Passengers is a 2016 science fiction romantic drama film directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Jon Spaihts. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in the lead roles, while Lawrence Fishburne is in a supporting cameo. The movie revolves around the themes of isolation, loneliness, and the ethics of artificial intelligence (something that has become the talk of the town in the last year or so). I wanted to watch this film in the cinema theater during its first week of release. However, due to some difficulties I couldn’t. Finally, yesterday, I watched Passengers movie with my dear friend Muniraj Ahuja.
The Plot
The film starts with Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), a mechanical engineer traveling through space among 5,000 other passengers on a spaceship called the Avalon. The Avalon is on a 120-year journey to Homestead II, a newly terraformed planet that will be humanity’s new home. Jim is the last passenger to be put into cryosleep, and he wakes up 90 years early due to a malfunction in his pod. Jim is initially excited to be awake, but he soon realizes he is alone on the ship. The other passengers are still in cryosleep, and there is no way to wake them up early. He finds himself trapped on the spaceship with no way to get home (earth) or his new home (Homestead II).
Jim eventually meets Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), a writer for whom he develops feelings. After contemplating a lot, he decides to wake Aurora but doesn’t tell her that he has done that to her. Aurora is initially suspicious of how the pod may malfunction. Still, eventually, she accepts this reality and tries her best to find a solution to go back to cryosleep. Gradually she forms a romantic connection with Jim. Together they share drinks at the bar served by Arthur, an android bartender on the Avalon. They spend their days exploring the ship and learning about each other.
As they complete one year of their anniversary, Aurora gets to know from Arthur that her pod didn’t malfunction, but it was Jim who deliberately woke her up. Her world shatters, and she is in a shocked state. She disowns Jim. Jim tries his best to make her understand that it was not an easy decision for him to make, but he was scared of being lonely on the vast ship and had to wake her up.
Things take an exciting turn when Gus Mancuso (Lawrence Fishburne), the chief deck officer, also wakes up due to a malfunction in his pod. After making some diagnosis, he discovered that the ship, which was supposed to be meteorite proof, was hit by something big and, if not fixed, risks a crash and losing over 5,000 lives aboard.
So, what will happen to Aurora and Jim? Will Avalon survive to make it to Homestead II? You can watch the rest yourself, and I am sure you won’t be disappointed.
My Two Cents On Passengers Movie
Passengers is a thought-provoking film that raises many questions about the ethics of technology and the human condition. The movie is visually stunning and has a great background score. In fact, it was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Score category in 2017.
The movie is well-directed, with good acting, visuals, and a somewhat decent storyline. The acting by Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt is good, and their chemistry is worth watching. The visual effects are excellent and impressive. The story could be more suspenseful, although it has a couple of twists and turns. The film also has an important message for the audience; despite the characters’ challenges, they never fail to live life to the fullest. Overall, Passengers is a good one-time watch movie. In the end, the Passengers movie turned out to be a heartwarming story that will entertain you. I recommend it to fans of science fiction and romance.
I would give Passengers a 7/10. It is not a perfect film, but it is worth watching.
Luckily for Indian movie lovers, Passengers is available on both Netflix and Prime Video.
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