Why Mickey had to die 10 more times in Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Mickey 17’
A scene from “Mickey 17.” Image: Warner Bros. Pictures via The Korea Herald
Bong Joon-ho’s latest sci-fi satire “Mickey 17” continues to top box offices. Starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, the film explores the existential dilemmas of an expendable worker who is endlessly recreated upon death until Mickey finds himself face-to-face with an unexpected duplicate of himself.
The film is based on “Mickey 7,” the 2022 novel by American writer Edward Ashton, but Bong’s adaptation takes creative liberties in both character development and narrative structure.
The Oscar-winning director first encountered the story in 2020, not through the full novel but through a 14-page summary. What captivated him was the concept of “human printing” — a technology that allows a person’s biological data and past memories to be uploaded and reprinted indefinitely. This idea, Bong said, inspired him to craft a deeply “human story” within a science fiction framework, and create a protagonist whose very job is to die.
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Robert Pattinson as Mickey 18, left, and Mickey 17 in a scene from “Mickey 17.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
Bong said he focused on more specific and grounded questions for the adaptation.
“The original novel tackles much bigger and deeper philosophical themes. My approach was to think about how I would feel if I saw my own printed body, or what it would feel like to wake up after being printed again, or would my friends welcome me again?”
For those intrigued by “Mickey 17,” reading the original novel — whether before or after watching the film — offers a fascinating parallel experience. Here, we explore some of the most notable changes in the adaptation and the implications behind them.
One of the most striking differences between the novel and the film is, of course, the title, “Mickey 7” versus “Mickey 17.” The number refers to the edition of Mickey’s re-creation, meaning Bong’s version of Mickey dies 10 more times.
As an “expendable,” dying is part of Mickey’s job. But the ways he meets his end are suffocatingly brutal in the film. He freezes to death, succumbs to radiation exposure, suffers fatal injuries, dies repeatedly to test vaccines for surviving Niflheim’s atmosphere, and sometimes even dies purely for experimentation, just to see how quickly he dies.
By increasing the number of deaths, Bong heightens the absurdity and suffering of Mickey’s existence while critiquing the dehumanization of labor under capitalism, reducing a human being to nothing more than a disposable tool. This theme of class struggle echoes his previous work, particularly “Snowpiercer.”
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But if his only goal had been to increase the number of deaths, he could have gone even further. Instead, Bong deliberately chose 17 for its symbolic significance.
He described the film as a kind of coming-of-age story for Mickey.
“Seventeen and eighteen represent the threshold between adolescence and adulthood. In both Korea and the West, 18 is the age when someone is legally recognized as an adult. I wanted to explore that transition in the story,” said Bong.
Not only the number of deaths increased, but the character of Mickey is also drastically changed.
In the novel, Mickey is a historian who deeply reflects on humanity’s migration to the alien planet Niflheim, viewing this process through the lens of diaspora and displacement. The story is set in a distant future where Earth is already gone, and Mickey is a resident of Midgard, a colonized planet with a perfect climate and no economic hardships. Here, his profession as a historian is completely useless. Despite his vast knowledge of human history, he has no way to apply it meaningfully, leaving him feeling empty and purposeless. And he escapes to Niflheim due to gambling debts from sports betting.
The film takes a different approach. Bong reimagines Mickey as a failed small business owner — a young man who once ran a macaron shop but ended up drowning in debt from predatory lenders. Desperate to escape his financial ruin at the hands of bloodthirsty creditors, he signs up to become an expendable without fully understanding what the job entails. This version of Mickey is less intellectual, but more relatable — a talkative, down-on-his-luck everyman, the kind of lovable loser often found in Bong’s films.
Actor Robert Pattinson, right, and Bong Joon-ho, left, pose for the photographers as they arrive for the screening of the film ‘Mickey 17’ at the International Film Festival, Berlinale, in Berlin, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP)
Mickey’s past as a macaron shop owner is Bong’s personal touch.
“I really like macarons, and I thought it would make him more pitiful and easier to sympathize with,” Bong said in a previous interview.
Bong also shifts the film’s setting to 2054 to tell the story in a more grounded, familiar tone.
“I wanted this to be a reality the audience could experience. We live in a time where it’s hard to predict what will happen just a few years from now. The events in this film may seem like science fiction, but they could very well be part of our reality soon,” Bong said in an interview.
Another standout element that caught the attention of the film fans is the portrayal of politician-turned-space colonizer Kenneth Marshall.
In the novel, the dictator is portrayed as an authoritarian figure with a cold, military demeanor — a disciplined and rigid character. He holds strong beliefs as both a soldier and a religious man, including rejecting the idea of replicating humans, particularly when it comes to human printing.
In the film, Marshall (played by Mark Ruffalo) takes on a more populist, overtly political persona, openly displaying racist and fascist ideologies.
Bong said he wanted to cast an actor with flamboyant showmanship, someone who had never played a villain before, and someone with an unexpected touch of “cuteness” in his demeanor. Authoritarian leaders with fervent followers often have this endearing quality, which allows them to charm large crowds — and that, according to Bong, can be dangerous.
Marshall relies heavily on his wife, Ylfa Marshall (played by Toni Collette), who manipulates him through whispered advice, cleverly steering him. Ylfa is a character unique to the film, obsessed with sauces.
“When a couple rises to power as dictators, they create a strong synergy,” said Bong. He found that introducing dictator couples brings out a dark comedic element.
Bong, known for his work with creature-driven films like “The Host” and “Okja,” collaborated once again with the design team to introduce a new creature in the film: the Creepers.
Indigenous to the icy planet Niflheim, this oddly creepy but harmless creature was inspired by croissants and armadillos, the director says.
The novel portrays them as centipedes or worms, much more dangerous, with scenes where they attack and kill humans — a critical element that shapes the novel’s ending.
Love survives
While Bong made several changes, one thing he kept was the love between Mickey and Nasha (played by Naomi Ackie).
“The one thing I wanted to keep from the original novel was the romance between Mickey and Nasha,” said Bong. This is the first time the director has introduced romantic love as a major theme in his work.
According to Bong, the love between Nasha and Mickey is crucial to the film’s main plot and message, as she prevents Mickey from falling apart even through a series of deaths and reprintings.
“Things were only possible because Nasha was there, watching over everything reassuringly.”
When Mickey is enduring excruciating pain from experiments in the bio-chamber and is on the verge of death, Nasha enters the chamber, choosing to stay by his side. For Bong, this act of love encapsulates how humanity can be preserved.
‘Mickey 17’ starring Robert Pattinson official poster. Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
“I even remember the chapter number, as my eyes welled up while reading that part, especially seeing how Nasha protects Mickey,” he said.
“The key message is that even though Mickey’s situation is unbearably harsh, and while he’s smiling, playing goofy in the film, the reality is extremely brutal, but he doesn’t break. And that’s because of Nasha. That’s what I wanted to convey to the audience.”
In this sense, the ending is strikingly different. While details must remain under wraps to avoid spoilers, it appears Bong altered the conclusion to highlight themes of love and sacrifice. Love reaches a powerful moment when Mickey 18 shares a significant exchange with Mickey 17 and Nasha before making his pivotal choice.
In the novel, such a sacrificial choice doesn’t occur. Instead, Mickey’s path takes a different turn, leading to political gain and ultimately striking a deal with Marshall.
There’s also a direct sequel to the novel, “Antimatter Blues” (2023), which picks up two years after the events of “Mickey 7.”
