(Updated 04/18/2024)
Robert Pattinson will die over and over again in the sci-fi comedy MICKEY 17. Pattinson stars as Mickey, a desperate guy who takes a terrible job in space. This particular gig has a pretty strange structure, which is that if Mickey dies, he will be "reprinted," with most of his memories intact.
It's kind of like the Tom Cruise movie EDGE OF TOMORROW combined with an over the top workplace comedy. And the movie comes from South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, whose last movie, PARASITE, was a sensation that won the Best Picture Oscar in 2020.
Here's everything we know about MICKEY 17 so far.
What's the Mickey 17 Release Date?
Warner Bros. Pictures will release MICKEY 17 in movie theaters on January 31, 2025.
Is There a Mickey 17 Trailer?
No proper trailer for MICKEY 17 is available to the public right now, but there is an early announcement video, which you can see above. (Note that it mentions a release date which has since changed.) At the industry event CinemaCon 2024 in Las Vegas, Warner Bros. showed off the first real MICKEY 17 trailer, and we have some descriptions of that footage that we'll get into shortly.
Hopefully WB will attach the first trailer to a movie like FURIOSA, which isn't that far off. But since MICKEY 17 doesn't open until the end of January, we might have to wait a bit longer for a lot of footage.
What's the Plot of Mickey 17?
We've given you the broad strokes already, but there's a bit more to talk about. Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) takes a job as an expendable employee for a company that is trying to colonize distant planets. On an ice planet called Niflheim (), he discovers that the job is truly horrible. Pattinson says the character has "the lowest expectations of his life, and life just keeps pushing those expectations lower and lower."
And, yes, when Mickey dies, his body is "reprinted," with at least some memories intact. Things become even more difficult when one version of Mickey doesn't die, but the system prints a new copy anyway. So not only is Pattinson playing multiple versions of the same guy, he gets to go head-to-head with himself.
When Bong pitched the movie to Pattinson, he said, "you’re going to love the script, but the part is impossible." Knowing even the basic outline of the story, it's easy to understand what he was talking about. The actor's response? "That’s very exciting to me."
Mickey 17 Is Based on a Book
Director Bong Joon-ho scripted the movie based on the 2022 novel "Mickey7," by Edward Ashton. The general story setup for both the novel and movie are pretty much the same, but we don't yet know how much the movie will deviate from the book.
That said, the titles are slightly different, and there's a reason for that. At CinemaCon, Bong joked that, since the book's title indicates how many times Mickey dies, the title change means "I killed him 10 more times!"
Who's in the Mickey 17 Cast?
We've already talked about Robert Pattinson, who doesn't merely star in the movie — he plays at least a dozen slightly versions of his character. At CinemaCon, Bong explained that part of his reason for casting Pattinson is that "he’s got this crazy thing in his eyes." More specifically, the filmmaker said, "I felt like he could do all the different variations of Mickey in the story. He’s such a creative man."
Alongside Pattinson are Steven Yeun as Berto, Naomi Ackie as Nasha Adjaya, Toni Collette as Gwen Johansen, Mark Ruffalo as Hieronymous Marshall, and Thomas Turgoose in a role that has yet to be disclosed. We'll see Ruffalo at least when the trailer debuts, and some of the other actors will probably show up in that footage, too.
Finally, the Director of Parasite Returns
We've mentioned Bong Joon-ho several times already, but we cannot overstate the appeal of a new Bong Joon-ho movie. PARASITE was excellent, but that's not where widespread interest in the filmmaker began. That goes back to 2006, when Bong's movie THE HOST became a breakout hit, leading more people to his incredible 2003 crime movie, MEMORIES OF MURDER.
Virtually everything Bong has done becomes a standout film, from those mentioned above to MOTHER, SNOWPIERCER, and OKJA. He's been one of the most interesting and influential directors for the past 20 years, so MICKEY 17 is an exciting prospect.
MICKEY 17 opens on January 31, 2025.
All images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.