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On February 13 of 2025, the follow up to Bong Joon Ho's masterpiece Parasite released: Mickey 17. The film received mixed reviews. Some loved it while others found it a bit bloated with ideas and themes. It's a fun movie, but it's certainly not on the same level as Parasite.
Recently, I decided to pick up the book that Mickey 17 is based on, Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. It was interesting to note the many differences between the two works, differences aside from the fact that the film has ten more Mickey's than the book.
The book and film have similar expositions. In order to escape his immense debt to a sadistic loan shark, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) follows his pilot friend (Berto in the book and Timo, played by Steven Yeun, in the film) into space. To do this, he must become an Expendable ā€“ a person whose memories are copied so that they can be cloned. These people are given suicidal tasks for the good of the colony.
The first noticeable difference is that the colony initially leaves Earth in the film, whereas the book makes it known that humans have mostly deserted Earth for centuries now. This change gives Mickey 17 a tone and theme more in line with Bong's other works. Having the colony leave Earth makes the story feel much closer to our current world as well as makes its societal critiques more poignant.
The book focuses on humanity's collective distance and disinterest in their past. Mickey Barnes of the book may not be a genius, but he is an academic. He's one of the only people from his home planet, Midgard, who has studied Earth's history.
Book Mickey is also a bit less sympathetic than film Mickey. For example, in the book, it is entirely Mickey's fault that he is in debt. While the debt is related to Berto, (Mickey bets that Berto won't win a game, but Berto does win) it isn't Berto's fault. In the film, Timo and Mickey share the blame for the debt.
The biggest difference between the book and the film is the ending. Throughout Mickey 17, Mickey is depicted as having a strange connection to the native aliens of Niflheim, the Creepers. In the end, he must communicate with them in order to save both the Creepers and the human colonists.
In the book, Mickey doesn't have this connection with the Creepers, they just learn to speak to him. Mickey is able to convince the Creepers and Marshall (who is played by Mark Ruffalo in the film) to leave each other alone. Notably, Mickey in Mickey 7 resigns from being an Expendable, whereas in the movie the Expendable program is ended.
This change exemplifies the difference in themes between Mickey 7 and Mickey 17. The film explores the power structure that has been dismantled by having Mickey's partner, Nasha, (Naomi Ackie) become the colony's leader. It says, "Society can change for the better!" The book, on the other hand, shows that Mickey the individual can escape the cycle of abuse, but society as a whole cannot.
Having read the book, I can see why the film felt a bit bloated. The book throws around a lot of themes and ideas and struggles to tie them up in the end. While I enjoyed the different perspective of Mickey 7, Mickey 17 does a better job at completing plots it set up.
