How did I survive that?
It was some damn fall.
Shit, my comms busted.
All my thermals busted too.
I should have got snapped in half and died on the way down.
Instead of slowly turning into a meat popsicle.
Cool.
Tina!
I'm down here!
Mickey?
Tina!
Tina, I'm down here!
Mickey, whoa.
You haven't died yet?
No.
Hold on.
[LAUGH]
Oh shit.
Your flamethrower's still good.
Not a single scratch.
It's a good thing I thought to come down here.
Weapons will be happy to see this.
Yeah, I'm gonna turn this in, okay?
I can take it.
You're not mad, right?
I'm just taking this?
I mean, it's not looking very good for you, right?
Also, line only goes this far.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, no.
We're cool.
You shouldn't have to take the rest, guys.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Plus, they're gonna reprint you back out tomorrow anyway.
Yeah.
Hey, Mickey.
Yeah?
What's it feel like to die?
I'm sure you're used to it by now.
Still.
How many times is this?
You're Mickey 16?
17.
Jerk.
18 after this one.
Well, it's nice knowing you.
Have a nice death.
See you tomorrow.
Oh, great.
Why not?
Oh, that's a pretty big one.
Hopefully I'll just get swallowed in one go.
It's gotta be better than slowly freezing to death.
I guess.
Or maybe not.
But they just printed me out again every time I died.
All my data is saved, and I just get a whole new body.
They do all this kind of regular uploads of memories
and my personality traits and re-implant it back in my brain.
That's some crazy technology, man. It's just... Let's just say it's advanced. It's very advanced.
Wait!
Just hold on a second.
Just like...
Just relax. Breathe.
Breathe.
The whole body training and memory transplanting thing
to be honest, it was so ridiculously ahead of its time
that it caused so many ethical fights and religious blah blah blah.
It was actually banned on Earth,
and they only allowed now in outer space for expandables like me.
So from the second we left the atmosphere,
they made me work my ass off all the way to this planet,
giving me one mission after another.
Uh, Tech? What's going on?
The actual cable's here already.
Um, the thing is, Mickey...
Hey, medical, you want to tell him?
Tell me what?
Hi, Mickey. How are you doing?
Are you experiencing any vertigo, nausea or dizziness?
Uh, I guess I am feeling a little dizzy.
It's only going to get worse from here, Mickey, with a nice fever, too.
Truth is, you're exposed to unthinkable levels of radiation right now,
which is why we sent you out in the first place.
Okay.
If you could give us a full description of your symptoms.
So, a couple things I want to go through on our cosmic radiation checklist.
First, how long until your skin starts to burn?
Then, how long until you go blind?
And of course, how long until you die?
That's the real nut we're after.
There was this one time in my fourth grade science class,
I messed with a lab frog.
I just figured this all must be my punishment.
Mickey, take off your glove so I can see what's happening under your space suit.
Oh! Oh! Wow!
Did you see that?
(Music)
Good morning.
Keep yourself hydrated, Mickey.
Start to feel extremely crushed.
Our cardiac, I think the dose was too high.
Who cares, Dorothy? He's going to be dead in 10 minutes.
Just focus on getting all the blood samples.
He's going to bleed through his eyes, nose, mouth, ears and rectum.
Make sure to collect separate samples from every home, okay?
And keep the memory upload going at the same time.
This Mickey special, you know that, right?
But of all the Mickey's, you will have the shortest life spanner.
I heard, I'm telling you this.
Oh, actually, good news.
It's more like 15.
Much better, isn't it?
I would have been filthy rich by now with life insurance,
except I've obviously expendables are uninsurable.
There's no workers comp, no unions, no pension benefits.
Now, I wouldn't be surprised if you were thinking at this point,
"Well, now, why did you do this to yourself?"
Well, because I had a friend who told me that one day
macarons would sell better than burgers.
And because I trusted this shitty friend
and I got an enormous loan from a wonderful gentleman
to open a macaron store.
(screaming)
All right, all right, calm down.
I'm well aware that you're four weeks left.
Just think of this as a little field trip.
In case of what, man, poor old should you fail to reimburse us
in a timely manner.
Besides, you two have a lot of time on your hands
with your little macaron shotgun under.
Whoo! This is quite a show you got on here for me.
Quite a show. The message is clear. I hear you.
I hear it loud and clear. I'm late. I'm late.
The money is late. It's coming. Two people behind me.
Darius Blank, a name I wish I'd never heard.
Mr. Blank isn't all that concerned with money.
He has plenty.
This Billy's just one of his many assets.
Watching his delinquent borrowers die,
savoring the details of death, that he truly enjoys.
The message is clear. You can stop now. We can stop.
You know, it's... I hear you.
Two weeks is all it takes. All it takes now.
And most people...
(muffled speaking)
(muffled screaming)
Who caught that, gentlemen, four days ago
at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia?
Looks expensive.
Best assured, anyone who misses the deadline,
we chase them to the ends of the Earth.
So we decided to get off of Earth.
Nothing was working out,
and I got no family lying on me.
So I applied to the dead. Lying on me.
So I applied to the colony expedition,
but there's like a million other people with the same idea.
Seems like the whole of this rotten planet
was running away from something.
I guess everybody's got money problems.
But anyway, we had to get on this ship,
because it was the last one of the season.
Waves upon waves of people desperate to leave Earth.
It's clear, anti-migrationists are talking to a brick wall
when they insist on fixing up the Earth
instead of risking lives by migrating to another planet.
It feels like these passionate applicants
are already off in space.
More importantly, this is the expedition
led by former Congressman Kenneth Marshall,
who lost his last two elections.
Is this failed politician?
Now trying to establish a kingdom beyond the stars,
is it his fanatical supporters
who won him a generous sponsorship
from a particular religious organisation and corporation?
So many questions left unanswered.
Let's go and talk to the crowd.
Excuse me, are you a Kenneth Marshall supporter?
I am. I am, big time.
I am a full-on supporter.
I basically am the one and only.
Are you from Marshall's official channel?
No way!
So Marshall's watching this right now?
Oh, my God.
You need to pick me. I swear. Please, pick me.
You need people young and hungry.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have another mild-stand start today.
Access is now restricted to game three.
Please visit our stand for discounted goggles and masks.
Additional by present on with partial pay, as always.
The other expeditions wouldn't take me, but they're wrong.
I promise I can fix toilets.
I make gingerbreads. You've got to take me.
Make me a shot.
"Expendable"?
You're planning to be an expendable? Seriously?
You read through the whole application.
Uh, yeah.
I should have read through it.
I didn't have too much of a choice.
I don't have any bonafide certifications.
I don't really have any skills whatsoever.
Then I find out Timo's already called dibs on a position for himself.
As a flitter pilot, he only just got his learner's permit a couple of weeks before.
No idea what he had to come up with to pull
that off, but you've got to give it to him.
Excuse me.
Is there, like, some construction going on?
Sorry, what?
I don't hear like a...
No, like a chainsaw.
Uh, no.
I wanted to get the hell out of there.
Somewhere where the sound couldn't follow me.
Far out into space.
You read through the paperwork.
Yes.
You read it, so you know right. This is going to be a pretty extreme job.
But it's also going to be fun.
Fun. I'll explain all the details.
I got so distracted by that smell, the smell of this woman's hair.
It was like it brought back some faraway memory or something.
That giant tank downstairs is called a cycler.
It takes organic waste produced in the spaceship.
Apple peels, chicken bones, rotten eggs, dead bodies, human waste, you name it.
Then it combines, refines and recycles them and sends a portion to this printer.
Raw materials for a human body.
Once you die and the committee approves, it'll
print a new version of your body within 20 hours.
Take your clothes off. Change into this.
I couldn't even hear anything she was saying.
It was like all my senses were focused on my nose.
Like real deja vu, but for a smell.
We're going to do a full scan of your bio data.
That means you'll be reprinted exactly as you are right now.
Forever.
I better not this. Otherwise it'll be there every now and then.
Well, I'm glad she didn't know about the one on my butt.
So after she does the body scan, she uploaded my memories.
Call it a personality backup.
I got to do this once a week so I don't
have any big gaps every time they print me out.
In the past you would have needed a hard drive the
size of a commercial refrigerator to copy an adult brain.
Now this little brick, clever, right?
So I was injected with some special
solution and brought back a flood of old memories.
Too many memories.
We were heading home from the supermarket.
I asked to sit in the front seat.
I said I'm big enough.
And that's when I saw the red button.
I pressed it and she crashed.
I pulled the trigger.
This is the final requirement to become expendable.
Prove to me you have faith in this system.
From now on you need to get used to dying.
This is your job.
[crying]
[ominous music]
I began the four and a half year journey as Mickey One.
When you're stuck in a spaceship for that long, food is everything.
Warning, Mickey One. Seven calories over the current ration allocation.
[footsteps]
On that first day in the cafeteria, I think I
might have started thinking, what have I done a little?
The whole room was full of people eating
this crappy food and there's total silence.
Like you could hear a pin drop until Kenneth Marshall and his wife, Ilfa, walk in.
And a whole bunch of people just started going nuts.
I was thinking, what the hell am I doing here?
But that's when I saw her.
Nasha.
That was the first time I saw Nasha Barrage.
On day one of this long journey.
[crowd cheering]
[piano music]
[crowd cheering]
All right, enough and now.
Keep that up for one minute and you waste five calories.
That's two percent of the precious meal you're eating right now.
As you know, our number one priority is to
conserve food resources until our arrival at Niffle Line.
So that we maximize our survival rate.
So listen up.
Sexual intercourse, for example.
Each session consumes a whopping 100 calories.
At least.
Depending on the participant's duration times friction equals...
The point is Kenneth is talking to the
committee about banning all sexual activity on the ship.
Darling, are you sure this is the right time to bring that up?
Oh honey, I'm sorry. I was just trying to help you.
It's okay, Ilfa.
Am I doing okay?
Should I go harder?
Yes, yes. Go harder.
No!
For the pioneers, once we've arrived at
Niffle Line, we've secured our food production.
We will launch the greatest sex encouragement campaign in history.
Come on!
You will spread your seed across the planet.
But we survive!
Never survive!
Never your mark will walk the line!
Propagated species, we shall defend the land!
So we started infesting.
With love.
Please.
Unfortunately, this is...
You're not gonna speak.
Come on, it's so happy.
Those four years would have felt like 40 if it weren't for Nasha.
She stayed with me in the best of times.
And kept by my side in the worst of times.
[sad music]
Not everyone gets lucky enough to find a soulmate like this.
None of this would have happened if I'd never boarded this spaceship.
So I'll hail the great loan shark Darius Blank.
Thanks, Darius.
But it wasn't like I was slacking, though.
I was super busy every day taking care of Nasha.
She's an all-in-one elite agent.
It's not easy supporting someone who's a
soldier, a police officer, and a firefighter.
But what she sees in me, I got no idea.
I'm just grateful.
But as soon as I step out the door, the ship was filled with mostly...
...dickets.
Hey, Mickey, right?
Come with me to ask.
What's it like to die?
You know, when you're reprinted, now how does that feel?
Oh, come on, just tell us. We really want to know.
Imagine spending years elbow-to-elbow with these bozos.
It was enough to push anyone over the edge.
Sometimes even if Nasha, who is a model
citizen, would have to step in and remind us...
...that we were all one big happy family.
They're to help one another.
They're to have each other's backs.
A tight-knit, harmonious community.
And the committee has reduced Mickey Nines' rations by half...
...and the scientific manual cyclo-cleaning until further notice.
Hey, Mickey.
You must be hungry. Have some more.
Uh, thanks, Kai.
Can you change your shampoo?
Shampoo?
It's only one shampoo in this entire spaceship. Thank you.
Okay.
It was a very long trip in a beautiful community.
Hi.
But, uh, Nasha was obviously my one and only, you know.
For real.
And as for my one and only job, I was proud of it.
I felt like I was part of the team.
Mati! Mati!
Oh, last one!
Oh, Korea!
Oh! Quickly!
My brother travelers...
She had sisters.
And sisters.
It is long that we have come four years together in this ship...
...and that we love you like our merry old family.
And here we are, right below us awaits...
...our merry old planet of purity.
What's wrong with him? He's flying away!
Maybe he has a blue or something.
Like a virgin vanilla ice cream.
Touched for the very first time.
What do we really call him?
Whoever's gone down there first come freeze to death.
That's it. Make a deep breath. Fill your lungs.
Imagine there's an unknown virus in the air...
...and you're sucking in every single microscopic particle floating around.
All the viruses...
...fill every avioli.
So good!
Oh, so good!
Brilliant.
There really was an unknown virus in the air.
Uh, lethal one?
[GASPS]
Don't move! Don't move!
Oh, man! He's alive!
So fucking long.
I'm fine.
Thank you.
In the end, thanks to the lab rats Mickey 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16...
...getting stab gas dumped and burned, we got the vaccine.
My great gift to mankind.
And so, we didn't need oxygen masks...
...and we could see our breath as much as we wanted.
Look at that, Jennifer. Ridiculous.
I can't believe it's the living that thing.
I know, right?
Plantfall was ages ago and we're still eating the same crappy inflight TV dinner.
[LAUGHS]
Precisely why we ought to build residential complexes.
Grow crops as soon as possible.
Yeah, sure.
Spread the seed.
Invest the land.
Propagate the species.
[LAUGHS]
It's freezing.
Whoa. Look at that colour.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
[GUNSHOT]
[LAUGHS]
He's such a close. You should learn some breakfault moves.
You okay?
Yeah, I'm fine.
Come on.
What's breakfall?
Look at the colour. Take us for perfect breakfault.
Yeah.
Shut up.
[SIGHS]
God.
What is it?
[SCREAMING]
What's that?
[SCREAMING]
What's that?
[SCREAMING]
Get out! Get out! Get out!
[GUNSHOTS]
What the fuck?
What's going on?
What's that?
What the hell was that?
I don't know, but there are more in the hole.
Let's get the fuck out of here.
Come on, Mickey. Let's go.
[GRUNTS]
Go, go, go. Move, move.
[SCREAMING]
[GUNSHOTS]
[SCREAMING]
Thank you.
Mickey.
Mickey, it's my show.
You fucking useless little asshole.
You're an expendable.
You're here to be expended, dammit.
I'm so sorry.
And my is Jennifer Chilton, a precious, fertile,
female, dead and not of you.
How do you try this?
You know, that's what I want to know.
You disgusting.
Really?
You like my sauce?
No, no, no, no, darling.
Those things, look at them.
What's going on?
They're delicious, aren't they?
Oh, how do you not like it?
You, stand still. Don't move.
They lust for human flesh.
They're creepy.
Oh, honey, that's perfect.
You should call them creepers.
I'll call them creepers.
I'm calling them creepers.
President, are you listening?
Expendable.
I decided in the committee that going forward,
your rations will be halved.
So my shift doubled.
14 hours every day, seven days a week,
until I brought home a creeper sample.
Tima! Tima!
How did I survive that?
Woah, you haven't died yet?
What's it feel like to die?
Even on my 17th go around,
I really hate dying.
Still,
always.
Every time.
Bon Appetit.
Where am I?
What's going on?
I'm not coming out of the printer.
I'm still 17.
Why didn't that thing eat me?
I was passed out.
I not look tasty enough.
Oh, got it.
You're saving me for the kiddos.
What a great mom.
Oh, please just make it quick.
Come on guys, big bites. Big bites.
Ow!
Where are you taking me now?
Is my meat gone bad after all that reprinting?
Oh, shit.
I'm still good meat.
I'm perfectly good meat.
I taste fine.
Ditching me out here in the middle of
nowhere.
It's not cool.