*spoilers ahead*
The plot of “Mickey 17” involves a character named Mickey who plays the role of an “expendable”— a character who has his body scanned by a big machine and is then used in extremely dangerous tests and job positions acting essentially as a guinea pig during experiments. Each time Mickey dies, his body is reprinted with all previous memories intact.
The film starts with the 17th version of Mickey, hence the title Mickey 17. Mickey’s job takes place on a planet called Niflheim, which is being colonized by human beings in the year 2054. Mark Ruffalo’s character Marshall wishes to establish a colony on this planet that promotes racial purity with himself as a pseudo fascist leader. Despite having the technology to print humans, it is considered illegal to have more than one copy of an individual alive at any given time.
This issue presents itself when Mickey 18 gets printed before the death of Mickey 17 has been confirmed, leaving the two of them alive at the same time. The one individual who actually likes having two versions is Mickey’s girlfriend who is excited at the prospect of two Mickeys during sexual encounters.
When Marshall discovers that there are two Mickeys alive at once he declares that they both must perish before deciding that they both must compete with each other to see which one lives and which one dies. The two of them are sent to mutilate the aliens that have surrounded their homebase but ultimately decide not to do so, and they begin interacting with the aliens using a language translator.
Mickey 18 sacrifices his life while killing Marshall, effectively leading to Mickey’s 17’s freedom and the eventual destruction of the human printer machine.
Overall the film itself was very weird.
The aliens in the film resemble grey croissants.
These aliens are initially perceived as violent and dangerous up until they go out of their way to save the life of Mickey 17.
Something I found to be very odd is the effort made by the mainstream media to compare Mark Ruffalo’s character with Donald Trump.
This is seen in the title for an article written by Clarisse Loughrey for The Independent where they state “Mickey 17 is an absurdist, anti-capitalist, Trump-mocking masterpiece”
This has been confirmed as incorrect according to an interview written by Jessica Wang with Entertainment Weekly, wherein Bong Joon Ho states that “the film’s antagonist was inspired by ‘a mix of many different politicians’ and ‘dictators that we have seen throughout history.'”
I perceive that individuals within the mainstream media are latching on to a character in a film in an effort to signal boost their own political ideology.
Having seen the film, I can confirm that from my own perspective, the character of Marshall is not intended to directly represent Donald Trump.
Ultimately this film managed to successfully blend science fiction with absurdist comedy in a manner that remains entertaining throughout the duration of the film.
