Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, & Naomi Ackie on “Mickey 17”: A Biting Sci-Fi Comedy

Cormac Newman March 6, 2025

Put off by the dark headlines drenching today’s news cycle? Take a trip to the theatre this Friday; you’ll find a moment of respite in Mickey 17, a searing sci-fi satire from Parasite director Bong Joon Ho. The picture follows Robert Pattinson as Mickey, an “expendable” worker — sort of like a sophisticated crash dummy — aboard a spaceship. As an expendable, Mickey can ‘die’ and be reprinted, complete with all his memories; in fact, he’s already done so sixteen times, hence the title. Although the film takes place on a different planet (and Mickey himself moans that “our entire life is a punishment”), you’ll find that Charlie Chaplin’s famous quote still applies: “Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.” 

Colourful characters pour over the spaceship. Mark Ruffalo leads the craft as Kenneth Marshall, a pouty politician prone to fascism and flattery, with wife Gwen Marshall (Toni Collette) whispering in his ear. Steven Yeun is Berto, Mickey’s “one and only friend” who sticks him in many-a-peril (though he’s always got an excuse for doing so). It’s not entirely hostile territory, though: Mickey’s ally and love interest, Nasha Barridge, (Naomi Ackie) is a brief reprieve.

A comedic blend of science fiction and horror, the film takes inspiration from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey7. That said, myriad differences separate the two projects. “I actually haven’t read the book, but I was familiar with it,” Steven Yeun explains. “When we started making the film, I don’t know if the book was even out yet.” So, rather than a true-to-the-page adaptation, it’s a “free” retelling — more like a fairytale with numerous variants than an on-screen extension of the same story. In fact, Bong diverged from Mickey7 intentionally. “We were discouraged from reading [Mickey7],” says actor Toni Collette, with co-star Naomi Ackie adding: “I remember in my meeting, [Bong] said, “Okay, so it’s about Mickey 17, it’s a book,'” and I was like ‘Oh, okay, I’ll give it a read,'” she laughs. “He was like, ‘No, no, please don’t — don’t read it, because it’s a very free adaptation of the book.'”

“Even talking during this press session, the film is starting to reveal itself to me too, you know? You’re hearing about how it reflects to other people and you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t see it that way.’ It’s like a living organism.”

Steven Yeun

Naturally, the final cut is tailored for cinemas. From the first scene — a frosty affair at the bottom of an alien-infested ice cave, with a frigid Robert Pattinson trapped inside — Mickey 17 is a visual marvel. Roughly half the film takes place aboard a brutalist spacecraft, equipped with a hole-in-the-floor incinerator and an archaic ‘jail’ stacked with metal cages. Yet there’s a great deal of Hollywood magic, too, namely in the form of the ‘creepers’: a fairly docile species native to the snow-covered planet, whose slimy silhouettes resemble something like an Arctic armadillo. “Seeing the real creepers was really fun,” Ackie says. They filmed with dolls, she says with a laugh, “but obviously, not real ones — come on Warner Brothers!”

Aside from the creepers, though, the cast enjoyed a close look at the editing process. “We could watch it as we were making it, because [Bong] shoots incrementally,” Collette explains. During filming, Bong storyboarded each scene, creating a seamless flow between takes. “We had an editor just stitching it together as we were shooting, and at the end of the scene, you could go and watch it,” she adds.

Mickey 17 is both Ackie and Collette’s first collaboration with the “dreamy” director Bong Joon Ho (as Collette describes him on Instagram). Yet for Yeun, who starred in Bong’s genre-defying Okja, the project was a reunion. “You know, I owe so much to Director Bong. He gave me one of my first big shots at a movie,” says the actor. “He just championed me. He really looked out for me, so to get to be friends with him, to get to work with him, is always a pleasure and an honour. He’s a real funny guy, and hanging out with him is really fun.”

Given his connection with Bong, Yeun says Mickey 17 was an intuitive project. “I guess the best way to put it is… it was just kind of in the pocket for us, you know? It was just understood, and that’s what was really great about it. It was just easy like that — it was very organic,” adds the 41-year-old. On screen, Yeun swaps his approachable demeanour for an effortlessly rage-inspiring act as Berto. Over the film’s 137-minute runtime, he pulls everything out of the manipulator’s toolbox: strategic apologies, tears, and a shameless self-interest.

Yet there’s a silver lining in the role, too. For all his faults, Berto is strikingly resilient. “The thing that I really appreciated about [Berto] is that — while all the world seems like it hates him, or maybe doesn’t understand his motivations, or calls him a bad friend or a bad person — he persists, you know?” Yeun says. “He lives in this awareness, where he can see things that other people can’t see. If anything, his worst and best quality is that perhaps he’s a cynic. In that way, he kind of moves to the world through that cynicism, but his desire to keep existing is also very not cynical, at the same time. So, there’s something really interesting about him in that way.”

Perhaps that’s why, in spite of its fictional premise, Mickey 17 hits close to home. Each actor brings an intimate wholeness to their character; playing the recently-disillusioned Nasha, Ackie navigates waves of existential frustration as she grapples with a self-serving government. Gwen, Collette’s diabolical housewife, offers comic relief in spades. At the same time, her narcissistic tunnel vision reveals uncomfortable truths at the story’s core.

“We all have personal power and it’s okay to use it and utilize it and nurture it.”

Toni Collette

Of course, that’s not to say that Mickey 17 is a modern Animal Farm — quite the opposite. Faced with questions about the parallels between characters and modern politicians, director Bong stressed “I completed writing the screenplay for this film in September 2021,” telling The Korea Times that he didn’t intend to match characters to real-life counterparts.

Mickey’s constant death and rebirth — “re-printing,” as it’s called — wasn’t a contemporary reference either. “Even when thinking about AI, and how it affects our jobs, it wasn’t even a part of the conversation, because it was ‘pre-chat,'” Ackie explains. “I think we were just shy of things becoming dire, so the conversation wasn’t entirely focused on that,” adds Collette. “Certainly, knowing that Mickey is reprinted, we would have had that conversation [now], but at the time— like, that’s how fast things are changing. We made this in second half of 2022.”

Instead, Mickey’s dangerous jobs reflect a more general concern over labour conditions. “In Korea, we’ve had people die due to accidents in industrial sites. I’m not sure how much working conditions have improved, but someone else is now doing those jobs,” Bong said in an interview. “In the movie, they repeat that to one Mickey. There’s a sadness that comes from that.”

Bong’s ideas manifest as an inventive, compelling script; Mickey 17 is rife with tense conflicts, sharp satire, and provoking social commentary. Yet the conversation is only just beginning. “Director Bong wrote this incredible script and we were just trying to fulfill it,” Yeun notes. “Even talking during this press session, the film is starting to reveal itself to me too, you know? You’re hearing about how it reflects to other people and you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t see it that way.’ It’s like a living organism — that was the thing we were trying to realize.”

“Stick up for the people who are having a tough time, and you might be able to make some big effects across the world. Maybe that’s a bit hopeful, but that’s what I hope for.”

Naomi Ackie

Laced with absurdity and dark humour, Mickey 17 takes a smooth ride through science fiction, adventure, drama, and thriller; yet, the film retains an optimistic undertone through it all. As a viewer, you’ll find yourself rooting for the charming expendable.

“We all have personal power and it’s okay to use it and utilize it and nurture it,” Collette says of the film’s message. “Fight for your people,” adds Ackie. “Everyone’s valid, like, and we have to stick up for each other — and, if we do stick up for each other, change occurs. I think it starts at home, right? Stick up for the people who are having a tough time, and you might be able to make some big effects across the world. Maybe that’s a bit hopeful, but that’s what I hope for.”

Mickey 17 is in theatres on Friday, March 7th.

Featured Image: NAOMI ACKIE as Nasha and ROBERT PATTINSON as Mickey 17 in “MICKEY 17,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.