A man puts his life on the line time and time again as he slaves away for a corporation colonizing outer space. The man dies over and over as he tests a toxic alien atmosphere and undergoes severe radiation testing. Every time he dies, his body is simply printed again, and he is put back to work. This is the life of an expendable.

Parasite and Snowpiercer director Bong Joon Ho’s latest science-fiction film, Mickey 17, was released in theatres on Mar. 7. The film tells the story of Mickey, an “expendable” who is on his 17th body after having died 16 times. “It seems to be a story about the future, about another planet, but it’s actually a portrait of us now and the reality around us, not of somewhere far out in space,” Ho said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Though fantastical in concept, the film tackles a real issue about the workforce. The film highlights how any employee is replaceable and prone to mistreatment at any time in the standard workplace. “In real life, you see a lot of jobs that end in fatal accidents. When that happens, the worker leaves, another worker comes. The job remains the same — it’s just the people who get replaced. You can call it the capitalist tragedy of our times, and in this film it’s even more extreme,” Ho said to the Los Angeles Times.

Mickey 17, the iteration given the most focus in the film, is played masterfully by beloved actor Robert Pattinson. Pattinson passionately portrays 17’s charmingly mild manners and naivety while also conveying the pain of a tortured man. “He has empathy for all these previous incarnations of himself. It’s just a way of him dealing with the sort of awful situation he’s got himself in. Instead of saying, ‘Oh my God, I’m having a total existential crisis,’ it’s like, ‘No, that was my older brother Mickey 3 who existed three months ago,’” Pattinson said in an interview with USA Today.

After a scene in which Mickey 17 narrowly cheats death, Mickey 18 is printed to replace him. Thus, Pattinson gets to play a second big personality as Mickey 18 exhibits manic and aggressive tendencies due to a printing error. “Rob also worked really hard to make sure the differences – the delicate differences between 17 and 18 really land on the screen. And especially because Mickey 18 goes through a transformation in the film, we also see many different sides of Mickey 18. So with Rob’s amazing work and effort, we really get to see these very different characters,” Ho said in an interview with NPR.

Despite the movie’s heavy themes, it manages to be a comedic film in light of its subject matter. The confrontations between Mickeys 17 and 18 often delve into absurdity as 17 tries to talk down the hot-headed 18. “Actually, it’s the first time I’m delving into just how silly and foolish people can be, and how that foolishness can actually make them more lovable,” Ho said in an interview with SciFiNow.