'Mickey 17' Near-Future Lower-Class Struggle... Bong Joon-ho "Something We Will Experience"

The core keyword in director Bong Joon-ho's films is class. Most of his works, such as Parasite, Snowpiercer, and Okja, are grounded in this conflict. The protagonists from the lower class do not fight the upper class but rather struggle within their own class. The lower and lowest classes are subtly distinguished. For example, in Parasite, the family of Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) and Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin) represents the former, while the couple Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun) and Geun-se (Park Myung-hoon) represent the latter. Fundamentally, there is little difference. It is merely a comforting assumption that the lower class is not the lowest.

Movie 'Mickey 17' Still Cut

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Class also appears in Bong Joon-ho’s new film Mickey 17. The protagonist Mickey (Robert Pattinson) opens a macaron shop but falls into unmanageable debt. Fearing the tortures of his creditors, he decides to board a spaceship. Lacking any special skills, he volunteers as an "Expendable." If he dies during a mission, he is discarded and then resurrected as a clone. The original novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton explains it as follows:

"Imagine realizing that when you go to bed, you don’t simply fall asleep and wake up again. You die. You die, and from tomorrow morning, another person lives your life instead. He has all your memories. He remembers all your hopes, dreams, fears, and desires. (Omitted) But he is not you. You are not the one who went to bed the night before. You have only existed since this morning, and you will exist only until you close your eyes tonight."

At a press conference following the Mickey 17 footage screening held on the 20th at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Seoul, director Bong defined Mickey as "a labor class person pushed to the extreme." He explained, "I’m not carrying a grand political banner about class struggle, but like my previous works The Host, Snowpiercer, and Okja, it contains political satire."

Director Bong Joon-ho is answering questions at the press conference for the movie 'Mickey 17' held on the 20th at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Warner Bros. Korea]

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In the mentioned works, the core of hardship lay within the capitalist system itself. The protagonists all overlooked or deliberately averted their gaze from the essence. Even when they formed relationships with the upper class through specific incidents, there was no "belt of trust" or anything of the sort. For example, in Parasite, Ki-taek could only convey smell, not feelings, to Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun) or Yeon-kyo (Cho Yeo-jeong).

It seems no different in Mickey 17. Mickey is directly exposed to radiation in outer space. He also suffers an accident where his hand is severed. The upper class aboard the spaceship pays no attention. They remain indifferent even as the severed hand floats through space. Director Bong has often expressed such scenes through black comedy. In The Host, when Kang-du (Song Kang-ho), who was experimented on regardless of the virus, escapes a container, the police and U.S. military are barbecuing meat. In Snowpiercer, the train cars are divided to metaphorically represent a class-segregated world.

At the center of power in Mickey 17 is Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a politician who operates beyond Earth with the support of a religious organization. When the eighteenth Mickey awakens while the seventeenth Mickey is still alive, he rages about illegality and tries to eliminate both. Considering Bong’s previous works, it is unlikely the two Mickeys will cooperate to resist. They might even try to kill each other.

Movie 'Mickey 17' Still Cut

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Director Bong said, "Pattinson had to portray both the dumb and pitiful seventeenth Mickey and the unpredictable yet bizarrely charismatic eighteenth Mickey," adding, "It’s the story of an ordinary, powerless, and in some ways pitiful young man." Pattinson, who was present, said, "Like my dog who never changed no matter what punishment was given, Mickey only realizes after dying seventeen times that 'maybe I should have lived differently.'"

Audiences find it difficult to enjoy a film genre-wise when the fight among the weak becomes horrific. They inevitably contemplate the social meaning of the distressing conflict. At the end of this reflection, they inevitably revisit reality and the issues it embodies. The setting of Mickey 17 is the near future, 2050. Director Bong emphasized, "It’s an SF story that you will vividly experience in the future, realistic and close to our skin."

"Just ten years ago, none of you could have imagined talking with ChatGPT. We don’t know what will happen to us in two or three years. Although Mickey 17 may seem somewhat like science fiction, it contains things we will definitely experience."

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