In Mickey 17, Parasite writer-director Bong Joon-Ho travels to the future – and outer space – to tell the story of Robert Pattinson’s title character… or rather, to tell the story of Robert Pattinson’s at least 17 title characters. Because, see, Mickey is a clone.
In the new sci-fi movie, which is based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton and also stars Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo, Pattinson’s Mickey takes a job on a colony spaceship as an “expendable” worker. Basically, he’s onboard to do, as Harry Callahan once said, every dirty job in the book. Even if it kills him. Which it often does. Take, for example, what happens to Mickey in the exclusive clip from Mickey 17 that we just debuted at IGN Fan Fest:
So a deadly alien virus takes you out, what’re ya gonna do? Just print out a new Mickey, it’ll be fine!
That’s certainly the trick to much of Bong Joon-Ho’s work, which often straddles a line between sci-fi, satire, and social commentary: He somehow finds the humor in the tragic, and the tragedy in the humor too at times. I spoke to him recently about Mickey 17, how important it is to him to straddle that line between the funny and the messed-up, and more.
“There is a lot of humor in this film,” says Bong (through a translator), “but it doesn’t roll with the singular goal of making the audience laugh as many times as they can. I think humor really strengthens sadness, and especially with those bitter laughs, you get a huge mixture of different emotions.”
It’s certainly a hoot seeing a not-quite-dead-yet Robert Pattinson being tossed to his molten grave even as he says “thank you” to the guys who are throwing him in, but as Bong’s films like Parasite, Snowpiercer and The Host have shown us, there’s more going on here than just goopy, sci-fi fun.
“When you’re exploring social-political themes, instead of just going super hard on a serious tone, if you use humor to deliver that story, it leaves the audience with a longer-lasting impression,” the filmmaker continues. “Because the audience, they can laugh out loud at something, but then afterwards they’re like, ‘Was that worth actually laughing about?’ You kind of feel guilty. You start ruminating on what it was that you were actually laughing at, and you slowly discover what was in that humor and what meanings it was trying to deliver.”
Obviously there’s a long tradition of using science fiction storytelling to talk about real-world issues and current events, masking hot topics beneath the guise of mutant monsters, alien cultures, and maybe even poor bastards who sign up to be expendable clones.
I asked Bong how much he’s inspired by real figures and events when telling his stories. In Mickey 17, for example, the leader of the planned space colony is Mark Ruffalo’s Kenneth Marshall, a politician and sorta cult leader who is portrayed as a lecherous, exaggerated weirdo. But the director demurred from naming any specific current lecherous, exaggerated weirdos in public life who he might be inspired by.
“Of course, Mickey 17 does have a clear political layer, and I think a huge appeal of sci-fi is that it lets you really excitedly jump into political satire,” he says. “Through a story about the future, you actually discuss more about the past. And Mark Ruffalo’s character, he plays a dictator alongside his wife, Ylfa, played by Toni Collette, and those characters, it kind of reminds you of all the sort of political turmoil and bad politicians that we have experienced in the past. And I try to create sort of a mix of all the bad memories we have about politics with those two characters.”
Bong cites “so many, so many” when asked what his favorite sci-fi film is, but John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Alien are at the top of the pile. (He also shouts out a low-budget indie about giant insects called Infestation: “I love that film.”) As for the future of the genre, he’s optimistic.
“The masters of the sci-fi genre are getting old, and it would be great to see new up and coming sci-fi directors make a splash,” he says. “I definitely see directors continuing that lineage, like Alex Garland, and [Fede Álvarez’s] Alien: Romulus was great. There’s a particular excitement that comes from sci-fi, and I would love to just see more of these traditional sci-fi films, because if you look at my films, I’m kind of an exception [as a] sci-fi filmmaker. It’s sci-fi, but it doesn’t really feel like sci-fi. I kind of like to pull down the genre to the realm of pit stains and sweat stains!”
Let’s hear it for pit stains and sweat stains in our sci-fi, then. Mickey 17 is in theaters on March 7.
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