Debapriya Bhattacharya
Bong Joon Ho’s futuristic science fiction film ‘Mickey 17’ chronicles a young man named Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) in 2054, who joins a space colonization crew to escape from his debts. Mickey’s role in the mission is that of an “expendable”- a disposable worker and test subject who gets clones every time he dies, with his memories intact. During one of his explorations of the ice-planet Niflheim, the seventeenth clone of Mickey survives an accident.
However, he returns to base to find a new clone of him has already been created, putting them both in danger of being executed by the expedition’s leader, politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo). While painting a bleak future of humanity on Earth, ‘Mickey 17’ explores themes such as space travel, replicating human physiology and consciousness, as well as the massive gulf between the rich and the poor. If the film based on Edward Ashton’s novel ‘Mickey7’ has piqued your interest in the genre, the following list of movies similar to ‘Mickey 17’ is sure to come in handy.
10. Source Code (2011)
‘Source Code,’ directed by Duncan Jones, revolves around US Army pilot Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose subconscious gets transferred into a virtual simulation of a real-life train explosion. Colter is made to live through the eight minutes leading to the disaster again and again to find out the identity of the terrorist responsible. Every time the time runs out, he dies and wakes up at an army base before being sent in again. Similar to Mickey’s work in ‘Mickey 17,’ Colter’s subconsciousness is being repeatedly sent to work in impending danger, knowing fully well that the version of him will ultimately have to die and then relive the experience.
9. The Double (2013)
Based on the eponymous novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Richard Ayoade’s ‘The Double’ chronicles Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg), an unremarkable man who goes to work one day to find his doppelganger joining his office. Named James Simon, he is the polar opposite of Simon in personality, and starts to encroach on his life to the point that the original goes into a mental breakdown. While the doppleganger theme of ‘The Double’ resembles the clones of ‘Mickey 17,’ the difference between their demeanors is also common in both films.
8. Self/Less (2015)
‘Self/less’ by Tarsem Singh is an account of billionaire business tycoon Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley) who, after getting diagnosed with terminal cancer, decides to transfer his consciousness into a younger host body. He starts having vivid hallucinations after the procedure, and soon realizes that they are memories of the person whose body he has been occupying. The transfer of human consciousness into a new body is part of the procedure for the creation of the expendables in ‘Mickey 17.’
7. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Set in a future where a large part of the globe is occupied by an alien race, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ follows Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a soldier with no combat experience who gets sent to the frontlines and enters a time loop. Every time he dies on the field, William wakes up on the same date and time and relives his life again. As events repeat themselves, his skills improve, and he seeks a way to end the war while saving himself from the situation. Directed by Doug Liman, the story shares its take on repeated trials that end in temporary death, which also forms a part of the ‘Mickey 17’ narrative.
6. Cloud Atlas (2012)
Directed by the Wachowski Sisters and Tom Tykwer, ‘Cloud Atlas’ is based on David Mitchell’s novel of the same name that tells multiple stories across six eras and features the same ensemble cast. The narratives include an attorney harboring a fleeing slave in 1849, a composer struggling with notes in 1936, a nuclear physicist trying to expose a conspiracy by the oil companies, and a genetically engineered worker experiencing human consciousness. All of them are interlinked by souls born and reborn, suggesting the continuity of the human consciousness in some form, a theme that is also explored in ‘Mickey 17.’ The story of humanoid clones being created to serve as industry workers in the ‘Cloud Atlas’ is also relatable to the concept of “expendables” in the Bong Joon Ho film.
5. Infinity Pool (2023)
From the mind of Brandon Cronenberg, ‘Infinity Pool’ explores the dark culture of a fictional country, where rich criminals are allowed to escape punishment by creating a clone of themselves and watching them suffer instead. Novelist James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) discovers this custom while on vacation with his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman). He derives a sinister pleasure from it and becomes obsessed, leading to his entire life falling apart. Similar to ‘Mickey 17,’ a person is cloned as many times as required in ‘Infinity Pool.’ However, it differs in the fact that only the clones are meant to die while the original is supposed to survive.
4. They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
‘They Cloned Tyrone’ marks the feature directorial debut of Juel Taylor and follows three Black individuals who uncover a secret cloning facility targeting their community. The trio includes John Boyega as drug dealer Fontaine, Jamie Foxx as his customer Slick Charles, and Teyonah Parris as the sex worker Yo-Yo. The three stumble upon the secret when Fontaine gets killed in front of Slick, but then reappears the following day, having no memory of the previous night. The film explores human cloning and the transfer of human consciousness, similar to ‘Mickey 17.’
3. The 6th Day (2000)
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, ‘The 6th Day’ is a futuristic film that takes place in a world where the technology for human cloning has been perfected, but the practice remains banned. When charter pilot Adam Gibson (Arnold Schwarzenegger) discovers he has been cloned without his consent, he sets off in search of the person responsible while pleading to his family and his audience. Both ‘The 6th Day’ and ‘Mickey 17’ have kept the subject of cloning at the center of their narrative.
2. Dual (2022)
From the mind of Riley Stearns, ‘Dual’ tells the story of Sarah (Karen Gillan), who clones herself after being diagnosed with a fatal disease. She teaches the clone everything she knows and prepares it to take her place in the world. However, Sarah somehow manages to fight off the disease and recover. Her clone refuses to die, instead of replacing her, making her legally bound to fight the clone to the death. ‘Dual’ is the spiritual precursor to ‘Mickey 17,’ with unwanted clones and the prospect of imminent death of one or both of them being explored.
1. Snowpiercer (2013)
Bong Joon Ho earlier explored the dystopian future with his film ‘Snowpiercer,’ where humanity has been wiped off the face of the Earth as a result of climate scientists freezing off the entire planet in an attempt to reverse global warming. The survivors ride around the globe on a train, where a class system slowly emerges. When conditions for the lower-class tail-section passengers become unbearable, their leader, Curtis Everett (Chris Evans), starts a rebellion against the elite in the front compartments.
‘Snowpiercer’ is based on the French graphic novel ‘Le Transperceneige’ by Jacques Lob. Many parallels can be drawn between the film and ‘Mickey 17,’ starting with the frozen condition of the Earth being similar to the climate on Niflheim. The theme of class conflict that has been present in many of Bong Joon Ho’s works is present in both films as well, with Curtis leading the rebellion in ‘Snowpiercer’, the same as Mickey does in ‘Mickey 17.’
