On Earth, Mickey Barnes, (Robert Pattinson) and his friend Timo, (Steven Yeun) find themselves financially destitute after a failed business venture and are now on the run from a ruthless loan shark. Desperate to escape their possible grim fate, they see an advert for volunteers to join a space colony ship funded by multi-billionaire and failed Presidential candidate, Kenneth Marshall, (Mark Ruffalo).
In a flashback, we find out that an experimental human reprinting system has been banned on Earth but now by being fully funded by Marshall, it is now part of his expedition infrastructure. So with his self esteem at its lowest and this option available, Mickey signs up to be an Expendable. Who has voluntarily become a human guinea pig, constantly under the experimental eye of the ship's fairy unorganised, white coated scientific team.
This is explained best by a montage of Mickey going through the process of a lab rat, being injected, dying by sometimes violently puking. Then being deposed of in the on board recycling furnace and then being reprinted in an MRI looking tube contraption with his memory backed up and reloaded into his new body multiple times.
We now concentrate on the ship life of the seventeenth iteration of Mickey. A man still feeling pretty defeated but has managed to catch the eye of and is having a passionate relationship with confident security agent Nasha Barridge, (Naomi Ackie). This monotonous routine continues on for what seems like months and with his many personal sacrifices, a vaccine is eventually developed and it now becomes safe for the crew to explore the icy planet's surface without spacesuits.
It's on a day when he is outside, that Mickey comes too after falling down a deep ice crevasse. He's surprised that he is basically injured and calls out for help. Soon a small ship flies over and he hears it landing. It's his old friend, Timo but after abseiling down just enough to retrieve Mickey's dropped equipment on a higher ledge, he abandons him saying that he'll, "Be just be reprinted tomorrow."
However a bit later, by the unexpected assistance of a number of the indigenous grublike lifeforms, (later dubbed by Marshall as "creepers") he is pushed back to the surface and shortly when spotting a passing maintenance vehicle in the freezing snowstorm, he manages to jump on the back and gets back to the mother ship exhausted but basically intact. He makes his way to his quarters and flops on his bed, only to find another Mickey there... Number 18!
This could be definitely categorised as a Dystopian Science Fiction genre film. However there's a lot more going on here. While initially portraying himself as a saviour of the human race in funding the colonising mission of a new planet, the megalomaniac played brilliantly by Ruffalo then portrays attributes that wouldn't go amiss by the current US premier.
Toni Collette is Ylfa, his charming Stepford style but just as despicable Wife. Most of the crew treat each other with indifference as they've basically been all recruited from the under class in society. There's also the appalling attitude led by Marshall to the indigenous, "Creepers", for whom the crew are later reminded that as it's their planet, we, colonists are the Aliens.
The design of this film, from the unkempt look of the spacecraft interiors and equipment, the poor hygiene of the crew and their uniforms, the unrecognisable food supplements they happily consume in the mess to the believable creature design of the Creepers, could fit nicely into the 'ALIEN' franchise world. There are also some plot similarities to 2009's 'Moon' but there are no AI or robots here.
The many times the Mickeys are seamlessly on screen together makes you completely forgot Pattinson is skilfully playing both roles. There's also a good variety of lowlife performances in the remainder of the cast. Being a fan of many science-fiction stories, I would say the ending is a bit predictable but the 1h 37m runtime seemed exactly the right length. Fans of Bong Joon-ho shouldn't be disappointed by this offering and it should also find a bit of a cult following when it goes to streaming.
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