I giggle when my stomach is printed.
Mickey 17 (2025) explores a religious society that considers at least one life to be completely expendable. What happened to Mickeys one through sixteen?
They’re gone, dead.
He’s a specialist on a colony ship, a ship sent to another planet, analogous to the British colonization of Australia. He’s the guy that gets sent into dangerous situations, such as ship repair or exploring a cave. If he doesn’t make it, his body is reprinted and the memories from the now-dead Mickey, assuming his memory was conserved, is added to the new Mickey.
Dying still hurts, though. Perhaps worse is that he’s almost a joke in the ship, but he eventually acquires a partner willing to disregard his occasional disappearance.
But, equally fascinating, is that ship leadership is a much like a religious charismatic leadership, willing to do anything to fulfill the hole in their soul that needs adoration.
It all comes to a head when there is suddenly two Mickeys existing, a definite blasphemy that cannot be permitted, AND they discover the planet they’re set to colonize already has an intelligent population, they just didn’t recognize it immediately, If they’re not handled delicately they may wipe out the colony ship.
Meanwhile, Mickey’s partner is in ecstasy, what with two Mickeys and all.
Mickey 17‘s all rather interesting, and not at all heavy. Which may discourage some viewers, but sometimes difficult moral questions are best dealt with via humor, rather than pedanticism.
So don’t be afraid of it. The future’s dystopic in this story. Have some fun with it. We’re still human, at least for these storytellers.
