Passengers

"If you live an ordinary life, all you'll have are ordinary stories."

The starship Avalon is transporting a 5,000 colonists and 200 crew members to the planet Homestead II to start new lives.  The journey takes 120 years and everyone is in hibernation pods, while the ship is on autopilot.  When the ship encounters a meteor storm, the ship is damaged and passenger Jim Preston (Pratt) is woken from his pod.  The ship comes to life around him, but the rest of the passengers and crew are still in hibernation.  As he wanders around the ship seeking answers, he learns that they are still 90 years away from Homestead II.  He can't access the pods of the crew members or the bridge of the ship, and his message back to earth will take decades to reach it's target.

Jim is a mechanic, and he spends the next year learning everything he can about the systems on the ship.  He also overrides the system to upgrade his room.  He is depressed and spends his evenings in talking to the robot bartender, Arthur (Sheen).  Everything changes when he stumbles across the pod of writer Aurora Lane (Lawrence).  He falls in love after watching her video profile and reading everything she wrote.  He decides to wake her up so that he isn't alone.  Aurora is devastated to learn that they are still 89 years from the planet, but begins to bond with Jim.  As the ship starts malfunctioning around them, can Jim and Aurora find a way to fix the ship and save their sleeping cohorts?


In 2007 Jon Spaihts wrote this film.  His screenplay was featured on the Blacklist of best unmade scripts.  It took years to come to the screen, and in 2015 director Morten Tyldum was attached to the project.

This film is visually stunning.  The ship, both internally and externally, is fascinating.  The external design is interesting and unique.  The interior resembles the ships in many other space TV shows and movies, while still adding some unique elements.  The bar and restaurants feel like something you could find on earth, with the exception of the robot staff.  The gym and dance games are fun, and the pool is really cool.  All of the rooms in the ship give the characters things to do, while still reminding the audience that they are on a ship and have limited options.

The characters are interesting.  Despite focusing on 2 characters, with some interactions with the bartender, you want to see what will happen next.  The ship is essentially a character, and is introduced first... including a brief overview of the rooms and the number of inhabitants.  After the storm, Chris Pratt's Jim is introduced.  They show him interacting with the ship's systems, including his desperate call to earth... but he doesn't talk much, other than to Michael Sheen's Arthur, until Jennifer Lawrence appears.  Lawrence's Aurora reacts to the situation the way most people would... but also makes the most of the time she has.  Pratt and Lawrence are compelling on their own, and are very good together.  Sheen continually makes you forget that his character is an android, and makes you feel at ease throughout.  There are a few other characters that pop up, but none are on screen long enough to leave the same impression on the audience as Pratt and Lawrence.

The story has a little bit of everything.  It is a "lost-in-space" kind of film... but Pratt stuck in space alone.  It has high tech inventions and computers.  There is action and peril (that is earned), and a romance that isn't rushed.  I definitely recommend this film.

Passengers (2016) 116 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for sexuality, nudity and action/peril
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence as Aurora Lane
Chris Pratt as Jim Preston
Michael Sheen as Arthur
Laurence Fishburne as Chief Gus Mancuso