‘Mickey 17’ Is Surprisingly Kinky During A Time When Hollywood Is Mostly Abstaining

We’re three months into 2025, and sci-fi is already giving us the best sex scenes this year.

There’s been a slow shift back towards embracing sex scenes again after a long hiatus. Anora, a movie centered around a sex worker, just won Best Picture at the Oscars. And god knows Nicole Kidman didn’t hold back in Babygirl. But a 2024 study found that since the year 2000, the amount of sex and nudity in films has decreased by almost 40 percent, so there’s still a long way to close that gap. That’s why it was thrilling to see futuristic sex scenes in Parasite Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho’s latest movie.

During a time when Hollywood seems to be abstaining from sex like a timid Catholic school girl, sci-fi movies like Mickey 17 are pushing the boundaries of intimacy. The film follows a love story between a woman and a man who dies over and over again. Pretty hot, huh? Especially when that man is Robert Pattinson x 2.

*spoilers ahead, duh*

Understanding The Romantic Connection At The Center Of Mickey 17

The dystopian comedy centers around Mickey Barnes (played by the beautiful Rob), who signs up to be an “Expendable” for a chance to leave Earth and escape a loan shark he owes a lot of money. As an Expendable, he literally gives his body to science. His job requires long hours as a test subject in the lab or being pushed to the brink in freezing temperatures on an alien planet (he didn’t read the paperwork that closely). Every time he dies, they just simply reprint him and upload his memories into a new body. The version of Mickey we’re introduced to at the beginning of the movie is the 17th edition (hence, “Mickey 17”).

Through his pain and sacrifice, the medical team onboard the colony’s space ship is able to create a vaccine that allows humans to move around the planet without risk. Obviously, he’s an important dude for the sake of the people onboard, yet he’s treated like garbage — partially because his bodies are made from recycled material and partially because they don’t really think of him as a person. The irony of his character hinges on his supposed immortality. It is as if his inability to truly “die” (as in gone forever) makes each of his lives infinitely disposable. The only person who doesn’t feel that way? His beloved Nasha Barridge, a sort of security agent on the ship.

Played by Naomi Ackie, Nasha is a firecracker who doesn’t take people’s shit. “She just can’t take BS, and I think she sees a lot of BS around [Mickey]; a lot of people treating him differently,” Ackie explained to ScreenRant. It may initially appear as a connection built out of pity, but “obviously out of that comes their loving connection.”

Their love for each other transcend every iteration of him. “He was fine with being tortured every day if he could just go home to Nasha,” Patterson shared in an interview with USA Today.

Mickey 17 Sex Scenes Are Surprisingly Kinky (Complimentary)

The two meet on the first day of the four-year journey to the new planet Niflheim and immediately break the new anti-sex rule enforced by the leader of the colony, Kenneth Marshall (played by Mark Ruffalo). Marshall is an ex-politician (with mannerisms eerily similar to Trump) who has managed to amass a cult following who are willing to follow him blindly. With food rations carefully monitored, Marshall announces that sex is banned until they arrive at Niflheim because it burns too many calories. (“At least 100 if you do it right.”)

Clearly, Nasha brings out the rebel in Mickey. We’re treated to a sex scenes montage of close-up shots of sloppy makeouts and Mickey’s face between Nasha’s thighs as Marshall’s anti-sex campaign speech plays as a voiceover. The couple even start designing new sex positions together while giggling like school children. One sex position they coined, “Bring the Baby,” is used later in the movie as a way to communicate with each other. It’s clear the two of them are not leaving their humanity behind despite the millions of miles between them and Earth.

When Mickey 17 is considered dead on his latest expedition, the lab prints a new body: Mickey 18. While Mickey 17 is horrified to discover his clone in his bed, Nasha is giddy at the prospect of having two versions of her Robert Patterson boyfriend (relatable). She immediately has them strip down to compare their bodies side by side. “This is so exciting!” she says with evident glee, probably already imagining what sex positions this opens up for them.

Image Credit: Warner Bros.

It’s refreshing to see Nasha be so curious and openly sexual — similar to Zendaya’s character Tashi in Challengers. But their similarity doesn’t stop there. Both Nasha and Tashi have a shared interest in playing the matchmaker with their boy toys (kiss! kiss! kiss!). While Rob deserves to be nominated for best leading (and supporting) actor for this role, Naomi Ackie’s high emotion throughout the film grounded the sci-fi and gave it empathy. When she’s angry, she yells. When she’s horny, she has sex. It’s almost cathartic to watch a woman on-screen show her feelings so freely — from her rage at unjust leaders to her eagerness in the bedroom.

Pattinson does a convincing job of portraying two different iterations of himself throughout the movie — especially when Nasha tries to initiate a threesome. While she’s kissing 17 and giving 18 a handjob, the latter (the more confident of the two) sticks his finger in his mouth and then reaches over to play with 17’s hair. This crosses the line for 17, who icks out at the prospect of sleeping with himself. Unfortunately the three are interrupted before anything truly ~scandalous~ happens.

Despite the immense loss of missing out on watching Robert Pattinson kiss himself, it was a true thrill to see Bong Joon Ho push the boundaries of what we can expect from threesomes in movies. Hopefully, the rest of 2025 will continue to bring us weird, hot sex scenes like god intended.