Why 'Mickey 17' Might Be The Must-See Movie of 2025!

Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon-ho is back with his signature genre-bending genius in Mickey 17! If you’ve never seen one of Bong’s films before, do yourself a favor and check out Mother, Memories of Murder, or his most recent Parasite, which won four -- count ‘em, FOUR -- Oscars, including Best Picture! If you haven’t seen it yet, first question your priorities, then, in the infamous words of Shia LaBeouf, “Just DO IT!”

In Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson stars as Mickey Barnes, an expendable (and recyclable!) worker used in sacrificial testing while colonizing a new planet. Think Edge of Tomorrow meets Groundhog Day, only instead of repeating the same day over and over again, each time you die, it’s a new day, a new trial, and a new you! With a plot like that, we’re sure to get some slap-stick moments, but in Bong’s own words, “Mickey 17 is a story about the human condition and asking what it means to be human.”

Pattinson has come a long way since Twilight, and if you still think of him as a sparkling vampire (you know who you are), it’s time to reassess. With films like The Lighthouse, Good Time, and The Batman under his belt, he’s proven to be as diverse as he is talented, and Mickey 17 won’t be his first sci-fi rodeo. His portrayal of Monte in the wild psychological sex drama High Life has us optimistic that he’s going to absolutely nail the role of Mickey. And for all of you relentless haters out there, think of it this way: You’ll get to watch poor Pattinson get killed off 17 times!

Though Pattinson will undoubtedly hold the limelight, the supporting cast is loaded with talent. Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight, The Avengers, Shutter Island) and Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine, Hereditary) play Kenneth and Ylfa Marshall, a, shall we say, “colorful” dictatorial couple leading the expedition. BAFTA winner Naomi Ackie plays love interest Nasha Adjaya, and Oscar-nominated actor Steven Yeun, best known for his breakout role as Glen Rhee in "The Walking Dead", is cast as Mickey’s best friend Timo.

The entire cast seems undoubtedly thrilled to not only be working with legendary director Bong but also with one another. During Mickey 17’s world premiere in London on February 15, the energy between them was utterly electric.

Across his filmography, Bong Joon-ho has proven to be a cinematic genius and genuine alchemist, mixing comedy and drama in ways that make you pause and question if the cocktail of emotion you’re feeling is right or wrong. Just to give you a small taste of what I mean, in the opening sequence of his 2003 crime thriller Memories of Murder, a young boy stoops on a concrete slab parroting a detective’s every word. You can’t help but laugh as a 6-year-old barks out orders to the surrounding pedestrians and police. However, directly beneath the slab lies the dead body of a young woman, and the gravity of what’s really happening blurs the line between the child’s humor and the grim reality lurking below. This kind of paradoxical fusion of light-heartedness and dark humor is Bong’s specialty, and Mickey 17 seems like the perfect platform for his unique style and vision to shine.

Despite an initially rocky launch schedule, with delays from the WGA Strike in 2023, and Bong’s relentless fight for final cut, Mickey 17 is finally in theatres!

(On a personal note, I pre-ordered tickets more than a week ago, something I have NEVER done before, which should give you a rough idea of just how much of an impact Bong’s previous work has had on me. With that, and maybe a MINOR bias for The Batman, my interest is beyond piqued for Mickey 17!)