Mickey 17 is a 2025 science fiction black comedy film written, produced, and directed by Bong Joon-ho, based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. The film stars Robert Pattinson in the title role, alongside Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo. Set in the future, the plot follows a man who joins a space colony as an “Expendable”, a disposable worker who gets cloned every time he dies for research purposes.
Mickey 17 premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2025, before being theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in South Korea on February 28, 2025, and later in the United States on March 7. The film received positive reviews from critics, with many highlighting Bong’s direction and Pattinson’s performances.
Plot
In the year 2054, Mickey Barnes and his friend Timo are financially destitute after a failed business venture. Unable to repay a murderous loan shark, the pair flee by signing up as crew for a spaceship that leaves Earth to colonize the planet Niflheim — Timo as a shuttle pilot and Mickey as the spaceship’s only “Expendable”. Using Earth-banned technology to clone Mickey and restore his memories, Mickey is treated as disposable, given lethal assignments and regenerated after death. During the voyage, a romance develops between Mickey and security agent Nasha.
Four years later, the spaceship arrives at snowy Niflheim. Using several Mickeys sequentially, the spaceship’s scientists develop a vaccine against Niflheim’s pathogens. Mickey 17, the seventeenth Mickey iteration, is tasked to capture Niflheim’s caterpillar-like lifeform (“creeper”) for analysis. He falls into a fissure in the ice, beyond the reach of Timo, who leaves and reports Mickey 17’s death. The creepers arrive and collectively push Mickey 17 out of the fissure.
Mickey 17 returns to the spaceship and meets the recently generated Mickey 18, who is more aggressive. As the expedition’s leader, politician Kenneth Marshall, has vowed to kill any “Multiples” (simultaneously living clones), Mickey 18 tries to kill Mickey 17, who resists, suggesting that the Mickeys live by secretly rotating duties, meals and deaths. Mickey 18 then tries to kill Timo, but is interrupted and leaves with Nasha. Mickey 17 is brought to dinner with Marshall, his wife Ylfa, and security agent Kai. Mickey 17 suffers severe pain after being served experimental meat and being treated with experimental painkillers. Kai intervenes to stop Marshall from executing Mickey 17. Kai later woos Mickey 17, who flees.
Nasha learns of the Mickeys and accepts them both. Kai discovers the Mickeys, and goes to report them. Nasha stops Kai, who asks Nasha to let Kai have Mickey 17. When Mickey 17 informs Mickey 18 what happened at dinner, an enraged Mickey 18 decides to kill Marshall. Mickey 18 finds Marshall at a public ceremony commemorating a piece of Niflheim rock. Chaos ensues when two young creepers emerge from the rock. Mickey 17 arrives and captures creeper Zoco. Creeper Luko is killed by Kai and other security agents after Luko jumped on Marshall. Nasha stops Mickey 18 from killing Marshall, who discovers the Multiples. Mickey 17, Mickey 18 and Nasha are arrested. Numerous creepers arrive outside the ship, calling out to Zoco.
In the brig, Mickey 17’s description of the creepers helping him makes Nasha realize they are not hostile. Timo tries to kill one Mickey to satisfy the loan shark, but Nasha and Mickey 18 foil this. The Mickeys and Nasha are brought to Marshall, who wants to kill the creepers. Marshall destroys Mickey’s stored memories, while Nasha saves Zoco from death. Ylfa and Marshall’s assistant Preston persuade Marshall to task the Mickeys to compete in collecting creeper tails, with the winner being allowed to live. The Mickeys are forced to wear remote detonated bomb vests to ensure their compliance.
When the Mickeys are sent out, they peacefully seek out the creepers’ leader, which prompts Marshall to go outside himself with a security team, intending to personally kill the creepers. Using a translation device, Mickey 17 communicates with the creepers’ leader, informing on Marshall’s plan. The creepers’ leader threatens to kill all humans unless Zoco is returned alive, and one human is killed in recompense for Luko’s death.
Mickey 17 communicates to Nasha via camera; she realizes the need to free Zoco. Nasha takes Ylfa hostage to ensure Zoco’s release. Nasha releases Ylfa, who tries to kill Zoco, but Nasha again saves Zoco. The security agents arrest Ylfa. Nasha returns Zoco to the creepers’ leader, while Mickey 18 fights Marshall. Mickey 18 detonates the bomb planted on his vest, killing himself and Marshall to fulfill the demand by the creepers’ leader.
In the aftermath, Ylfa commits suicide in a psychiatric ward, while Preston and other Marshall conspirators are imprisoned. An associate of the loan shark tries to kill Timo, but Timo kills him instead. Nasha is later elected as a colony political leader. She officiates a groundbreaking ceremony on Niflheim, where Mickey 17 (now “Mickey Barnes”) detonates the cloning device to symbolically end the Expendables program.
