Passengers

A closer look at the story

Passengers is set aboard the Starship Avalon, a vessel carrying thousands of people to Homestead II, a far-off colony world. Every passenger has been placed in a specially designed sleep pod so that they can arrive in good health and begin their new lives at the end of the long trip. A technical fault, however, causes two of the pods to open long before they should. Out of one steps Jim Preston, a mechanical engineer; out of the other, the writer Aurora Lane. With ninety years still to go before the ship reaches its destination, the two of them find themselves alone on the enormous craft. Ahead of them lies a seemingly endless voyage with no one else awake on board, and in that isolation they have little choice but to lean on each other. Morten Tyldum directed this 116-minute science-fiction romantic drama from 2016, written by Jon Spaihts. Jennifer Lawrence plays Aurora and Chris Pratt plays Jim, while Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia take supporting roles.