Review #1,162: 'Passengers' (2016)

Some of the greatest science-fiction films ever made are creepily prophetic, depicting a not-too-distant future in which technology has become a necessity rather than a luxury. The characters in Morten Tyldum's Passengers are in the middle of an intergalactic journey to another planet, with Earth now seemingly picked clean of all of its natural energy and resources. While this somewhat terrifying idea may seem unlikely (or maybe I'm giving humanity too much credit), the technology on board the starship Avalon, such an electronic meal dispenser and the android bartender, could very well happen tomorrow in our increasingly tech-reliant times. Passengers does well in setting up some big ideas, before descending into a tonally-uneven rom-com-cum-disaster movie.

Along with 5,000 others, mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is on his way to Homestead II, a newly-established colony for humans rich or skilled enough to earn their place. 30 years into a 120-year journey, the Avalon is struck by a meteor shower which causes parts of the ship to malfunction. While the ship is highly capable of repairing the damages, Jim's hibernation pod glitches and opens 80 years too early. At first, he believes that he has a month of luxury and socialising to enjoy before arriving at his destination, before he is hit with the realisation that he is the only one awake, and will die of old age long before any of the other crew members will wake up. Spending his time trying to break into the ship's control room and drinking his sorrows away with android Arthur (Michael Sheen), he spots sleeping beauty Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) and starts to fall in love with her video profile.

After an entire year alone, Jim makes the decision to wake her up, essentially condemning her to die with him. She is naturally devastated at first, but hits it off with the charming and handsome Jim, who has convinced her that she was awoken due to a ship malfunction also. Aurora is also a gold-star member, which means that she has access to lattes and bacon while the working-class Jim has been enduring instant coffee and porridge. A happily-ever-after space romance would not make for a very interesting movie, so the couple are torn apart when the Avalon starts to experience some serious hitches and Arthur blurts out the truth to Aurora. With the ship going haywire, Chief Deck Officer Gus (Laurence Fishburne) is also woken up prematurely, and it doesn't take him long to realise that the ship is overloaded with trying to fix the multiple problems caused by the meteor shower two years earlier, and may not last much longer.

While establishing itself early on as a character study asking some interesting questions and teasing us with the idea that our protagonist is in fact not the dashing charmer one has come to expect of Pratt, but a morally-conflicted creep, Passengers becomes eager to please the wider audience. Essentially turning into a formulaic love story with some generic action thrills, the film manages to get by on the strength of its two highly charismatic leads. While its clear they are pretty much playing themselves, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and the two certainly have chemistry to burn and enough screen presence to dismiss the need for the CGI thrills that follow. It received a rather unfair roasting from the critics, but perhaps they were (understandably) expecting much more from what is an enticing set-up that ultimately chickens-out of its potential. I went in expecting mediocrity, but what I got was passable, if forgettable.


Directed by: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie