Judging from the trailer, Passengers seemed like a fun space thriller with a side of romance. Starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, Passengers had everything you would expect from it, plus one more storyline. What the trailer doesn’t explain was how exactly the female lead wakes up early from her hibernation.
The film starts out with the male lead, Jim Preston (played by Chris Pratt), waking up from his slumber. He explores parts of the ship in a sleepy haze and it isn’t until later that he realizes he woke up 90 years early from his hibernation. Why are they hibernating? Taking place in the future, Passengers explores the idea of living on other planets. Easy access to these planets comes in the form of a luxury ship traveling through space. The only downside is that it takes hundreds of years to get there.
As soon as Jim realizes he is completely and utterly alone he becomes depressed. He goes through the same routine, growing out his hair and beard and appearing more and more dirty as the story goes on. He thinks his life has no purpose and that isn’t until he sees Aurora sleeping in her pod.
Aurora, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is an intelligent journalist who wants to travel to a new planet and experience a new world while also writing about it. She has dreams for herself. Those all come crashing down when Jim decides to wake her up. After finding her pod, he spends months watching her and learning about her. He even eats breakfast next to her pod. His behavior is new levels of creepy.
Waking her up is one thing, but he then lies to her, telling her that her pod woke up early too. Aurora spends a couple days finding out how to fix the broken pods. After giving up, Jim soon begins to wine and dine her. All while not telling her the real reason why her pod opened.
A year passes and they are blissfully happy. Aurora has accepted her fate and Jim got what he wanted: A companion. To say that Jim’s decisions are all kinds of messed up is an understatement. It’s safe to assume that this is one of the most blatant displays of male entitlement I’ve ever seen in a movie. Not only does Jim wake her up because he’s basically bored and lonely, he then proceeds to lie to her and create this illusion that they can live happily ever after.
You think it would get better when she finds out about what happens to her pod, but the anger she has only lasts a little bit until they realize they must save the ship and everyone on it. When Jim risks his life to save everyone on the ship, Aurora forgives him and asks him to come back to her because she doesn’t want to live without him. So not only is he a creep, but now he’s a hero as well. If this was supposed to be seen as redeemable, the writers should try again.
It wasn’t until the end of the movie that this storyline got worse. After they manage to save themselves and everyone on the ship, Jim finds a way that Aurora would be able to go back in hibernation. She will be able to follow through with her dreams of traveling to a new planet while Jim dies alone on the ship. So, does she do it? No. She chooses to stay with Jim and live with him on the ship, so they can live happily together.
While this movie seemed promising, it also goes to show that a trailer can show an entire different storyline. So, save yourself the trouble of watching this one. Passengers was not a story about saving others, but a story about intergalactic Stockholm syndrome.