WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Mickey 17 & Mickey 7.
Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipated follow-up to his Best Picture winner Parasite, is based on a 2022 sci-fi book тιтled Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. However, the movie changes an extraordinary number of characters and plot details to the point where it’s difficult to call Mickey 17 a true adaption of Mickey 7 at all. The premise is the same, as Robert Pattinson’s Mickey Barnes is designated as the Expendable for a starship colony on an alien planet called Niflheim. Mickey volunteered for the role to get out of financial debt to the nefarious loan shark Darius Blank back on Earth.
Book characters such as Nasha, Marshall, Blank, Arkady, and even Alan Manikova retain their names in Mickey 17 but all of them experience alterations to their personalities and purposes in the film. Characters like Kai and Timo were renamed from their book personas, Cat and Berto, while several completely new characters were also added, including Marshall’s wife Ylfa, the friendly scientist Dorothy, and the random Pigeon Man. Mickey’s trainer, Jemma, is simply named Red Hair in the film, and the noble security guard Zeke was also a new invention made specifically for the new Bong Joon-ho film.
Mickey 17 Changed How Many Multiples There Are & Mickey 18’s Personality
The Book’s Mickey 8 Wasn’t As Aggressive & Violent As Mickey 18 Is In The Movie
Mickey 17 added ten more previous iterations of Mickey than the book Mickey 7. While there were some similarities in how the earliest versions of Mickey died, there were additional versions (13-16) in the movie that were used as lab rats for biohazardous viruses, radiation exposure, and the like to develop vaccines. Nasha did stay with early Mickey’s as they died in the lab but she never went into the actual tank to hold him as he died, as portrayed in the film. Additionally, no Mickey had his hand severed while repairing a starship as seen in the film, which made for a memorable cinematic scene.
As for Mickey 18 himself, who is essentially supposed to be the equivalent of Mickey 8 in the book, his personality is completely different as he is more aggressive, violent, and mean than the book’s Mickey 8. The Mickey 7 book stresses the idea of Mickey’s one true idenтιтy being replicated, which made Mickey 8 virtually an exact carbon copy of Mickey 7, including his personality. Mickey 17 made it so each Mickey had different moods, behaviors, and personalities, which made Mickey 18 very different from Mickey 17. In the book, Mickey 8 mostly hung out in their room and he absolutely did not try to ᴀssᴀssinate Marshall.
Nasha, Kai & Several Other Characters Are Very Different In Mickey 17
Nasha Was A Pilot & Kai (Named Cat) Betrayed The Mickey’s In The Book
Nasha was a pilot in the book, not a security guard. At the beginning of the book, Nasha communicates with Mickey after he falls into the creeper hole through a telepathic-like instant messenger through their retinas, one of several technologies not featured in the movie. Mickey tells her not to save him after Timo, who’s named Berto in the book, has already left him for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. Kai, who is named Cat Chen, in the book, ratted Mickey 7 and Mickey 8 out to Marshall and offered herself to become the new Expendable in his place. Dorthoy and Ylfa were added to the movie and are not discussed whatsoever in the novel.
Timo Had A Completely Different Backstory In Mickey 7 & Didn’t Sell Oxyzoful
Berto Was An All-star Athlete Who Mickey Bet Against & Was Not An Oxy Dealer
Timo has a similar backstory to Mickey in the film as they both run into financial trouble with Darius Blank after investing in a failed macaron business. In the book, Berto is a successful pog-ball player who Mickey bet against in a tournament, which ended up costing Mickey all his money. Berto never faced financial hardship like Mickey did. Additionally, Berto did not sell undilated Oxyzoful cartridges in the book. In fact, Oxyzoful, which is used for flamethrowers in Mickey 17, is not a part of Mickey 7 whatsoever.
Berto is suspicious of Mickey 7 being a multiple throughout the book because he claims he couldn’t save him from the comfort of his starship. Berto never left Mickey for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ face to face, just feet above the hole he fell into, as portrayed at the beginning of Mickey 17. There are also more futuristic weapons in the book, not just flamethrowers and automatic weapons, and Mickey 18 never tries to throw Timo into the cycler in the book. Mickey does eventually punch Berto at the end of the book but it’s more of an agreed-upon act of forgiveness.
Marshall Didn’t Have A Wife & Was Not Nearly As Idiotic As His Mickey 17 Character
Marshall Is Authoritarian But Not As Villainous Or Aloof In The Book
The differences between Marshall in Mickey 7 and Marshall in Mickey 17 are seemingly endless. The major differences are that he is not accompanied by a wife and he is not as idiotic as he is in the film. Additionally, Marshall in the book does not have a camera crew around him, isn’t interested in creating a superior race on Niflheim, and doesn’t die at the end of the story. The movie claims that Marshall founded the idea of Expendables, which is not true to the book. Marshall also never banned Sєxual intercourse in the book and never deleted Mickey’s backup brick, although he threatened to in the book.
The Entire Ending Of Mickey 17 Is Not True To The Mickey 7 Book
Mickey 18 Never Sacrifices Himself & Marshall Doesn’t Die
Once certain plot elements started to unfold in Mickey 17, I knew that the ending of Mickey 17 would result in a near-total deviation from that of the book. In Mickey 7, there is no creeper translating device, no Mickey 18 sacrificial death, no Marshall doesn’t, no baby creeper ever making it inside the dome, and no governmental committee. Mickey does become a liaison between humankind and the creepers but only because the creepers probed Mickey 6, learned how to communicate through Mickey’s telepathic-like instant messaging feature, and recognized Mickey as “Prime”.
Mickey 8 does die in the book after walking into a nest of creepers but it is not sacrificial and is actually quite plain.
Mickey was able to leverage the value of his life because of his connection to the creepers, which did inspire greener days ahead in the book. The human printer, however, was not abolished or destroyed, Nasha never ranked up in the governmental committee, and no creepers “bluffed” about an explosive screech. The creepers in the book were not personalized, being described as having a hive mind that didn’t value an individual life. This means that they would never have attacked the human dome to rescue the baby creeper. While Mickey 17 is entertaining in its own right, calling in an adaptation of Mickey 7 feels like a stretch.
