Bong Joon Ho’s first movie in area is a particular tackle sci-fi, the place, as you’d count on from the “Parasite” director, each element is fastidiously thought out as he put his distinctive stamp on the style. The movie relies on Ashton Edward’s 2022 novel “Mickey 7,” however because the “Mickey 17” author/director informed IndieWire on the Toolkit podcast, there have been sure issues he was drawn to earlier than even studying the e-book, having first obtained a 10-page abstract of the novel.
“After I first learn the therapy, I used to be simply immediately captivated by the idea of human printing and in addition that they go on this colony expedition to a different planet and encounter creatures there,” mentioned Bong, through translator Sharon Choi, whereas on the podcast.
These key substances sparked photographs, concepts, and ideas that despatched Bong’s thoughts racing, supplying the visible metaphors he may construct off.
Human Printing
From the beginning there was one visible that spoke to the director: Human Printing. Bong has by no means been drawn to the idea of cloning — a lot so, Warner Brothers has requested press to chorus from utilizing the “c” phrase — however the concept a fictional expertise, combining the recycling of natural materials and 3D printing to generate a brand new model of the identical particular person, was one thing totally different. For a filmmaker whose tales typically gravitate towards the politics of sophistication, human printing carried a really particular that means whereas additionally interesting to Bong’s humorousness.
“What was necessary for me was the feelings that come out of the truth that humanity’s so devalued via his job,” mentioned Bong. “If you concentrate on the inkjet printers we had again within the day, you’d all the time get paper jams and the paper would come out all crumpled. And I began pondering, ‘Effectively, what if that’s a human being not a bit of paper?’ And I believed that’s simply the way in which individuals view human value, how that has hit all-time low on this world, was what I used to be specializing in.”
A Gritty, Utilitarian, & Nameless Spacecraft
The medical lab housing the human printer is the one clear, high-tech, and historically space-age sci-fi space aboard the spacecraft. Bong informed IndieWire he wished the “very futuristic and superior” lab to face in sharp distinction to the remainder of the ship, the place the crew labored and lived. Manufacturing designer Fiona Crombie drew inspiration from present-day vessels like submarines, oil tankers, cargo ships, machine rooms, and the crew quarters in every. Director Bong wished a gritty, useful, but additionally flawed design, which spoke to a sure lack of care that went into creating areas for the employees. Their quarters are tight, and the large spaceship by no means feels expansive to the crew.
“You have got this ginormous spaceship that’s virtually like a cargo ship, and it’s not fancy. It doesn’t appear to be a sci-fi spaceship, it’s very gritty and dirty,” mentioned Bong. “The entire level of that this ginormous area is that you just by no means get a way of how many individuals are literally there. Everybody feels fairly nameless.”
Crombie and Bong created an inside through which the digital camera and the character’s subject of view is proscribed. There isn’t any spatial orientation, there aren’t any lengthy corridors to look down, nor a way of how totally different areas of the ship join. On an expedition, through which the crew is anticipated to begin a brand new colony and inhabitants collectively — a “nice sex-pedition” guarantees chief/dictator Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) — the setting is isolating.
A Very Recognizable Future
Director Bong would typically reject any designs or costumes that have been too futuristic. The world wanted to be relatable. Relatively than reinvent the trays, cups, pens, and furnishings of 2025, “Mickey 17” is crammed with a modular and minimalist model of our every day lives.
“We wished to truly focus the futuristic parts to the smaller gadgets within the movie, such as you see that exterior onerous drive that shops Mickey’s reminiscences, it seems to be like a crimson brick, so it’s a mixture of previous and future,” mentioned Bong.
These smaller futuristic props are sometimes surrounded by a world that could be very acquainted to the viewers. A superb instance of that is when Mickey and Timo (Steven Yeun) are operating from the mortgage sharks’ again on Earth — in a flashback displaying what motivated them to join the colony expedition.
“Town sequence the place you see Timo and Mickey get chased by gangsters, the situation seems to be like a backstreet that we all know, even their costumes look very modern, and I assume you may say that the costumes and the places typically look even fairly nostalgic,” mentioned Bong. “However the one factor that appears futuristic is that steel orb that beeps and goes after Timo and Mickey and electrocutes them. We tried to make use of these smaller props to make it seem to be a society of the longer term and convey these extra disparate parts.”
A Not So Submit-Apocalyptic Earth
Whereas nearly all of “Mickey 17” takes place aboard the spacecraft and the planet of Niflheim, the movie does contact upon the motivations for employees — past Timo and Mickey, who’re operating from the gangsters they owe cash to — to depart Earth and join the expedition. The Earth’s setting has deteriorated past the upper temperatures and extra highly effective storms of present-day world warming, however Bong doesn’t go full post-apocalyptic. Life remains to be comparatively recognizable on Earth, it simply appears to be harsher — we see wind storms, adopted by excessive rain within the backdrop of the massive glass dome constructing the place a whole lot of individuals are signing up for the expedition.
As Bong mentioned within the press notes interview, “It’s not a mass migration or exodus. The movie’s tone and temper make it really feel fairly matter-of-fact. Leaving Earth and migrating to a different planet looks like fairly a standard alternative.”
Niflheim: How They Created the Icy Planet
When the colonists arrive on their new planet, Niflheim, they uncover an Arctic winter. The winds, snow, and freezing temperatures — to say nothing of the lethal airborne virus the Earthlings’ immune system can’t deal with pre-vaccine — are inhospitable at first.
To create the Niflheim exterior, the “Mickey 17” manufacturing did transfer north of their London studios as winter began to set in, however solely by 60 miles to Cardington, the place they constructed their wintry planet from scratch. The setting of Niflheim was pure movie-magic, combining particular and visible results. The SFX workforce used a whole lot of tons of salt, cleaning soap, and massive rocks, and created precise sub-freezing temperatures on set, together with large wind machines for the blizzard situations. The VFX workforce hung 1 / 4 mile of each soundproof material and white screens across the 172 x 433-foot set — deciding on white over conventional blue display screen, to assist with the impact of how gentle bounces off snow — after which added the far off panorama in post-production.
The Creepers
To create Niflheim’s native inhabitants, which Marshall degradingly dubs “The Creepers,” Bong turned as soon as once more to his long-time collaborator, conceptual artist Heechul Jang, who helped the director on the eponymous creatures in “The Host” and “Okja.”
“This is perhaps a bit irresponsible, however what I inform Heechul, the creature designer, is simply what I wish to see on display screen, the ultimate end result,” mentioned Bong. For example, in “The Host,” the director described to the designer the important thing scene the place the monster hangs from the bridge and performs an acrobatic transfer. Continued Bong, “ So as soon as I listing all of the issues that I would like, then Heechul begins imbuing the [creatures] with their organic background and comes up with a fundamental anatomy of those creatures that might justify the actions, or the issues that I would like see on the finish. He has nice information, [including] animal anatomy and biology.”
With “Mickey 17,” Bong shared with Heechul how he envisioned the youthful creepers would curl up right into a ball and roll, however Heechul then not solely created the animals’ anatomy, however the evolutionary backstory for the creature.
“He actually thinks concerning the relationship between these creatures and their setting,” mentioned Bong. To outlive the icy planet, the creature designer thought-about, “How they restore warmth of their our bodies, and the fur coat that Mama Creeper has on her shell or pores and skin, and the way the caves that they dwell in stand up to the chilly. Simply all these parts of their setting that might be mirrored and the way these creatures look and function, that’s why he’s such a terrific animal specialist and creature designer.”
An enormous a part of the creature design stemmed from Bong’s imaginative and prescient of the climactic battle, which he mentioned on the podcast was a direct reference to the “Battle of Algiers,” and the noise the Algerians make as an indication of rebel in opposition to the imperialist French Military. Bong forged actress Anna Mouglalis because the voice of Mama Creeper (after first encountering the actress when he was Head Jurist on the 2021 Venice Movie Pageant) but it surely was his creature designer who labored immediately with the “Mickey 17” sound and VFX workforce to ensure every creature’s anatomy matched up with the motion and sounds Bong envisioned for the finale.
“He had to consider the construction of their mouths and the way their tongues labored, so he was really working with our sound workforce and the VFX workforce,” mentioned Bong. “They have been all working collectively to make that sequence attainable.”
To listen to Bong Joon Ho’s full interview, subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform. You may also watch the total interview on IndieWire’s YouTube web page.