Passengers
starring Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia
written by Jon Spaihts
directed by Morten Tyldum
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Science Fiction movie about a starship full of human colonists in suspended animation heading towards the colony planet Homestead II. There are 5,000 passenger/colonists and over 250 crew aboard. The journey is supposed to take 120 years, but after an intense meteor shower pummels the ship and shorts out some computer systems one passenger, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), a mechanic (a desirable trade in the colony world) is accidentally woken from hibernation 90 years early. The plan was for the ship’s crew to be woken from hibernation four months before the passengers, in order to prepare for arrival, and for the reanimated passengers.
It takes Jim more than a day to realize he is alone on the ship, the only passenger awake, that he is awake much too soon, and that there is no way for him to put himself back into hibernation. He sends a distress call to Earth. But the call will take 17 years to arrive, and the earliest response time is not for another 56 years. Wow!
I don’t watch much Science Fiction because I find it hard to find SF that I think is any good. In addition, there is a tendency among people to incorrectly label Fantasy as Science Fiction, and I generally think little of Fantasy as well. But if I find an SF that I like (like this one) then I usually really enjoy it. I only had the rental DVD for a short time, but I managed to watch it twice in the time I had. Maybe I will rent it again.
Andy Garcia appears only at the end of the film as the ship’s captain, woken from hibernation with his crew. Because he is heavily bearded I did not recognize him, but when I saw his name in the credits I had to go back and look at him again. He is only on screen for about five seconds, and he doesn’t speak. Maybe his role was much larger during filming and then got cut in the editing room for continuity purposes. That happens sometimes, like Kevin Costner in The Big Chill (1983, directed by Lawrence Kasdan), or George Clooney in The Thin Red Line (1998, directed by Terrence Malick).
It's interesting to see how the business of commercial space travel is portrayed. Like the Titanic ocean liner, different classes of passengers entitled to different accommodations, different food, different privileges. Interesting, and totally believable.