channel, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video from $4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Mickey 17, and is it suitable for children?**

*Mickey 17* carries a UK 15 certificate, and its comedy depends on watching one man die repeatedly, by radiation, disease, cold and being fed to the ice. The deaths play as beats in a routine rather than as horror, but the film is not for young children, and the squeamish should know the printer ejects a wet new body each time.

**How does Mickey 17 compare to Brazil?**

*Mickey 17* is the warmer and kinder of the two films, and [*Brazil*](https://film.one/film/brazil) is the more frightening and the more exhausting. Both are comedies in which the machinery is the joke and the joke is fatal, but Bong keeps a good man at the centre and never agrees he is nothing, while Gilliam's cruelty is harder to shrug off and his storytelling loses shape more badly.

**Is Mickey 17 based on a true story or a book?**

*Mickey 17* is based on the novel by Edward Ashton, about a man whose body is reprinted and whose memories are restored each time he dies; it is not a true story. Bong Joon Ho turns it into a broad, argumentative comedy, and you do not need to have read the book to follow it.

**What should I watch after Mickey 17?**

After *Mickey 17*, try [*Moon*](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-new-moon) (2009, Fi1m 48): Sam Rockwell alone on a lunar base meets himself; quieter, sadder, same question. Then [*Brazil*](https://film.one/film/brazil) (1985, Fi1m 83): Gilliam’s paperwork dystopia, where the machinery is the joke and the joke is fatal; and [*Starship Troopers*](https://film.one/film/starship-troopers) (1997, Fi1m 79): Verhoeven plays the colonial war film straight until you notice who the monsters are.

### Reviews we read (28)

- **Total Film**, David Opie (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it Bong Joon-ho's best English-language film and arguably Robert Pattinson's best performance, praising its humor, charming world-building, and timely satirical concerns alongside strong genre elements. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/sci-fi-movies/mickey-17-review/)
- **Empire**, Helen O’Hara (80/100, inferred): The critic finds it a charming, goofy yet thoughtful sci-fi satire that subverts expectations with its hero's hapless survival and explores humanity with optimism. Praises the blend of humor, romance, and social commentary. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mickey-17/)
- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (4/4/4): The critic finds the film gross and heartwarming in equal measure, commending Pattinson’s committed dual performance and Ackie’s delightful turn while noting it is not as slick as Parasite but still fun and endearing. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/mickey-17)
- **Radio Times** (4/5): The critic describes it as a bonkers sci-fi tale with black humour and a double dose of Pattinson, noting it is funnier and more twisted than expected while dealing uniquely with cloning ethics. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/mickey-17-review/)
- **The Guardian**, Wendy Ide (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a lot of fun as a timely sci-fi satire, though not quite on the level of Parasite. She singles out the galvanising scene in which Naomi Ackie delivers a profanity-laden truth-to-power speech. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/09/mickey-17-bong-joon-ho-review-robert-pattinson-sci-fi-space-clone-satire)
- **Time Out**, Lou Thomas (4/5): The critic calls it a spectacular if uneven sci-fi romp with two stellar Pattinson performances, praising the visual strikingness and tremendous fun despite some mid-film sag and less political bite than prior works. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/news/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson-and-bong-joon-ho-team-up-for-an-otherworldly-sci-fi-blockbuster-021525)
- **Vulture** (80/100, inferred): The critic highlights the bitterly funny take on America and capitalism through the immortal drudge premise, praising the high point of the explanation sequence and hopeful note, while noting some familiar elements. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/mickey-17-review-bong-joon-hos-bitter-take-on-america.html)
- **The AV Club**, Jacob Oller (B): The critic praises the energetic, messy, hilarious sci-fi that combines Bong's themes into a shaggy but entertaining critique of labor exploitation and authoritarianism, with strong performances especially from Pattinson. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/mickey-17-review)
- **The Telegraph** (75/100, inferred): The review calls it an enjoyably mad sci-fi confection and a boisterous throwback blockbuster satire. It praises Robert Pattinson as a hangdog delight in the central role. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson (65/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a sloppy but enjoyable sci-fi comedy that recycles the director's past ideas on inequality and environmentalism. Pattinson's dual cartoonish and heroic physical transformations are highlighted as a standout. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-03-07/mickey-17-review-bong-joon-ho-robert-pattinson-toni-collette-mark-ruffalo-steven-yeun-naomi-ackie)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the film entertaining due to Pattinson but scattershot with heavy-handed satire and lacking thematic coherence, feeling trifling compared to Bong's sharper previous work. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson-bong-joon-ho-1236135592/)
- **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (40/100, inferred): The review finds the anarchic space adventure ultimately disappointing despite its ambitions. It singles out the repetitive use of Pattinson as a punchline and the failure to locate a strong plot. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/fc26b972-6a5e-4396-9945-df7c53b55c51)
- **Variety**, Peter Debruge (40/100, inferred): The critic calls it a disappointing follow-up that recycles familiar satire but turns sloppy, shrill, and preachy. Pattinson's game performance as the dopey Expendable is praised amid the film's oddity and production design. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/mickey-17-review-bong-joon-ho-robert-pattinson-1236307598/)
- **Film Comment**, Caitlín Doherty (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film boring and not fun, with clunky dialogue and underused elements; praises some touches of commentary but overall it's a disappointment that feels like the present. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/bugged-out-mickey-17-bong-joon-ho-review/)
- **Screen Daily**: The critic views it as a proudly idiosyncratic sci-fi dark comedy that wobbles in tone but is held together by rage at humanity’s cruelty and compassion for the protagonist, with Pattinson providing strong resonance. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/mickey-17-review-bong-joon-ho-unites-with-robert-pattinson-for-quirky-near-future-drama/5201795.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The critic praises Bong Joon Ho’s playful sci-fi satire for its oddity and overt political commentary targeting white nationalism and colonialism. Pattinson’s dual performance and the film’s blend of humour with human drama amid grand effects are highlighted positively. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/mickey-17-bong-joon-hos-wild-sci-fi-satire-takes-aim-white-nationalism)
- **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (Critic's Pick): The critic finds the film a very funny yet utterly serious dystopian romp about class and power. Pattinson's soulful, hapless performance and silent-clown physicality are singled out as crucial to its tonal expansiveness. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/movies/mickey-17-review.html)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): The critic describes a boisterous sci-fi comedy packed with political broadsides, corporate spoofs and space-movie pastiches. He praises the spectacular look and the way it keeps posing interesting questions. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson-bong-joon-ho-hhjndf95w)
- **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a hilarious, humane and thought-provoking satire with Robert Pattinson delivering a revelation as the two Mickeys. It is singled out for its witty take on dehumanization, class divides and finding self-worth amid unfeeling leaders. [Read](https://deadline.com/2025/02/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson-x-2-bong-joon-ho-hilarious-humane-satire-berlin-film-festival-1236290550/)
- **/Film**, BJ Colangelo (9/10): The critic hails it as Bong Joon-ho's best English-language film yet and an early Oscar contender, a deeply heartfelt and uncomfortably funny musing on capitalism, colonization, and corruption with superlative performances. [Read](https://slashfilm.com/1790524/mickey-17-review)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (8/10): Bong Joon Ho delivers his best English-language film to date, a weird and wonderful sci-fi comedy with a hilarious Robert Pattinson in dual roles as the clones. The critic singles out Pattinson's comedic performance and the film's tighter narrative focus compared to Bong's prior English efforts. [Read](https://collider.com/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson-bong-joon-ho/)
- **Film Stories**, Ryan Lambie (80/100, inferred): The critic calls it a blackly comic sci-fi satire that entertains as a midnight-black, broad satire with a surprisingly British tone and a rare sense of hope amid its critique of capitalism and power. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/news/mickey-17-review-another-bong-hit)
- **HeyUGuys**, Linda Marric (4/5): The critic praises it as a worthy and wildly inventive follow-up that is weird, messy, thoughtful, and kind of hopeful, with strong performances and sharp thematic depth on identity and commodified lives. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/mickey-17-review/)
- **NME**, Nick Levine (4/5): The critic calls it a kooky, heartfelt sci-fi satire with infectious warmth and gleeful satire; notes some incoherence but finds it well worth seeking out, highlighting Pattinson and the allegory for fascism. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/mickey-17-review-bong-joon-ho-robert-pattinson-3843814)
- **Polygon**, Toussaint Egan (80/100, inferred): Bong Joon Ho's sci-fi black comedy is a sexy, slapstick success that explores identity, labor, and self-worth through the story of two clones learning to live with themselves. The critic singles out Robert Pattinson's captivating dual performance and the tender, sexy dynamic with Naomi Ackie's character. [Read](https://polygon.com/movies/533897/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson)
- **The Wrap** (80/100, inferred): The review hails Robert Pattinson's elastic, comedy-gold performance as multiple Mickeys in Bong Joon-ho's madcap sci-fi satire. It praises the film's abundant ideas and buffoonish antics while noting it plays louder and looser than the director's more streamlined prior works. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/mickey-17-review-robert-pattinson/)
- **The Ringer**, Adam Nayman (40/100, inferred): The film falls short of Bong Joon Ho's high standards for the first time, with erratic storytelling and characterizations that lack the usual control and momentum. The critic singles out Robert Pattinson's dual performance as the most successful element. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2025/03/06/movies/mickey-17-movie-review-bong-joon-ho)
- **Den of Geek**, David Crow (4 out of 5): The critic loves the bold, eccentric filmmaking and Pattinson's performance; praises the gallows humor, satire on capitalism, and ambitious spectacle despite some narrative clutter. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/mickey-17-review-see-robert-pattinson/)

## Details

- **Director:** Bong Joon Ho
- **Director:** Bong Joon Ho
- **Writer:** Bong Joon Ho
- **Novel:** Edward Ashton
- **Cinematography:** Darius Khondji
- **Editor:** Yang Jin-mo
- **Music:** Jung Jae-il
- **Production design:** Fiona Crombie
- **Costume design:** Catherine George
- **Producer:** Choi Doo-ho, Bong Joon Ho, Jeremy Kleiner
- **Cast:** Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes; Naomi Ackie as Nasha; Steven Yeun as Timo; Mark Ruffalo as Kenneth Marshall; Toni Collette as Ylfa; Anamaria Vartolomei as Kai Katz; Daniel Henshall as Preston; Patsy Ferran as Dorothy
- **Runtime:** 2h 17m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 7 March 2025
- **Genres:** Science Fiction, Comedy, Adventure
- **Budget:** $118 million
- **Box office:** $134 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA1s65o_kYM

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming, uhd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Hulu: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd
- Apple TV: rent $4.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, uhd
- Apple TV: buy $7.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Moon* (2009), Fi1m 48: Sam Rockwell alone on a lunar base meets himself; quieter, sadder, same question. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-twilight-saga-new-moon.md)
- *Brazil* (1985), Fi1m 83: Gilliam’s paperwork dystopia, where the machinery is the joke and the joke is fatal. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/brazil.md)
- *Starship Troopers* (1997), Fi1m 79: Verhoeven plays the colonial war film straight until you notice who the monsters are. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/starship-troopers.md)
- *Sorry to Bother You* (2018), Fi1m 81: Boots Riley’s labour satire goes somewhere stranger than this and does not apologise. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sorry-to-bother-you.md)
- *Snowpiercer* (2013), Fi1m 80: Bong’s earlier English film: one train, one class system, fewer speeches. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/snowpiercer.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/mickey-17