Review of Passengers (2016) by Mydistuniverse — 26 Dec 2016

We start off with spaceship Avalon travelling through space on the way to Homestead II, a new colony that gives people from Earth the opportunity to get away from the overcrowded planet. There are five thousand passengers and 258 crew on board, all sleeping in hibernation pods. About thirty years into the journey the Avalon is hit by a massive astroid field and sustains some damage. Most of the damage is not visible straight away, but will prove to be crucial later on.

Unfortunately for mechanic Jim Preston this incident results in his hibernation pod malfunctioning. He wakes up and soon realises that something is way off. For the next year he lives on this spaceship all by himself amongst thousands of sleeping people. At first he keeps himself busy with various tasks around the ship. Slowly the loneliness is getting to him though. His only companion is a bar tender android, played by Michael Sheen who is brilliant in the role. His performance quite outshines Chris Pratt, I hate to say.

Jim sinks into a deep depression and even contemplates suicide. He faces isolation and loneliness literally for the rest of his life. And that amongst of a sea of people. The spaceship will only arrive at the homestead in ninety years. Well after he will have died. During a particularly dark time he comes upon the pod of Aurora Lane. He is intrigued and starts reading up on her. The more he learns the more he fancies himself in love with her.

The next part has been called many things all over the internet from dark to selfish to downright murder. And perhaps that is all true. But I challenge anyone of those people to deny that they would not have sought a companion and done the same thing. If you faced spending the rest of your life without contact to another person ever again, surely that would makes anyone try and find a solution.

After months of trying to talk himself out of it he tampers with Aurora’s hibernation pod and wakes her up. In the beginning she believes that her awaking is also due to a pod failure. She is not happy about it but once she realises that there is no going back she settles into life on the ship.

Before too long all of Jim’s dreams come true and they become an item. The bar tender has now two clients. Life is good for a while. Jim and Aurora are happy. Her travel gold member status gives them access to all kinds of perks on the ship.

As to be expected the truth comes out eventually and the romance comes to an abrupt stand still. At first Aurora is shocked and enraged when she finds out that she is stuck on the ship for the rest of her life. Then she blocks Christ and gives him the silent treatment. Her reaction is quite understandable considering that someone else altered the course of her life for his own selfish reasons. Jim sentences her to a life on the spaceship without her own choosing.

By then the technical incidents on board add up and a third person wakes up, this time one of the crew. Gus is the Chief Deck Officer of the Avalon. Together they discover that the nuclear power plant is overheating. The malfunctioning of the ship gets worse, threatening to end in disaster for all on board.

Gus’ awakening has unexpected and deadly side effects and soon Aurora and Jim find themselves alone again, racing against time to safe the spaceship and everyone on it. They are forced to work together to survive. During the attempts to cool down the power plant, Jim leaves the ship for a dangerous spacewalk that could mean his death. Aurora realises that without him she would be in exactly the same position as he was before waking her up. She realises how she loves him and how very much she does not want to be alone either.

There are a few tense moments, but in the end they make it. When the crew wakes up eighty eight years later they find the space ship partly transformed into a giant greenhouse. Jim and Aurora learned a valuable lesson, as hopefully will have the viewer. People are always on the way somewhere, instead of living in the moment. They want to be somewhere else, instead of being happy where they are with the people in their lives.

In the end, was it murder to wake up Aurora? I don't think so. She and Jim lived a long and happy live. They made the best of their circumstances and grew old together. What more could you possibly want from life? Does it really matter where you are as long as you are loved and happy?

I found it fascinating that the entire movie was basically held by only three people, Jenifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt and Michael Sheen. Jennifer Lawrence is such an amazing actress. Her characters reaction when she found out the truth was spectacular to say the least.

Chris Pratt started out as this happy go lucky guy who sank into despair at the prospects ahead of him. It was a great performance on his part.

Only Michael Sheen could play a legless android in such a manner. I was once again so impressed by him. He is a wonderful actor.

Overall I really enjoyed Passengers.