Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho says his new film Mickey 17 is not parodying Donald Trump with its villain played by Mark Ruffalo, but several critics say the allusions to the U.S. president are too numerous and too specific to deny.
In Mickey 17, Bong makes his English-language film debut directing a sci-fi action comedy starring Robert Pattinson as a man who signs up to do dangerous, inevitably fatal work on a space colony — always getting revived as a fresh clone with all his memories intact.
The movie, out this weekend, finds its villain in Kenneth Marshall, a megalomaniac in charge of the space colony, and more than a few viewers have asked the director if President Donald Trump was an inspiration for the character. Bong told Entertainment Weekly that Marshall is “a mix of many different politicians” and “dictators that we have seen throughout history”:
The expedition is led by Ruffalo’s buffoonish Marshall, who bears a striking resemblance to the current U.S. president — not just in his vocal inflection but mannerisms. He even hosts his own show aboard the ship, albeit without the “you’re fired!” catchphrase.
Addressing these perceived parallels, Bong notes that distressed audiences might be projecting their own fears onto the character. “When we showed the film in Berlin and talked to people from many different countries, it seemed like people were projecting the most stressful political leader onto the character of Marshall,” says the filmmaker.
One scene in particular is drawing the comparison — an assassination attempt where a bullet intended to kill Marshall grazes him on the cheek, just as then-candidate Trump was miraculously shot only in the ear last July. Last month, Bong said the similarity to the Butler, PA, sniper attack is purely coincidental, since he shot the film in 2022. Per Variety: “The director added that after recent events, ‘Mark Ruffalo was also quite surprised to see it play out in reality and wondered, “Were we oracles predicting the future?”‘”
However, a review by Chris Gore, co-founder of Film Threat, and editor-in-chief Alan Ng, reveals other details in the film that they say are clear allusions to Trump and his supporters.
“There’s an on the- nose line in the movie where it’s like, ‘He’s a failed politician who lost his last two elections,’” Gore explains. “This movie was assuming certain things would have happened in the real world, and they did not” — that is, Trump’s decisive electoral college win over former Vice President Kamala Harris. Gore also says the Marshall character has “rabid followers in red hats” who are the butt of a joke, and Ng mentions that Ruffalo does a dance very similar to Trump’s viral “YMCA Dance.”
Ng expresses disappointment that Ruffalo plays Marshall as “just a guy who’s insane and a dictator. There’s no nuance to it. There’s nothing to it other than that we’re supposed to hate the guy.”
Film Threat was not alone in its assessment. Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent, who loved the film, writes of Ruffalo’s villain: “yes, he’s obviously Trump.” Mashable‘s Kristy Puchko says the Avengers star “mimics Trump’s signature sneer and mercurial nature.” YouTuber Jeremy Jahns quips: “Felt like Mark Ruffalo was a guest on SNL, and he was the one doing the Donald Trump bit for the week, who has big fake teeth and looks like a walking Purge mask.”
Ruffalo himself said during a Tonight Show interview that his performance is “a documentary” snapshot of Trump in his second term.
“I play a petty dictator,” he told Jimmy Fallon during the February 28 broadcast. “At the time — we shot it three years ago, and I thought, ‘This is over the top’”… And now I realize it’s totally underplayed.”
“I mean, I made a documentary,” he remarked, to cackles from Fallon.
Mickey 17 is tracking to be a box-office bomb, with an expected global gross maxing out at $40 million its opening weekend against a pricey $118 million budget.
Read the full article here
