Passengers

The starship Avalon, a vessel of gleaming luxury and automated precision, carries 5,258 colonists in hibernation on a 120-year journey to Homestead II. When a collision with an asteroid triggers a pod malfunction, mechanical engineer Jim Preston wakes up alone, with ninety years of travel still ahead. His subsequent decision to rouse writer Aurora Lane from her sleep sets in motion a story that is part survival drama, part romance, and part ethical puzzle. Directed by Morten Tyldum, the film leans heavily on the charisma of its two leads, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, who carry nearly every scene in a confined setting. The production, shot at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, built the Avalon's grand atrium and zero-gravity pool as practical sets, with visual effects houses like Sony Pictures Imageworks handling the spacescapes. The screenplay by Jon Spaihts, which landed on the 2007 Black List of best unproduced scripts, was originally attached to Keanu Reeves before Pratt and Lawrence signed on.

Released in December 2016 with a $110 million budget, the film grossed $303 million globally, with the bulk coming from international markets. Critics were divided: reviews praised the production design and the leads' chemistry but took issue with the film's handling of its central moral dilemma. The score by Thomas Newman earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, as did the production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas. The movie's commercial performance was solid, though its cultural footprint has been shaped more by debate over its premise than by its box office numbers.[edit]

Jim Preston, a mechanical engineer from Denver, awakens in his hibernation pod aboard the Avalon to find the ship's computer insisting that 90 years remain until arrival. He is the only conscious person on board. The passenger manifest lists 5,258 souls, all still asleep. Jim's attempts to re-enter hibernation fail. He spends the first year in a state of escalating despair, exploring the ship's empty restaurants, bars, and basketball courts, and talking to Arthur, an android bartender programmed with a cheerful disposition. He considers suicide, even attempting to open an airlock before losing his nerve.

He discovers Aurora Lane in her pod and becomes fixated. He reads her writing, learns she is a journalist from New York who plans to write about the colony and return to Earth. After months of internal struggle, Jim researches her pod's systems and decides to wake her. He stages the scene to look like a malfunction. Aurora awakens believing herself unlucky, and the two begin a tentative friendship that deepens into a romantic relationship. They explore the ship together: zero-gravity swimming, dinners in the Grand Salon, stargazing from the observation deck. Jim proposes, and Aurora accepts.

But cracks appear. Aurora notices inconsistencies in Jim's account of his own awakening. The ship's systems begin to fail: gravity fluctuates, lights flicker, a holographic swimming instructor glitches. A second passenger, deck chief Gus Mancuso, wakes due to the same pod defect. He is dying from injuries sustained in the original collision. Gus helps Jim and Aurora diagnose the problem: the reactor's containment is failing, and a catastrophic explosion is imminent. Gus dies. Jim and Aurora must perform a dangerous spacewalk to vent the reactor manually. They succeed, but Jim is exposed to lethal radiation.

Back inside, Aurora finds Jim's personal log on his tablet and discovers the truth: he deliberately woke her. She confronts him, screaming and striking him, and locks herself away. Arthur confirms Jim's guilt. The ship's systems continue to deteriorate. Aurora must decide whether to help the man who stole her life, or let him die. She eventually returns, and they work together to stabilize the ship. Jim's condition worsens from radiation poisoning. The med-bay's autodoc can save him, but only if Aurora uses it to heal him, sacrificing her chance to return to hibernation and reach Homestead II. She chooses to stay, using the autodoc on Jim. They spend the rest of their lives together on the Avalon. In the final scene, an elderly Aurora finishes a book about their story, and Captain Norris awakens shortly before arrival, finding her manuscript. The ship's atrium has been transformed into a lush garden, planted by Jim and Aurora over the decades.[edit]