When Bong Joon-ho directed a science fiction film labeled as black comedy, everyone was expecting a film with a hardcore narrative in the gloomy style of "Snowpiercer" and the sharp and profound satirical skills of "Parasite".
Mickey 17 doesn’t live up to those expectations.
Poster of Number 17
"Number 17" is adapted from Edward Ashton's science fiction novel "Mickey Number 7", which is set in the future when the earth is no longer habitable. Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) is sent to the harsh icy planet Niflheim as a "consumable" in a government-led colonization expedition. Mickey's job is to die in dangerous missions again and again, and then continue to be replicated and reborn as a disposable tool - he uses his continuous death to contribute "value" to alien colonization.
If we were to use Bong Joon-ho’s past work as a guide, we would have to think and hope that Number 17 would be a searing critique of capitalism, particularly how capital dehumanizes workers and treats them as interchangeable parts on an assembly line, a system that doesn’t care about any of its parts, even if they keep dying for it.
Stills from Number 17
Admittedly, Bong Joon-ho's ruthless exposure of the exploitative system is still shown through Mickey's "consumable" setting and his 16 painful deaths, but this time, it seems that we cannot closely follow Mickey's experience and enter the context of denouncing the capital system. Because "Number 17" is full of metaphors that allude to reality, so many that even "consumable" Mickey himself needs to die a few more times to pull the audience's attention back from the ubiquitous cynicism.
To prove that I am not exaggerating, let me list some of the metaphors in the film and classify them as follows:
Political Metaphors: Racial Policies and Colonial Violence
In the film, the colonial leader, Senator Hieronymus Marshall (played by Mark Ruffalo), was unwilling to lose the election, so he used technology capital and the support of loyal fans to form a fleet of alien immigrants. Marshall is effortlessly reminiscent of today's US President Trump in many ways. Not only did Mark Ruffalo perfectly reproduce his unique accent, demeanor, and behavior in his performance, but the plot in the film, such as the red hats of Trump fans, Marshall's assassination, his love for the camera, etc., are no different from the real Trump.
Stills from Number 17
Marshall proclaimed himself the ruler of Niflheim, planning to transform it into a "pure white planet" and spoke out about the superiority and inferiority of races on various occasions, which is undoubtedly an allusion to Trump's controversial racial values. In addition, Marshall tried his best to create a heroic image in front of the public, trying to make himself look like a strong leader and emphasizing his own indispensability, which is highly consistent with Trump's long-standing image of governing.
In the process of implementing the Niflheim colonization plan, Marshall ignored the existence of the planet's native inhabitants and attempted to use cruel means to eliminate the Creepers, the creatures of the Niflheim planet, in order to claim human sovereignty over Niflheim. This plot setting mercilessly points to the violent colonization process that Western colonists once experienced in the New World.
Social metaphor: Inertial oppression from power structures
The analysis of social hierarchy is the most common theme in Bong Joon-ho's films, and "No. 17" is no exception.
Stills from Number 17
Mickey is at the bottom of the social ladder in the colony and is regarded as a "disposable" existence, symbolizing the exploited and marginalized groups in society. His multiple deaths and resurrections reflect the cyclical exploitation of the lower-class workers in capitalist society. Even the attitude of Mickey's colleagues towards him is changing, from initial sympathy to complete indifference, because his death has become a part of daily life. Through Mickey's perspective, the film reveals the inequality of social classes and the oppression of power structures.
The metaphor of “techno-capitalism”: tools evolve into consumables
In addition to the classic social class oppression system, given the increasing control of technology over society, "Number 17" adds more metaphors of technology replacing capital to achieve systemic oppression.
The film points out in a black humorous way that the ultimate form of technological capitalism is not only to exploit workers, but also to completely transform workers from "tools" to "consumables." Because only when any part in the system becomes completely replaceable, the efficiency of the system is maximized.
The film's sharpest irony is how the value of life is wrapped up in the rhetoric of "efficiency" and "progress", and how humans can easily find reasons to justify technological capitalism.
The movie "Number 17" is adapted from the novel "Mickey Number 7"
Philosophy and Existentialism Metaphor
Achieving immortality through copying, cloning, and uploading consciousness is not a new sci-fi theme. Recent sci-fi works such as "Life Copies" and "Life Cutting" have even begun to use multiple universes and consciousness separation to create another form of "clone". Science fiction works have long been asking: "If your consciousness is transferred to another body, is it still yourself?"
In the confrontation between Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, the question "Who is the real Mickey?" troubles both the two Mickeys and all the individuals who have relationships with them. Although in real society, cloning and cloning-like technologies have not yet triggered an existential crisis in human society, "Number 17" also uses this setting to allude to a series of identity deconstructions in the context of posthumanity - when technology breaks the continuity of consciousness, the ultimate torture that humans will face may be some unimaginable tragedy.
Stills from Number 17
You see, I can cite so many metaphors involved in "Number 17" just by simply listing them, and there are even more metaphors that actually appear in the film, including but not limited to female subjectivity, reproductive rights, cultural conservatism, religious hierarchy, pyramid power structure, and even the psychological original sin of vulnerable groups.
When the film ends with a Hollywood-style "good triumphs over evil" template, every audience attracted by Bong Joon-ho may inevitably feel confused, because "No. 17" failed to meet the expectations I mentioned at the beginning.
When I walked out of the theater, I also had doubts. It was really unnecessary for Bong Joon-ho to pile so many realistic metaphors in one film. As a mature director who has won numerous awards, wouldn't he know that too many key points equals no key point? The main metaphors involved in "No. 17" are enough to write a story that can grab the audience's attention.
It wasn't until I opened social media before going to bed and saw the screen full of information recommended by the algorithm that I suddenly realized: Bong Joon-ho deliberately wanted to cram so many real-life metaphors into a film. "No. 17" is not meant to allude to a certain social reality, it is meant to allude to the current state of human society as a whole!
Think about it, if we slice human society at this moment, we live in a world where politics, society, class, technology, capitalism, systemic oppression of individuals, exploitation of the first world by the third world, racism, women's reproductive rights, nationalism, religious conflicts... all of these are happening at the same time.
Stills from Number 17
If we look at the Earth from a God's perspective, isn't it just like the Niflheim we saw in "Number 17"? There are a dazzling array of problems, with no established order, only vague cause and effect, and it is so chaotic that there is almost no focus.
Bong Joon-ho is simply holding up a mirror opposite to the present. "Number 17" is labeled as a science fiction film, but in fact it takes the route of realism. The only unrealistic thing in the whole film is probably the "Hollywood-style" ending that even the director himself can't figure out a solution.
