Passengers is a 2016 science fiction, romance, and drama film directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Jon Spaihts. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. It tells the dramatic story of two passengers who wake up 90 years too early during an interstellar journey to a distant colony planet.

Plot

Set in the future, the story follows the starship Avalon, which carries over 5,000 passengers on a 120-year journey to a new colony planet. All passengers and crew are in hibernation inside special pods. Due to a malfunction, a mechanical engineer named Jim Preston wakes up 90 years early. Struggling with loneliness, Jim faces an ethical dilemma about waking up another passenger, a writer named Aurora Lane. Eventually, he does wake her, which sparks a relationship marked by both romance and tension. As system failures worsen aboard the ship, the two become responsible for saving thousands of lives.

^{Passengers – Official Turkish Trailer (Sony Pictures Entertainment)}

Themes

• Loneliness and Human Connection: Jim’s premature awakening introduces the theme of isolation, highlighting humanity’s intrinsic need for companionship. With Aurora’s arrival, trust, betrayal, and emotional bonding become central themes.
• Ethical Dilemmas: Jim’s choice to wake Aurora raises one of the film’s most controversial moral questions: Is it ethical to disrupt another person’s life to end your own suffering? The narrative explores this in the context of conscience and moral responsibility.
• Technology and Fragility: While the Avalon represents humanity’s utopian hopes for the future with advanced technology, a minor malfunction threatens the entire system, emphasizing the ongoing importance of the human factor.
• Survival and Personal Growth:Beyond physical survival, the characters must also overcome psychological challenges. The film illustrates that courage and sacrifice are deeply rooted in human nature, especially in times of crisis.

Production and Release

Passengers was released in 2016 by Columbia Pictures. The film was directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Jon Spaihts. Cinematography was done by Rodrigo Prieto, production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas, and the score was composed by Thomas Newman. It premiered in the United States on December 21, 2016, and in Türkiye on January 13, 2017.

Cast

• Jennifer Lawrence – Aurora Lane
• Chris Pratt – Jim Preston
• Michael Sheen – Arthur
• Laurence Fishburne – Gus Mancuso
• Andy Garcia – Captain Norris

Awards and Nominations

89th Academy Awards (Oscars), USA – 2017

• Nomination: Best Original Score – Thomas Newman
• Nomination: Best Production Design – Guy Hendrix Dyas, Gene Serdena

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA – 2017

• Nomination: Best Science Fiction Film
• Nomination: Best Actor – Chris Pratt
• Nomination: Best Actress – Jennifer Lawrence
• Nomination: Best Music – Thomas Newman
• Nomination: Best Production Design – Guy Hendrix Dyas

Art Directors Guild

• Winner: Fantasy Film – Best Production Design

Despite being a mainstream film, Passengers presents a cross-genre structure by combining science fiction with dramatic storytelling. In this sense, it is a cinematic work that invites both technical and thematic analysis.