Mickey 17
Plot
Mickey 17, a gripping sci-fi thriller, delves into the intricate lives of the immortal, genetically engineered workers created to serve various employers. At the forefront of this thought-provoking narrative is Mickey Barnes, an unlikely hero whose existence transcends ordinary human norms. As a clone with regenerative abilities, Mickey inhabits a world where death is not mortality, but rather a calculated and inevitable aspect of his fate. Under the employ of Reviva Corp, Mickey functions as an "immortal," laboring to serve a particular purpose beyond the confines of conventional employment. His duty revolves around assuming different personas, leaving behind lives that unravel much like those of fleeting memories. In this desolate landscape of endless rebirth, Mickey’s sense of self becomes a constant fragmentation, disrupted by his non-stop reincarnations. Mickey is faced with a bleak reality, watching life pass by through the lens of multiple identities. As he gradually builds relationships and fosters connections, these moments are inevitably followed by severance and silencing. Death, an otherwise inseparable entity in his existence, is presented as a consequence – albeit a controlled and orchestrated event orchestrated by his employer. As he grapples with these inherent dilemmas, Mickey unwittingly harbors an unfulfilled desire: to elude the reviving machinations of his corporation and transcend the circumscribed longevity foreordained to him. His particular circumstances are tied to a novel stipulation negotiated with Reviva, which necessitates that Mickey accept the labor to the extent of his very life. A dire arrangement that seeks to ensure job satisfaction: total commitment to the position is accompanied by an irrevocable commitment to eventual termination. Death serves as a logical consequence to every aspect of his job requirements. Thus, his professional pledge stands in stark juxtaposition with the life beyond that Mickey longingly awaits to embark on. Prior to the singular and singular circumstance in which Reviva became his employer, Mickey confronted severe economic burdens and marginalization as a marginalized loner eking out an unpredictable livelihood in a transitory and vast world beyond his corporation’s oversight. His life remains now – however – subsumed under the strict, regulated spectrum of predetermined employment patterns, which define and predetermine his activities and actions while simultaneously marking the predictable trajectory of his fate. But Mickey isn’t merely a complacent participant in his perpetual loop of death and rebirth. He carries the seeds of revolt amidst his existential yearning and the fragments of memories he’s been gifted by past life incarnations. These remnants evoke a faint glimmer of his longing for transcendence – an escape route from an existence dedicated to sacrifice and to eke out a meaning in the midst of servitude. A profound shift within Mickey slowly takes root as the boundaries between his immortal work persona and fragmented self start to blur. As ties strengthen with a small group of fellow immortals, including Midge, he's exposed to the unselfish human experiences of empathetic bonds, love, and collective knowledge, effectively dissolving his alienation. A heart-wrenching journey unfolds in response to the crushing labor imposed by Reviva, driven by Mickey's growing awareness of the intricate dynamics governing the relationships between his kind. Alongside a group of insubordinate workers who are now refusing to submit willingly to a cycle of meaningless and permanent sacrifices in an unyielding labor regime, Mickey starts to lose sight of the all-undermining commitments he once held to a system that no longer appears legitimate or fair. His is a story that echoes across the lines of revolt – even in the face of overwhelming institutional design aimed at controlling the subversive potentialities within an immortal class. But Mickey’s insurrection forms not mere riotous, passionate uprisings, but rather in gradual discoveries discovered he can – in some measure at least – come to control his own destiny.