Ivan Radford | On 21, Apr 2025

Director: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette
Certificate: 15

Robert Pattinson is one of the most unpredictable actors working today. For proof, look no further than the fact that after mainstream thrillers The Batman and Tenet, he chooses for his next project the latest joint from Bong Joon Ho, the equally unpredictable and chameleonic South Korean director. The result is a wonderfully barmy sci-fi satire that lets both artists let loose.

Based on the book Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, the film follows MIckey Barnes (Pattinson), a low-rung washout who finds himself on the wrong side of a loan shark – and, in hope of a fresh start, desperately signs up to an off-world colonising mission with his friend, Timo (Steven Yeun). Timo, as fast-talking as he is self-centred, finds himself a job as a pilot. Mickey? He’s left with no option but to become an Expendable – a process that sees him cloned (with memories backed up) whenever he dies. The point? To give him all the nasty, fatal tasks that nobody else wants to do.

And so we catch up with Mickey, several years later, on incarnation number 17 – but when an unexpected twist of fate leads to him avoiding death, he ends up face to face with Mickey 18 (Pattinson). Things get weirder from there.

Bong Joon Ho has never been one for being confined to any particular genre, and so it is with this script. We begin in grim dystopian territory and quickly take a detour into slapstick farce, thanks to the colony’s inept but dangerously tyrannical leader Kenneth Marshall, played with petulant energy and preening hilarity by Mark Ruffalo. Then there’s warm-hearted romance courtesy of Mickey’s girlfriend, Nasha (the always-brilliant Naomi Ackie), and a dose of philosophical musing, as the Mickeys try to work out their mutual existence – having two clones alive at the same time is considered heresy, while Earth has outlawed the entire Expendables programme. By the time we get to the native alien creatures on the planet Kenneth wants to colonise – part mammoth, part cuddly squid – you give up trying to keep track of what kind of story you’re in and just go with the absurdist flow.

The world-building is meticulous, from the grimy, weathered metal sets right down to the darkly comic body horror of Mickey’s cloning process – even working at such a budget and scale for a mainstream Hollywood studio, Bong Joon Ho rivals Guillermo del Toro at maintaining his sense of creative style and personality. The soundtrack, by Jung Jae-il (who also scored Okja and Parasite), is similarly distinctive, veering from soaring action to quirky comedy – and tapping into the underceurrent of religious zealotry along the way.

The cast, meanwhile, are all game for the ride. Ruffalo is matched by a dialled-to-11 Toni Collette as Kenneth’s Lady Macbeth-like wife, who isn’t afraid to lean into notes of white nationalism to go with the corruption, self-interest and childish delusion. Steven Yeun is having a ball as Timo, whose less of a friend than Mickey thinks – but doesn’t once apologise for that.

This is Robert Pattinson’s show, though, and he’s wonderful two times over. He not only delineates subtly and clearly between his characters, with a playful switching up of accents and posture, but gives each of his characters a nuanced evolution – Mickey 18 is initially aggressive and hostile, but emerges deceptively loyal and protective, while Mickey 17 is simple-minded and overly trusting but learns to value himself as more than, well, expendable. Pattinson is amusing and vulnerable in equal measure, and his heartfelt earnestness turns a broadly cynical setup into something disarmingly sweet, with a gentle environmental message that recalls How to Train Your Dragon. What an enjoyably offbeat, unique oddity this blockbuster is.

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