Mickey 17 ending explained: What happens to the two Mickeys?

We've had to wait a little longer than might have been expected for his follow-up feature to arrive, but now – after a few delays – the goofy sci-fi flick Mickey 17 has arrived in cinemas worldwide.

His third film in English following 2013's Snowpiercer and 2017's Okja, Mickey 17 is based on a novel by Edward Ashton and stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a destitute young man whose unfortunate situation on Earth leaves him with little choice but to sign up for a rather unusual mission to space.

The trip will see him travel as part of a crew to colonise an ice planet called Nilfheim, but his role is less than ideal: he is a designated 'expendable' – a disposable employee who is sent on various lethal assignments and "reprinted" using a cloning machine every time he dies.

It's safe to say that things get pretty wacky as the film goes on – if you've seen it and need a recap of what happens in the closing moments, read on to have the Mickey 17 ending explained.

Mickey 17 ending explained: What happens to the two Mickeys?

The plot for the film is set in motion when the 17th incarnation of Mickey makes an unlikely return from an encounter with the seemingly hostile creepers that are native to Nilfheim, and discovers that his 18th version has already been printed due to the belief there was no way he could have survived the ordeal.

Initially, the two don't get along well at all – especially due to the fact they are aware the ship's despotic leader Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) will kill any clones if he discovers the existence of any multiples.

Complicating the matter still further is Nasha (Naomi Ackie), the security agent to whom Mickey has a romantic attachment, but who seems to enjoy the fact there are now two Mickeys and insists that neither has to die.

Eventually, after Mickey 17 reacts badly to an experimental treatment given to him at a meal with Marshall, Mickey 18 swears vengeance against the leader, but his assassination attempt is interrupted when two small creepers burst out of a piece of Nilfheim rock Marshall is presenting.

In the melee that follows, one of the creepers is killed and the other is taken hostage – prompting the rest of Nilfheim's creeper population to gather threateningly round the ship.

Everything comes to a head when Marshall – who at this point is not only fiercely anti-creeper but also decidedly anti-Mickey – sends both Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 to battle against the creepers who have surrounded them and bring back 100 of their tails for experiments, his plan being that whichever Mickey survives longest will be allowed to live.

But the Mickeys have other ideas. From Mickey 17's earlier experiences with the creepers and his subsequent discussions with Nasha, they have realised that the aliens are not actively hostile, and so they decide to seek out the mother of the tribe and communicate with her peacefully using a translation device.

When Marshall realises what they are doing he dives into another fit of rage, and decides to head outside with his security team so that he can kill the creepers himself.

Anyway, after hearing of Marshall's plan from Mickey 17, the mother creeper issues an ultimatum: she will ensure that all the humans are killed with a single motion unless her surviving child is returned to her, and one human must be sacrificed to make up for the fact they have already killed one of her babies.

Using a secret code that had been established earlier in the film, Mickey is able to communicate this demand to Nasha via camera, and the latter manages to rescue the creeper and escape, successfully taking it back to its mother.

At the same time, Mickey 18 sacrifices himself to kill Marshall, such that the mother's other demand is also met.

The film ends with a six-month time jump in which we learn a few things. For one, an amusing scene sees the creepers explain that they had merely been bluffing before – they didn't really have the power to kill multiple humans with a simple motion as they had previously claimed.

Meanwhile, we also learn that since Marshall's death, his accomplices have been imprisoned and Nasha has now become the leader of the new colony.

In one of her first moves, she has ruled that the printing device that had made the Expendables programme possible will be blown up, meaning an end to the system.

In a groundbreaking ceremony on Nilfheim, it falls to Mickey to detonate the device. And although he is briefly haunted by a horrible, grotesque vision – in which he dreams that Marshall has returned after being reprinted himself – Mickey does just that.

From now on, there will be no more copies, just one Mickey: Mickey Barnes.

Mickey 17 is now showing in cinemas.

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