A Recap of The Movie ‘Mickey 17’

Movies

Mar 11

Written By VS BRANDS

Plot Synopsis written by Michael Lee

*All Media used in this article is courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Official Trailer: ‘Mickey 17’ (2025)

Plot Synopsis

We meet Mickey Barnes and his friend, Timo, who are financially ruined by a failed business venture, currently on the run from a cruel loan shark. The two are unable to pay back their debts, so they sign up together for a spaceship leaving Earth; its destination is the planet Nilfheim.

Timo signs up as a pilot and Mickey signs up as something called an Expendable, which are since treated as disposable and given lethal assignments, all in order to be ‘reprinted’ using cloning technology that has since been banned on the planet Earth. Everytime Mickey dies on assignment, he is reprinted. While on the voyage to the planet Nilfheim, Mickey begins falling for a security agent onboard named Nasha Barridge.

When the ship lands upon the snowy foothills of the planet Nilfheim, lifeforms native to Nilfhiem, since dubbed ‘creepers’ prevent the planet's full colonization. Mickey 17, the seventeenth copy, or reprint of Mickey, tries to capture a creeper to analyze it, but it falls into a fissure in the ice. Timo believes Mickey 17 to be swarmed by creepers before leaving, so he reports him dead. But the creepers have actually pushed Mickey 17 up and out of the ice fissure, which allows him to return to the ship, unharmed.

Since Timo reported Mickey 17 dead, Mickey 17 goes to his quarters only to find his replacement, aptly titled Mickey 18, already there. In Nilfheim, multiples are illegal, according to the politician Kenneth Marshall, the man who runs the colony. They are able to use cloning technology with one rule: any multiples that occur will be killed immediately. Mickey 18 knows this, so he tries to kill Mickey 17.

Mickey 17 then attempts to reason with Mickey 18, who suggests that they can both live by tricking everyone into thinking they are the same iteration, by ‘swapping’ duties, meals, and deaths. During the agreement, Mickey 18 is interrupted and leaves with Nasha Barridge, while Kenneth Marshall takes Mickey 17 away for dinner with his wife Ylfa and their security agent named Kai. During the dinner, Mickey 17 reacts badly to their meal made of experimental meat, so he is treated with experimental painkillers.

Mickey 17 returns to his shared quarters and finds Nasha there, who is aware of the situation and wants to help. Kai, Kenneth Marshall’s security agent, is also interested in helping, attempting to negotiate with Nasha over sharing the two Mickeys. Mickey 18 arrives and learns of what happened to Mickey 17 at dinner, and his focus becomes killing Kenneth Marshall. Mickey 17 and Nasha attempt to chase him, but discover that Kenneth Marshall is in the middle of a public ceremony with a piece of Nilfheim rock.

As Kenneth is speaking, a creeper erupts from the rock, stopping Mickey 18’s assassination attempt. One of the creepers is killed and another is captured, while Nasha and both Mickeys are arrested. Numerous creepers arrive and surround the ship, beckoning to the creeper inside.

While in prison, Mickey 17 shares his experiences with the Nilfheim creepers, which makes Nasha realize that they are not hostile. Then, the trio are brought before Kenneth and Ylfa, which makes Nasha attempt to defend the Mickeys, but she is since dismissed. We learn that Kennneth Marshall’s plan is to kill all of the creepers with experimental nerve gas, but Kenneth’s assistant, Marshall, and his wife, Ylfa, encourage him to let the Mickey's outside and competitively kill the creepers, with the winner being allowed to live. Kenneth agrees, but when both Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 are released, they attempt to make peace with the creeper mother. This enrages Marshall, who decides to go outside and kill the creepers directly, with the help of his security detail.

Mickey 17 then uses a device to warn the creeper mother about Marshall’s plan. The creeper mother then threatens to kill all remaining humans unless her surviving child is returned to her. She makes a contingency that one human killed is fair for the death of her child. Mickey 17 communicates this to Nasha, who attacks Ylfa so she herself can get to the creeper. Nasha does return the remaining creeper to the creeper mother, and Mickey 18, in order to fulfill the creeper mother’s contingency, kills Marshal and himself.

Now six months later, Nasha has risen to power within the colony, and officiates a groundbreaking ceremony on Nilfhiem. She destroys the printing device, ending the Expendables program, and now Mickey 17 is simply known as Mickey Barnes once again.