Five years after stunning the world, the stage is set for Bong Joon-ho to deliver yet another masterpiece with Mickey 17. The latest trailer for the 2025 Warner Bros. Film promises a groundbreaking sci-fi experience. However, for some sci-fi fans, the story may feel familiar, having been explored before on a much smaller scale and with less fanfare.
Based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey7, the film stars Robert Pattinson as an “expendable” employee in space, who comes in multiple iterations through cloning and retains most of his memories after each death. Now, it seems like this central plot itself is a clone, which mirrors the premise of a 2009 sci-fi drama starring Sam Rockwell called Moon.
What Happens in the Sci-Fi Movie Moon (2009)?
The film in question is a modest UK-based production called Moon, which marked the directorial debut of Duncan Jones. He later went on to make Source Code in 2011 and Mute, a 2018 sequel to Moon. The film was written as a science fiction vehicle, specifically keeping Rockwell in mind, who plays the character Sam Bell. As expected, the story is set on the moon on its far side, where Sam lives and works alone to complete a three-year contract at a lunar mining facility. However, he finds out that he’s not alone when he encounters another man there who looks exactly like him.
Sam’s discovery becomes even more unsettling when he realizes that he himself is also a clone, created by the company he works for. The catch is that each new Sam comes with most of his old memories intact, only for his "bodies" to be discarded after dying on dangerous missions assigned by the employer. Warner Bros. Has set the release date for Mickey 17 on January 28, 2025, but it’s not too early to assume from the official synopsis and the source material that it shares a similar premise with Moon.
How is Moon similar to Mickey 17?
Calling the two plots identical might be reductive, but the similarities between the two sci-fi movies are hard to overlook. Both films are about workers who are considered disposable, thanks to their multiple versions or clones. And it so happens that these replicants are all tasked with fatally dangerous jobs. In Moon, much of the narrative shows Rockwell’s character dealing with loneliness and an identity crisis when he confronts his clone – emotions that Robert Pattinson might also explore in Mickey 17.
Apart from the shared concept of clones spending time together in outer space, the thematic parallels are also interesting. Moon critiques how real-world corporations treat employees as replaceable, with little to no regard for human life. Mickey 17 will inevitably touch upon this idea too, and it’s not just due to the plot overlap. Capitalism and social inequality are recurring themes in Bong Joon-ho’s films like Snowpiercer and Okja. Considering the potential here, it’s unlikely that the South Korean auteur would pass up this massive opportunity to stand by what he believes in.
Differences Between Moon and Mickey 17
|
Film |
Mickey 17 |
|---|---|
|
Director |
Bong Joon-ho |
|
Release Date |
January 28, 2025 (South Korea) |
|
Primary Cast |
Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo |
|
Based on |
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton |
|
Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures |
Do these hints suggest that Mickey 17 could be a Moon rip-off? After all, even the Mickey7 novel came out only in 2022, almost thirteen years after the low-budget sci-fi film. And this is not even a Star Wars-Dune situation, where the former was loosely based on/inspired by the much older sci-fi novel. By his own admission, Bong Joon-ho still makes time to watch one new film a day, and an underrated, indie gem like Moon might have found its way onto his watchlist. Despite all this, Mickey 17 deserves the benefit of the doubt, and Moon may be just one of many creative influences.
Often, a great story is about how it’s told more than what it is. The new trailer for Mickey 17 proves just that. The director is a master at switching gears between high-stakes drama and comedic tension, and that’s exactly the kind of flavor that will make his film stand out from its 2009 “clone.” Between Pattinson’s uncanny accent, the solid supporting cast, and the wacky dystopian setting of the Niflheim Expedition, Mickey 17 teases an incomparable style and tone. Moreover, its $150 million budget blows Moon’s $5 million budget out of the water, making it unfair to pit the two films against each other.
For now, fans don’t need to worry about finding likenesses between Mickey 17 and Moon. One major difference is right there in Mickey 17’s title. Moon focuses on just two Sams, but Mickey 17 might outdo its title and bring more than seventeen versions of Mickey to life. In fact, Mickey 17 seems to be deviating even from its original novel, and its author Edward Ashton confirmed this in an interview with Nerdist:
Literally, Director Bong is going to change a lot about the book. When I spoke with him, he made it pretty clear: "You’ve got a 350-page book. I’m gonna have a 120-page script. There’s a lot that’s gonna go."
Interestingly, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker acquired the rights to the Mickey7 novel even before its official publication, much like how Steven Spielberg secured the rights to Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novels. With Mickey 17, Bong is also likely to pay homage to space classics such as Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), which, ironically, also served as a direct influence on Moon.
Ranking All Of Bong Joon-Ho's Movies
Bong Joon-Ho has had a relatively long career and the seven films he has made range from good to great.