You must excuse us cinephiles for nerding out over the upcoming Bong Joon-ho and Robert Pattinson collaboration Mickey 17. When the acclaimed South Korean director of Oscar winner Parasite and the arresting thriller Snowpiercer gets together with the current iteration of The Batman, we couldn't get more excited for the result. Judging by the trailer, plenty of the filmmaker's dark humor is carried out by the haunting actor, who has risen to the A-list over the last decade. We decided to take a look at the manner of death of a few of the Mickeys in the movie's trailer and see if we could climb into Joon-ho's mind. How did he come up with so many disturbing ways for a person to meet their ultimate demise? Please indulge as we briefly dive into the bloody trailer for the upcoming black comedy.
1. Dying From A Deadly Virus
Well, spitting up blood after you've been encouraged by the people in charge to go out into a barren and plague filled environment is a new one. And to watch them instruct Mickey to willingly take in huge breaths of a violent virus that eats away at your bowels from the inside is certainly Joon-ho doing his best to entertain. Whether it was Mickey 1 or Mickey 11, that has to be one of the worst ways to enter Dylan Thomas's "dark night." At least they had the decency to dump his body into a pool of fiery magma... presumably to avoid infecting anyone else, not that Mickey would care either way.
2. Mickey's Space Walk Goes Horribly Wrong
The second time we see Mickey lend his body to whatever world-saving project Bong Joon-ho has cooked up, his hand is severed entirely from the limb during a space walk outside a satellite or space shuttle of some kind. And yes, we are assuming that a one-handed Mickey is not of great value to the researchers, so that version also dies. It may not be as graphic as the viral death, but we also aren't privy to how this Mickey ultimately dies. Perhaps the command crew deems the one-handed astronaut disposable and cuts the cord. Such a fate isn't unheard of when precious materials like oxygen are in short supply in space.
3. Dropping Through an Ice Sheet
We feel confident in writing that the third confirmed trailer death happens when Mickey wanders out onto a sheet of ice in this snowy wasteland only to break through and plunge into the frigid waters and either drown or give way to extreme hypothermia. Bong Joon-ho is almost taunting us. Would you rather die from immediate shock or more slowly as icy water fills your lungs? He is in a protective suit after all. We don't wish either on anyone. What's more the insult is that Steven Yeun's character is very nonchalant about the entire situation, never even considering a rescue of Mickey. Well, he might retrieve the body, but there's virtually no sense of urgency on his end.
4. Trampled By a Herd of Space Buffalo
"So you're telling me there's a chance!" Yeah, probably not. Even as Joon-ho begins to give Mickey some agency and purpose as the film progresses, the audience witnesses him roaming with a herd of some sort of alien snow buffalo. There's no chance that he made it out of that alive. But look on the bright side—Mickey seems to have found a higher calling, and we can't wait to take the ride with him one death at a time on March 25.