“Everybody is the hero of their own story.” That’s an idiom that I have frequently heard and seen in interviews with actors – typically by those playing who are playing villains and aiming to understand the character’s perspective. For Robert Pattinson in the making of writer/director Bong Joon Ho’s fantastic Mickey 17, however, he found himself taking on a very different kind of protagonist: a hero who can’t even begin to comprehend the idea of seeing themselves as a hero.
It’s a role that Pattinson clearly delighted taking on, as recognized in the above exclusive clip from the upcoming home video release of the critically acclaimed 2025 movie. He plays the titular Mickey – a simpleton who, in an act of desperation, signs up to be an “expendable” aboard an interstellar ship heading to a planet dubbed Niflheim. The job requires him to be exposed to all kinds of dangerous procedures and environments, and when he dies, a new version of him is printed out.
If this existence sounds absolutely terrible… you are 100 percent correct, and Robert Pattison laughed as he recognized this fact from a macro perspective:
It’s a horrendous story for Mickey; he has an absolutely horrendous life… I think you need that level of extremity in how they’re actually treating him, because it starts to highlight the heroic aspect of his character.
Mickey is not the brightest bulb, but what he has signed up for (albeit without reading the requirements for the gig) does qualify him for hero status. A proper hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice themselves or their own needs for the betterment of others, and that is precisely what the protagonist does in Mickey 17 – and that’s all before he has to try and stop the genocide of an extraterrestrial species.
As Robert Pattinson explains, Mickey’s self-worth is so pathetic to the point where not only does he not see himself as the hero he is, but he doesn’t even recognize just how monstrously he is being treated by his fellow human beings. Says the actor in the clip,
He doesn’t value himself at all – to the point where he doesn’t even recognize that he’s being tortured because he wants to be accepted by the group so much and have purpose that he’s not even aware of being tortured… It’s just interesting having a character who is incapable of seeing themselves as a hero.
As noted by Bong Joon Ho at the start of the featurette clip, Mickey 17 not only stars Robert Pattinson in a terrific dual role, but the ensemble cast also includes the talents of Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, and Steven Yuen. The film first arrived in theaters at the start of last month, but it will be arriving for purchase on digital tomorrow, April 8, from major online retailers. For those of you who dig physical media and are excited to add the movie to your collection, the 4K UHD and Blu-ray will be arriving in stores on May 13.