Passengers (2016 film)

Plot

The starship Avalon is transporting over 5,000 colonists and crew in hibernation pods to the planet Homestead II, a journey taking 120 years. Thirty years into its journey, the ship encounters an asteroid belt, in which it collides with a large asteroid. This weakens the ship's protective energy shield enough for a piece to pass through, impacting the ship. A malfunction awakens one passenger, mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), 90 years too early.

After a year of isolation, with no company except Arthur (Michael Sheen), an android bartender, Jim, despondent, contemplates suicide. One day he notices beautiful Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) in her pod. Her video profile reveals she is a writer with a humorous personality. After struggling with the morality of manually reviving Aurora for companionship, he awakens her, claiming her pod malfunctioned like his. Jim makes Arthur promise not to tell Aurora why she really woke up. Aurora, devastated she may grow old and die before the ship reaches Homestead II, attempts a fruitless effort at re-entering hibernation, just as Jim tried. Eventually, she accepts her situation and begins writing a book about her experiences. Jim and Aurora grow closer, becoming lovers.

Another year later, Arthur unintentionally reveals the truth to Aurora. She is distraught, alternately berating, shunning, and physically attacking Jim. Soon after, however, another pod failure awakens Gus (Laurence Fishburne), a Chief Deck Officer. The three discover multiple failures happening throughout the ship's systems. If not repaired, the ship will breakdown. Gus attempts repairs with Jim and Aurora's help, while Aurora still blames Jim for stealing her life. Gus' body, physically damaged by his malfunctioning pod, begins failing; medical tests in the Autodoc, an automated medical diagnostics and treatment pod shows he has only hours to live. Before dying, Gus gives Jim and Aurora his ID badge to access secure areas and repair the ship.

Jim and Aurora discover a series of holes through the ship's hull from the asteroid collision two years earlier. The computer administering the fusion reactor that powers the ship has been damaged causing the ship's malfunctions. As the computer attempts to fix the multiple problems, it overloads in a cascade failure. Repair attempts lead to further reactor damage. Jim realizes that the reactor must be vented by opening the vent hatch from the ship's exterior. Aurora assists while admitting she is terrified of losing Jim and living on the ship alone. Aurora, from inside the ship, and Jim, outside, successfully vent the reactor. However, Jim's tether snaps and his damaged spacesuit loses oxygen. Aurora retrieves and resuscitates Jim in the Autodoc. Jim later learns that the Autodoc can be a makeshift hibernation pod for Aurora. With only one Autodoc, she realizes she would never see Jim again.

Eighty-eight years later, the ship's crew awaken shortly before arrival on Homestead II. They discover a small house amid lush vegetation on the ship's grand concourse area. Aurora's book reveals that she chose to stay awake with Jim and finish writing her story.

Cast

Development

The original script for Passengers was written by Jon Spaihts in 2007, and had been in development hell for years. At one point, the film was set to star Keanu Reeves and Emily Blunt, with the production budget being a relatively low $35 million. Brian Kirk was originally scheduled to make his feature directorial debut with the film, with Reeves in the lead. On December 5, 2014, it was announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment had won the auction for the rights to the film. In early 2015, Morten Tyldum was chosen to helm the film. Tyldum had always wanted to do a massive sci-fi action movie, but also stressed the importance of a 'big guy' character-driven sci-fi film, rather than a cold and distant one.

Metro described its plot as bearing a resemblance to the EC Comics story "50 Girls 50" by Al Williamson, first published in the July–August 1953 issue of Weird Science, in which two passengers of a colony spaceship are awoken from hibernation early and fall in love.

The cast – Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne and Aurora Perrineau – were announced between February 2015 and January 2016. Lawrence was paid $20 million against 30 percent of the profit after the movie breaks even and Pratt was paid $12 million.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began in September 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. Filming occasionally took place for full days with a bulk of the shooting done around the two leads only. Rodrigo Prieto served as cinematographer, and Maryann Brandon was hired as film editor.

Music

Thomas Newman composed the musical score for Passengers. Spaihts said that he wrote Passengers while listening to Newman's previous scores. Also, Imagine Dragons recorded a song, "Levitate", for the film's soundtrack. It was released on November 29, 2016.

Release

In August 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment set the film's release date for December 21, 2016, in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. The film was concurrently released in 3D and RealD 3D formats, with the international rollout running through Christmas and the New Year, to January 12, 2017.

Box office

As of March 6, 2017, Passengers has grossed $99.2 million in the United States and Canada and $195.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $294.5 million, against a production budget of $110 million. It is the second-biggest original live-action Hollywood release of 2016 behind only La La Land.

Passengers opened alongside Sing and Assassin's Creed, and was initially expected to gross around $50 million from 3,478 theaters over its first six days of release, although the studio was projecting a more conservative $35 million debut. After making $1.2 million from Tuesday night previews and $4.1 million on its first day, projections for the six-day opening were lowered to $27 million. It went on to gross $15.1 million in its opening weekend (a six-day total of $30 million), finishing third at the box office behind Rogue One and Sing. It became the third-biggest original live-action domestic release of 2016 behind Central Intelligence ($126 million) and La La Land ($149 million).

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 31% based on 218 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Passengers proves Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence work well together – and that even their chemistry isn't enough to overcome a fatally flawed story." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 41 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Rebecca Hawkes of The Telegraph described the film as not a romance but "a creepy ode to manipulation", describing the action as a "central act of violence" that is softened and justified. Both Hawkes and Paul Tassi of Forbes said that the marketing team deliberately hid in the trailers the reason Aurora wakes up. Andrew Pulver of The Guardian called it an "interstellar version of social-media stalking" with "a fantastically creepy start" that, contrary to romantic comedies that manage to "plane down" the nastiness of stalking tactics, presents them in a way where "it's gruesomely inescapable". Alissa Wilkinson of Vox called it "a fantasy of Stockholm syndrome, in which the captured eventually identifies and even loves the captor" and "a really disturbing wish fulfillment fantasy".