Mickey 17 is the eighth feature film from the acclaimed Bong Joon Ho, the Oscar winning writer/director of Parasite, “I was fascinated by the concept of human printing and just captivated by the character of Mickey, who is not a superhero, who is this everyman, normal, average man going through this crazy journey,” says Bong Joon Ho of his unlikely hero, whose employer demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.
Read more about Parasite
Mickey 17 is a groundbreaking, original film that seamlessly weaves together sci-fi, action, and audacious humour to deliver a genre-defying big-screen event – as only Director Bong can do. Robert Pattinson reinvents himself as Mickey in a film that offers an entertaining, insightful, and subversively humorous look at the expendability of life; revealing a deeply human story of an ordinary man who unintentionally becomes the extraordinary hero his world needs.
The story is based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. It follows Mickey Barnes, a clone worker on a human colony who undertakes dangerous assignments. The film explores themes of identity, survival, and the nature of being expendable.
Bong Joon-ho’s unique approach to filmmaking often involves blending and subverting genres, which is part of what makes his work so compelling.
“I have a complex feeling about genre. I love it, but I hate it at the same time. I have the urge to make audiences thrill with the excitement of a genre, but I also try to betray and destroy the expectations placed on that genre.”
It’s a science fiction black comedy, blending humor with social commentary, a hallmark of Bong Joon-ho’s work. 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.
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!”
Sitting Down With Bong Joon Ho (Writer / Director / Producer)…
Q: You continue to create thoughtful, singular films that explore culture in ways that feel wholly original. What inspires you, and more specifically, what do you look for when you set out to choose your projects?
BONG JOON HO: To seek inspiration, I think you have to keep your antennas up in your personal life. Of course, you can get inspiration from films, comic books and novels, but I try to stay receptive to my everyday surroundings. That’s where I get most of my inspiration, so I try to stay alert.
Q: Once you’ve chosen a project, can you tell us a bit about your writing process and how you know when your script is ready to shoot?
BONG JOON HO: The writing process? It’s very lonely and very painful. [Laughs] Sometimes I don’t want to do it at all. It’s tough. But of course, I have to do it. I’ve been a writer-director for many years now, and I write all my scripts myself, so you could say it’s fate. But I always know it’s going to be over in six or eight months, so I face it head-on with that in mind. I try to make myself as lonely as possible. I tend to write better when I’m isolated.
Q: What drew you to the story of Mickey 17 and made you decide to make this movie?
BONG JOON HO: Just from the summary of the original novel, I was instantly captivated. And of course, as I read page by page, I was even more engrossed in the story, because I thought that it had such a unique concept, which is human printing, and that’s very different from human cloning. It’s like you’re printing out humans as if human beings are just pieces of paper, documents to be printed out. And I thought that human printing—even in the expression itself—we could sense the tragedy of that condition and that profession. And so, I started thinking about what it would be like to actually be that person being printed out. All these thoughts came to me and I was completely in that world instantly.
And I also found the character of Mickey Barnes so captivating and appealing. Even in the original novel, Mickey is quite an average person… but I wanted to make him even more average, even lower class, even more of a loser. And so, all these ideas for adapting the story came to me instantly. I was fascinated by the concept of human printing and just captivated by the character of Mickey, who is not a superhero, who is this everyman, normal, average man going through this crazy journey.
Q: A hallmark of your work is blending, bending and defying that idea of genres when you take on a new project. Can you tell us about the tones you’re balancing in this film? And maybe the tools that you use to accomplish that balance?
BONG JOON HO: I get this question a lot during interviews. They say my films are a mix of various genres and wonder how I plan all that. Or they ask how I plan all the tonal shifts that happen in my films. But actually, I don’t make those decisions consciously. I just depend on my instincts when I write, and once I’m done, even I end up wondering what genre the story could be.
Q: Can you tell us about Robert Pattinson—when did he first catch your attention?
BONG JOON HO: We’ve all known him since “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” but I started seeing him under another light as an actor through “Good Time” with the Safdie brothers and his riveting performance in “The Lighthouse” with Willem Dafoe. He became an actor on another level with those two works. Same goes for “The Batman,” when I saw him take on such an iconic character and make it completely his own with a refreshing take. I thought playing both Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 would ignite his ambitions as an actor and we’d be able to have fun and inspire each other.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about how Robert added to the character you’d written—the voice, the demeanor? How did he breathe life into this Everyman character?
BONG JOON HO: As I was adapting the story into my script, I added a lot of detailed descriptions about the character. But no matter how detailed they are, in the end, they’re just words on a page. It’s really up to the actor to breathe life into these characters. And really, Rob brought in so much of his own creativity and so much of his own ideas to add detailed nuances to the characters. I was so surprised and impressed by everything he contributed to the characters and the film.
With Mickey 17, it was more like he was great at actualizing the detailed ideas I had for the character—but it was really Mickey 18 that Rob just took to a whole new dimension. He really surpassed the boundaries I had set for this character, added so many specific ideas and brought such a new energy, things that I never even imagined, really. So, he would improvise a lot of really quirky dialogue and fun moments on set, and it was just great watching him bring Mickey 17 to life on set. And I’m really grateful, especially for what he did for Mickey 18.
Q: The rest of the cast is quite incredible as well. Can you tell us a little bit about Mark Ruffalo, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie?
BONG JOON HO: Mark plays a very key character, the villain and dictator, you could say. But he’d never really played that kind of villain before, so he was quite surprised when I first sent him the script. He was like, “Why are you sending this to me? I’m not familiar with this!” But eventually, he found it refreshing and enjoyed the process. He was happy to take on a villain role. His character’s tied to the political satire and comedy aspects of this film. It’s a side of him we haven’t seen before, so it was great to watch his performance and I think he had fun, too. Toni Collette plays his wife, Ylfa, and there’s a specific dynamic between the couple that’s another small engine that drives the story. Steven Yeun plays Timo. As I mentioned earlier, this film is sci-fi, but it doesn’t really feel like sci-fi. And Steven really adds to this not sci-fi aspect. He makes this film feel very unique, and he’s like this special sauce that really adds to the film’s tone and texture. The character’s very funny. And Naomi brings the heart. She has such an explosive energy as an actor. Of course, she plays Nasha, a role who Mickey really relies on throughout the story. And it’s the opposite of the traditional female-male relationship that we’re used to seeing onscreen. Nasha is actually the more powerful, the more charismatic and valiant character.
Q: Can we talk a bit about the world building? Can you discuss working with your creative team to create and craft things like the world, the characters, the creatures and the invented, future tech?
BONG JOON HO: I was already experienced with creating VFX creatures from my previous film “Okja.” In this film as well, the creepers aren’t just creatures, but one of the main characters that also has a lot to do with Mickey. We had to invent a new creature that would feel alive, so we assembled the best VFX team for the job. I got to work with Dan Glass, a supervisor I’d worked with on “Okja,” and two amazing VFX vendors, Double Negative and Framestore. We also had the great cinematographer Darius Khondji, a true artist who also did “Okja” with me, and production designer Fiona Crombie, who’d recently done amazing work with Yorgos Lanthimos. I was very happy to depend on these great artists. Our composer’s Jung Jaeil, who did “Parasite” and “Okja” with me. This is our third film together, so it was an opportunity to explore familiar but new territory. And costume designer Catherine George—she’s a longtime colleague. We did “Snowpiercer” and “Okja”together. She has her own unique approach in understanding characters, so it’s always a joy to see all the costumes she comes up with.
Q: A theme that seems to recur in your work is an exploration—or satirizing—of the inequities and hypocrisies that exist in our world… shining a light on the corrupt or hegemonic society. Do you want to say anything about that and how that may have shaped your telling of this story?
BONG JOON HO: I don’t make films just for the sake of political satire. I’d never want films to just become propaganda. So, I try to make films that are beautiful and entertaining on their own. “Mickey 17” is just part of that effort. But I think all the things that happen to Mickey, his situation, and the way he gets treated in the film are political in themselves. It has to do with how we treat and respect a human being. It’s not that there’s this separate grand political layer to the story. If you just watch all the struggles Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 go through, you naturally get a sense of the political context.
Q: And in terms of your process for shooting and editing, there is a lot of preparation with storyboards and concepting—then, you only shoot the performance necessary for the shot, no extra coverage. Can you talk a bit about that technique and how you are able to get the performances this way?
BONG JOON HO: Yeah, I’m very obsessed to make my own storyboards with my own drawing. Of course, it’s a lot of hard work mentally and physically. But I can’t make films without it. I have to have all the shots composed in my head to feel safe and then actually shoot the film. When I’ve completed the storyboards, personally I feel like the film is completed. My storyboards are quite exact in the way shots are framed and camera movements are noted. And I tend to stick with it 99 percent of the time, so the finished film isn’t that different from the storyboards. But in terms of the actors’ performances, I try to stay as open as possible. I always welcome improvisation from the actors. So, it’s a contradiction, in a way. I have the camera placement and framing firmly established from my storyboards, but I tell the actors to be as comfortable and as free as possible within that. It’s a paradox, but that’s how I work.
Q: Can you tell us anything about the tone and the aesthetic of the film and if there’s anything you’ve been able to accomplish with “Mickey 17” that you haven’t done before?
BONG JOON HO: Overall, there are many familiar elements that I’ve dealt with before, but actually it’s the first time I’m delving into just how silly and foolish people can be, and how that foolishness can actually make them more lovable. People have been commenting on how warm this film feels, compared with some of my previous works. My films have always been received as being quite ruthless and cynical. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but it’s not so bad hearing these new reactions. This is a sci-fi film where people go to alien planets, and there’s a spaceship and everything, but it’s about a lot of silly people. So, it’s very funny. It’s not a big space epic where people shoot laser beams. It’s more about these silly losers. [Laughs] The film’s packed with people who are endearingly silly.
Q: From your perspective, what makes this story so pertinent to the moment we’re living in right now?
BONG JOON HO: Because it’s a story of young people, working class people. It’s about someone who’s powerless, but he unexpectedly becomes a hero. You can say it’s a story about an average person who unintentionally becomes a hero all of a sudden. And the way he becomes that hero is also unique. I thought, “That’s the kind of story contemporary audiences would want to see.”
Q: The story takes place in a future that probably none of us wants to live in. Can you tell us a bit about this cautionary tale—about the Earth, the state of it and the people—from your perspective?
BONG JOON HO: Well, it’s not that the Earth goes extinct—it just becomes a harsh place to live in, so people end up leaving. It’s an everyday matter. They get on a spaceship like it’s a red-eye flight from LA to New York. It’s not a mass migration or exodus. The film’s tone and mood make it feel quite matter-of-fact. Leaving Earth and migrating to another planet seems like quite a common choice. So, people in this film roam around without a destination in life, and they’re lonely. They don’t have families, but they still find love. This film’s also a love story between Mickey and Nasha. This aspect of wandering people finding relationships is a big part of the story.
Q: This film has garnered much fan attention and excitement. Why do you think it resonates with people and what do you hope audiences will love about it?
BONG JOON HO: First of all, [Laughs] Robert Pattinson is a very charming actor, so I think that’s why people are interested. But I’m not joking. We really see a new side of him in this film, a side we’ve never seen from him. And that naturally blends with the film’s story and theme. It’s one of the best parts. This is a sci-fi film, but it’s also a comedy and a very human story, so I hope the audience enjoys it for what it is. And when they go home after watching it, I hope they spend a brief moment thinking about what makes us human, what we must do to stay human. Just briefly, three minutes maybe [Laughs].
Q: And why is it important that they see the film on a big screen with a great sound system?
BONG JOON HO: We live in the streaming era, but there are still certain things you can only feel when you watch a film on a big screen in the theater. Of course, a big screen is great for watching spectacular extraterrestrial spaces and creatures, but I think it’s a powerful experience to watch the actors’ delicate expressions and big closeups on the big screen. The human face carries its own landscape. As I mentioned, we have such a great cast. Rob, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie and all these actors show such rich expressions and nuanced performances that will be great to watch on a big screen. Rob Pattinson in IMAX, that’s a great experience to have.
© 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
In Conversation with Robert Pattinson (Mickey Barnes)…
Meeting and working with Director Bong…
ROBERT PATTINSON: I think nowadays there are very few directors in the world who are on Bong’s level, and have the audience that Bong has as well. He’s living in very rarified air. I’ve just been such a huge fan of his. And it just came out of nowhere—“There’s a Bong project.” I met him and really loved him. Then the script came in, and it is one of the craziest things I’d ever read. It felt risky, but in a really nice way, and it was wonderful to do it with someone by whom you’d feel supported as well. I walked into it not knowing what to expect. And it’s funny, because you wouldn’t be able to judge his personality from his filmography at all. He’s a really sweet guy, very funny, very engaging, very self-deprecating. Not really what I expected. But, he has a very powerful aura. You don’t really realize how powerful it is at first. It spreads to every level of production, which is very, very impressive.
Describing the story of “Mickey 17”…
ROBERT PATTINSON: I think that it’s a combination of things. I could feel it from the first read, there are elements of enormous scale, for one thing. And then extremely niche humor at the same time. And a lot of elements that at first glance, you’re like, “How can these things go together?” And some parts that feel almost like a dare. [Laughs] It’s one of those scripts where I haven’t read anything like it in a long time, and I don’t think I’ll ever read anything like it again. Then to know that it’s someone with his level of pedigree coming to this script which, in some ways, is also like a sci-fi farce. Actually, I have no idea how to describe it to people at all. Even just the beginning: “So, it’s about a pastry chef in the future. He has a macaron shop. And he takes out a very risky loan with loan sharks and then he gets onto a mission to space, where he gets reprinted over and over again.” [Laughs] You go off the rails almost immediately trying to describe it. At first, I thought it was a risk, but as soon as I started doing it, it didn’t feel like a risk at all. Bong just has such extreme certainty about what he wants to shoot and so much confidence that you get into his rhythms really quickly.
The character of Mickey Barnes…
ROBERT PATTINSON: Mickey is a deceptively complicated character. At first glance, he kind of seems like a sort of simpleton, but he’s not. He has quite specific desires. He’s quite innocent and naïve in lots of ways. He comes from a place of extreme hurt and he’s trying to deal with a lot of trauma, but it manifests itself looking quite silly to other people. But it’s not silly to him. It does read sort of innately comedic, and very heightened to me. He’s an orphan who’s protected by his best friend he met in the orphanage when he was a kid. Mickey’s been following him his entire life and doesn’t really have a lot of self-confidence. It’s kind of a story about him finding his own autonomy in some ways. I guess it’s an extreme version of taking a good look at yourself in a mirror. [Laughs]
The deaths of Mickey…
ROBERT PATTINSON: You know what? It was pretty funny in the script when I was reading it, and then I saw some of it put together and it’s horrific. [Laughs] But it’s just like, “Well, it’s just one of those things.” It felt like we were shooting it for laughs, and then you watch it… Bong does that tone really well, where’s it deceptively painful, and then—you can never see it coming. It is a horrendous story for Mickey. An absolutely horrendous life. [Laughs] But, I think you need that level of extremity and their treatment of him to highlight the heroic aspects of the character. It’s just interesting having a hero who is incapable of seeing himself as a hero. He literally doesn’t value himself at all. It’s to the point where it’s a pretty extreme fault in his personality—he doesn’t even recognize he’s being tortured—because he wants to be accepted by the group so much and have purpose. I think the audience will see that as the story goes on.
Mickey 17, meet Mickey 18…
ROBERT PATTINSON: It’s almost like Mickey 17 doesn’t realize that he’s alive. He’s accepted the situation. I guess, in the simplest terms, it’s a ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’ kind of thing. And then, Mickey 18 comes along and really wants to live, and can’t stand the way Mickey 17 has been devaluing himself. It forces 17 to actually see his worth, because he’s going to be exterminated by the next iteration, even though he already has been killed many, many times before. It’s strangely complicated to explain to people. In my mind, it’s just two parts of your personality, where one is trying to progress and develop, and that progressive part is looking at the kind of lazy, procrastinating part and is just absolutely disgusted. But you don’t realize that they’re both you. And you just can’t decide to torture and murder that other part. [Laughs]
Differentiating 17 and 18…
ROBERT PATTINSON: I came to London a few months before it started, and experimented with so many different voices for both of them. It’s a strange thing, because you’re playing two characters who have to be very much delineated, but at the same time, no one else can tell that they’re actually different. It’s a delicate line to walk. But it’s also starting with, “Who is Mickey Barnes?” You’re a macaron chef in the future, so you’ve somehow got to take that into account. Plus, a million other things. It’s incredibly complicated. But I started out doing an extremely different performance. Then, when we did the read-through, Bong came up to me and said, “That voice you’re doing. Don’t do that.” [Laughs] And I was like, “Okay, dropping it right now.” Then the makeup department came up with these cheeks, because Bong initially wanted 18 to have chubby cheeks. So, we experimented with all these cheek plumpers, which I never would have thought of in a million years. And then it ended up being just a snaggletooth. We made it so small, and it slightly tilted my face. I thought, “That’s just enough.” You just have basically nothing. You can’t tell that anything’s really even there. Then, it made me speak differently. Which made me walk differently. Which made me behave differently… just having a tiny little tooth in. So, tons of experiments, and it looks like a shadow self could come from having a snaggletooth.
Shooting in the Bong style…
ROBERT PATTINSON: Bong kind of warned me at the beginning, saying that it’s quite a shock to the system for actors when you don’t shoot coverage… which is like every movie you’ve ever worked on. It’s quite a particular way of working. And it’s right from Day One. We were shooting one line and moving on—and genuinely like one line from the middle of the scene. You really have to get with the program pretty quickly. This way is really good for energy levels, when you know it’s going to be shot like that. You can pace yourself. And Bong edits at the same time, and he was very open with showing me. You can really watch what you’re doing, if it’s fitting into the scene. It’s an extremely collaborative process, and you don’t feel disconnected from it at all.
How you would describe Director Bong’s films…
ROBERT PATTINSON: I definitely see the wittiness. I think he’s an extremely witty director. And the themes? Definitely the brutality of humans towards each other. It’s strange, because it’s not comedic… Take “Memories of Murder.” The thing that appeals to me the most, really outside of the themes and stuff, is what he does with the performances. He manages to capture the duality of these characters so well that you find yourself rooting for people your instincts are telling you not to root for. Someone is presented as a good character and then the rug is suddenly pulled out from underneath you. I think that becomes a theme itself in his work: nothing is what it seems.
© 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Mickey 17 is the eighth feature film from the acclaimed Bong Joon Ho (Writer / Director / Producer), following on from BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE (2000), MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003), THE HOST (2006), MOTHER (2009), SNOWPIERCER (2013), OKJA (2017) and PARASITE (2019). The modern-day classic MEMORIES OF MURDER delves into the investigation behind a well-known serial murder case that was never solved, depicting the authoritarian era of the time with satire and sharp insight. THE HOST takes as its basis the abduction of a young girl by a strange creature that crawls out of the Han River, turning the monster movie genre on its head while also issuing stinging social commentary. MOTHER, the story of a woman trying to protect her son from a murder charge, is a dark portrait of motherly love taken to the extreme, while the sci-fi film SNOWPIERCER portrays the last remnants of humanity in a future world that has been frozen over due to mankind’s overdone efforts to fix global warming. OKJA tells of the country girl Mija’s adventure to rescue the genetically engineered “super pig” she raised from the profit-driven corporation that owns it. Finally, PARASITE, which won the Palme d’Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture, among many other accolades, follows the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan. Known for his cutting, socially incisive wit and twisting of genre conventions, Bong Joon Ho has continually raised questions about the system and societal inequalities with his unique blend of humor, emotion and suspense. MICKEY 17 marks a continuation of these themes for Dir. Bong, blending biting and character-driven social satire with high-concept tentpole science fiction. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures exhibition, “Director’s Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho,” opens to the public on March 23, 2025, and runs through January 10, 2027. This is the first-ever museum exhibition dedicated to the Oscar-winning director, tracing his creative development through his films and the films that most influenced him.
