With his latest sci-fi opusMickey 17, director Bong Joon-ho is bringing back the same thing that made his last cinematic journey into the future such a great movie.Mickey 17, set to be released on March 7, is Bong’s long-awaited follow-up tohis twisty Best Picture winnerParasite. Based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novelMickey7,Mickey 17stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, an “expendable” worker sent to a distant planet, where he’s killed and cloned over and over again (at least 17 times, per the title) in the course of his duties.
The high-concept hard sci-fi premise ofMickey 17might make it sound like a drastic departure fromParasite, but it has more in common with Bong’s last movie than it seems. LikeParasite, it’ll have a dark sense of humor, and it’ll be a satirical takedown of class inequality.Mickey 17’s use of sci-fi storytelling to deliver social commentary puts it more in line with another one ofBong’s previous movies: his 2013 post-apocalyptic thrillerSnowpiercer.
Mickey 17 & Snowpiercer Both Use A Sci-Fi Premise To Critique Capitalism
Snowpiercer Has A Literal Class System
Much likeMickey 17,Snowpiercerused its futuristic sci-fi story to deliver social commentary on capitalism and the class system. Set in 2031, after Earth has been ravaged by a new ice age,Snowpiercertakes place on a train harboring the last remnants of humanity. The train has a literal class system, with the lower-class passengers being fed ground-up insects in overstuffed cars at the back of the train, and the upper-class passengers living in luxury at the front of the train.Bong uses this conceit to comment on classismin modern society.
Mickey 17has been delayed almost a year from its original release date of Aug 01, 2025.
InMickey 17, an unscrupulous corporation takes advantage of a man in dire financial straits and employs him to become expendable. This isa grand dystopian satire of real-life corporations that exploit and disregard their workers.Mickey 17deftly continuesSnowpiercer’s thesis of using speculative stories about the future to examine the bleak realities of the present day.
Mickey 17 Will Be Even More Ambitious Than Snowpiercer
Mickey 17 Has A Much Bigger Budget Than Snowpiercer
WhileMickey 17’s social commentary will surely be just as biting asSnowpiercer’s, it’ll also be a much bigger, more ambitious movie, because it’s been afforded a much larger budget. WhereasSnowpiercerwas made for a modest $40 million (viaForbes), Bong leveraged the clout thatParasite’s Oscars success earned him to scorea blockbuster budget of a reported $150 millionfor his next film, makingMickey 17one ofthe riskiest box office gambles of 2025. This meansMickey 17can explore its dystopian future on a larger scale with a broader cinematic scope.
