WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Mickey 17 & Mickey 7.
There are at least a dozen major changes between Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipatedMickey 17and its original source materialMickey 7. Following thecritical acclaim and Oscar success ofParasite, Bong Joon-ho finally releasedMickey 17on July 29, 2025, in the United States after experiencing several production delays. Ultimately,Mickey 17is a loose adaptation at best of the 2022 sci-fi novelMickey 7written by Edward Ashton.
WhileMickey 17follows the same protagonist, Robert Pattinson’s Mickey Barnes, asMickey 7, there are several notable differences between the two formats, particularly towards each of their ends.The book’s Mickey 7 and Mickey 8 become Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 in the film, with additional iterations and deaths. Theending ofMickey 17featured a dramatic sacrificial death and the destruction of the “human printer” that bred previous versions of Mickey like a copy machine. After reading the book, I was stunned athow differentMickey 17was fromMickey 7but each has its strong suits.
12Mickey 18 Was Not Aggressive & Did Not Kill Marshall
The Personalities Of The Main Mickey’s Were Nearly Identical In The Book
The biggest difference between the two main Mickeys in the book and film is their personalities. Both Mickey 7 and Mickey 8 in the novel are essentially the same person, so much so that Mickey 7 is able to anticipate Mickey 8’s thoughts and actions in certain scenarios. Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 couldn’t be more unalike, with Mickey 17 stumbling over his words and Mickey 18 being impulsively dangerous and threatening. Because of this,Mickey 8 never tried to kill Marshall and mostly slept in Mickey’s roomafter he was printed due to “tank funk”.
11Ylfa, Dorothy & Several Characters Were Added To Mickey 17
Pigeon Man Was Added To The Movie, For Some Reason
Ylfa, Marshall’s wife, is the biggest character invented forMickey 17not seen in the book. She contributes to the idiocy of Marshall with her out-of-touch opinions and snobby worldview. Dorthoty, the scientist who develops the translation device so that Mickey can communicate with the creepers, is also created for the film, as is the technology she invented. In the book,all the humans on Niflheim can communicate through a telepathic instant messengerattached to their retinas, which is how Mickey is able to talk to “Creeper Prime.”
Mickey’s red-haired trainer is named Jemma in the book. Marshall’s political strategist Preston, who is seen constantly whispering in Marshall’s ear, was added to the film.Pigeon Man, for whatever reason, was added to the filmas well.
10Kenneth Marshall Wasn’t Stupid & Didn’t Have A Camera Crew
Mickey 7’s Marshall Was Strict & Problematic But Not A Buffoon
Marshall is completely different in the movie compared to his character in the book.Mickey 7’sMarshall is strict and authoritative but sensible, concerned about keeping the struggling space colony alive and maintaining the established order through rationing and discipline. He never abolished sexual intercourse on Niflheim, never invited Mickey and Kai to dinner, and did not host a late-night show or have a camera crew constantly follow him around.Mickey 17makes Marshall look like an incapable buffoon, whileMickey 7’sMarshall is close-minded but not stupid.Mickey 7’sMarshall was also not killed.
Timo (Berto) Was A Lucky & Successful Pog-Ball Player
Image via Warner Bros.
Timo is another character who was completely changed for Mickey 17. In the book, he was a daring and confident pilot who had a successful career playing a fictional sport called pog-ball.He never started a failed macaron business with Mickeyand wasn’t in financial trouble with Darius Blank, as Mickey was. Mickey actually bet against Timo, whose name is Berto in the book, as he played in a pog-ball tournament, which is how he lost all his money. Berto was not involved in Oxyzoful smuggling whatsoever in the book because Oxyzoful was not a part of the story either.
8Nasha Was A Pilot In Mickey 7, Not a Security Guard
Nasha Never Tried To Kill Ylfa Or Save A Baby Creeper
Mickey 17’sNasha is more-or-less the same as her book character, staying loyal to Mickey throughout his various “lab rat” deaths. Nasha never, however, held Mickey inside an actual lab tank while he was dying from radiation, poison, or the like. Nasha was also a pilot in the book, like Berto, and asked Mickey if he wanted her to come get him after he initially fell into the creeper hole but Mickey rejected her offer.Mickey 7’sNasha never confronted Marshall, never held a baby creeper by her teeth over a cycler, and never threatened to kill Ylfa.
7Manikova & His Multiples Took Over A Planet In Mickey 7
There Were Thousands Of Manikova’s In The Book
Alan Manikova has a more interesting backstory in Mickey 7 than he does in Mickey 17. In the movie, he is caught with two multiples and is taken into custody after committing murder to create the multiples in the first place. In the book, Manikova was incredibly wealthy and was suspected of murder but it was unable to be proven. He went on to create thousands of duplicates and actually took over an alien planet, which led toa neighboring planet firing a Death Star-esque laser beam (created by bubbles of antimatter) onto the planet, effectively destroying it and all the Manikovas.
6A Baby Creeper Never Made It Into The Mickey 7 Dome
The Creepers Never Approached The Dome To Retrieve One Of Their Own
Creepers made it close to infiltrating the human dome on Niflheim in Mickey 7 but never did. Some creepers in the book killed a security guard on the outer preminter of the dome but that was the closest they ever got. Once the baby creeper gets into the dome inMickey 17and Mickey 18 tries to assassinate Marshall all in one scene, it becomes clear that the entire story is about to greatly shift. All the scenes involving the baby creeper – Nasha saving it, Ylfa cutting off its tail and making sauce, it calling out to the other creepers – are not in the book.
Cat Offered To Become Mickey’s Expendable Replacement
Cat Chen, renamed Kai inMickey 17, is a trusted security guard in the book. Mickey 7 and Cat spend time together as Mickey 8 hangs out with Nasha and does some menial Expendable tasks.Both Cat and Kai walk in on Nasha with the two Mickey’sduring that unusual romantic scene but Nasha doesn’t run after her like she does in the movie. Cat betrays Mickey by reporting him to Marshall, offering to become his replacement Expendable upon his permanent discontinuation. Mickey then convinces Marshall to keep him and Mickey 8 alive to make contact with the creepers.
4The Religion Of Natalism Isn’t Mentioned In Mickey 17
Natalism Denounces Expendables As “Impure” Specimens
WhileMickey 17’sMarshall is presented as a fascist set on building an ideal race on Niflheim, Mickey 7’s Marshall has no such ambitions. The book’s version is, however, religious and belongs to the church ofNatalism, which essentially means that he believes Expendables are not “pure” and are not God’s creationlike human beings.
Why Mickey 17 Doesn’t Set Up A Sequel Even Though There’s Another Book
While Mickey 17 is based on a novel with a sequel, director Bong Joon-ho doesn’t explicitly set up a follow-up to his latest sci-fi comedy film.
There isn’t much more to Natalism than maintaining the distinction between Expendables and humans in a derogatory way. While there is discrimination against Mickey for being a “print job”, as seen in other sci-fi works likeBlade Runner 2049,there’s no mention of Natalism in the movie.
3Technologies & Weapons In Mickey 7 Were More Futuristic
Mickey 17 Mostly Uses Standard Modern Day Weapons
The technology inMickey 7is surprisingly more advanced than that inMickey 17, which uses traditional weapons like assault rifles and bazookas. The security guards inMickey 7are armed with blasters and other types of futuristic weaponry and the bombs that the Mickeys carry at the end of the narrative are derived from antimatter bubbles. As mentioned previously, the telepathic instant messenger tech is not included in the movie. Additionally,Marshall threatened to have Mickey’s backup brick deleted in the bookbut Marshall actually does it in the movie.
