“Passengers” is a 2016 movie introduced by Columbia Pictures. The main roles in the film were played by Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. The plot, the atmosphere of the picture combine several movie genres at once - melodrama, thriller, drama, science fiction. What is the film about? And who made it the creators?
The creators of the picture
Filmed a fantastic picture "Passengers" directed by Morten Tildum. As a Norwegian by birth, he began his career in his native country with the short film “Friend”. This was followed by the feature film “Fallen Angels,” which received several nominations for the prestigious Norwegian Amanda Award.
Tildum’s career in Hollywood began with the filming of the historical drama The Game of Imitation, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. The picture took the main prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, while Morten strengthened his position at the Dream Factory.
Initially, the director's chair on the set of the Passengers project was to be occupied by Brian Kirk, who had previously worked on the TV series Game of Thrones. But then the company Columbia Pictures opted for Tildum.
The production team consisted of 4 people: Stephen Haymel, Michael Meher, Ori Marmur and Neil Moritz. Neil Moritz also oversaw the commercially successful Forsage 4, Forsage 5, and Remember Everything projects.
The soundtrack to the film "Passengers" was written by Thomas Newman, who received 13 Oscar nominations for his work on various films over the course of 20 years of his musical career.
Filming a fantastic picture took place in Atlanta, which is located in the US state of Georgia.
"Passengers": the plot of the film
The script for the film "Passengers" was written by John Spates - a master of fantastic screenplay. In 2011, he worked on the action movie Phantom, in 2016 he took part in the Marvel film project Doctor Strange, and in 2017 he worked on the plot of the adventure action movie The Mummy. Quite unusual and fascinating stories always came out from under his “pen”. Spacey didn’t miss this time either.
“Passengers” is a fantastic melodrama, the action of which takes place in the distant future. Humanity has advanced so far in space exploration that it was able to send a whole airliner with 5,000 people on board to the planet in another star system. Since the road to the destination takes 120 years, all the passengers of the liner were entered into a state of hibernation. Unfortunately, the camera in which the mechanic Jim slept turned out to be faulty, so he woke up ahead of time.
Jim had an unfavorable prospect ahead: to live on the liner for 90 years in splendid isolation. His only interlocutor in this space "prison" was a robot bartender. For a whole year, the main character has been trying to adapt to a new life, but he has little success. In order not to commit suicide by despair, Jim Preston commits an extremely selfish act - he independently awakens from sleep a favorite passenger by the name of Aurora Lane, to spend the remaining 89 years of her journey with her.
Preston, in conversations with his girlfriend, is silent about the fact that he was the reason for her awakening. After another year, the couple decides to get married. And just at that moment, Aurora learns from the robot Arthur that all this time Jim lied to her. Between lovers there is an abyss of resentment and misunderstanding. However, they will have to join forces, because soon Jim and Aurora will be forced to fight not only for their lives on the ship, but also for the lives of another 5,000 passengers.
Chris Pratt as Jim
One of the main performers in the Morten Tildum film is Chris Pratt. "Passengers" for the contractor was not the only commercially successful project. The actor has been acting in films since 20 years and managed to participate in several megapopular films, as well as collaborate with a couple of venerable directors.
In 2008, Pratt appeared in Timur Bekmambetov’s action movie “Especially Dangerous” with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy in the lead roles. A year later, he played Fletcher Flemson in the rather famous comedy "War of the Brides." Anne Hathaway became his partner in the frame.
In 2014, a breakthrough occurred in Pratt's career: the film company Marvel offered him the role of Peter Quill in the blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy. This meant not only shooting in a large-scale project, but also participating in many other superhero films from the Marvel film company. After filming in the adventure films Jurassic World and The Magnificent Seven, Chris Pratt got a role in the drama Passengers.
Actors Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence in the frame played a man and a woman who voluntarily agreed to hibernate in order to be among the first colonizers of the new planet. However, 30 years after the start of the space travel to a new place of residence, Pratt's hero - mechanic Jim Preston - accidentally wakes up in the middle of a desert liner and realizes that his next 80-90 years will pass here.
A little later Preston appears a charming companion named Aurora, but from this the storyline does not become easier. Technical problems begin to appear on the spacecraft, threatening the death of all passengers. In this situation, only the hero of Pratt, who has knowledge in the field of mechanics and technology, is able to save thousands of lives.
Jennifer Lawrence as Aurora
In 2014, Forbes magazine published a list of Hollywood's highest paid actresses . The first place in this ranking was honorably given to Jennifer Lawrence.
“Passengers” is not the most “star” film with the participation of the performer. The projects that Laurence has made famous all over the world are mainly the X-Men film franchises and the acclaimed Hunger Games.
In the X-Men movie series, Lawrence got the role of the young mutant Raven Darkholm. According to the plot, the heroine Jen had the ability to instantly turn from a humanoid girl into a blue creature with speckled skin, which has incredible flexibility, strength and the ability to copy the appearance of other people. Lawrence played the role of Raven three times already, and for sure the actress will act in other franchise films.
An important stage in Lawrence’s career is shooting in the movie The Hunger Games franchise, based on the novel by Susan Collins. It was this project that turned Jennifer into the highest paid actress in Hollywood.
Then the performer took part in the filming of David O. Russell's comedy "My Boyfriend Is Crazy." Key actors from the cast were nominated for an Oscar, as a result, Jennifer Lawrence received the coveted statuette.
"Passengers" supplemented the already rich filmography of Jen with another interesting fantastic project. She played in the film the role of the writer Aurora Lane, who was on the same spaceship with Jim Preston and unwittingly became his lover. Closer to the finale, it turns out that everything that happened had its own meaning: perhaps only Aurora and Jim could save 5,000 helpless passengers who were locked up in a faulty spaceship.
Michael Sheen as Arthur
One of the main actors in the cast is Michael Sheen. “Passengers” - a project in which the performer got the role of a bartender robot, designed to serve the guests of the space liner.
The first 20 years of travel, Arthur, in fact, had no customers in the bar. But then, due to a malfunction of the hibernation chamber, the bartender had to keep company with Jim Preston, who woke up from an artificial sleep.
In the film Passengers, actors M. Sheen and C. Pratt played a strange friendly couple. From the very beginning, the communication between the robot Arthur and the mechanic Jim looked as if they had known each other for a long time. However, the frankness of Jim Preston with the robot played a cruel joke with the main character: it was Arthur who later told Aurora that her awakening 90 years before arriving at her destination was not an accident.
Michael Sheen is a British actor who, during his career, has created many unusual and diverse images on the screen. In the film "Deal" and "Queen", he appeared before the public in the guise of politician Tony Blair, in the romantic film story "Laws of Attraction" Shin played a rock musician. But much more interesting is his work in fantasy projects: in the film franchise “Another World”, Shin appeared in the image of a colorful werewolf Lucian, and in the movie series “Twilight” he played the head of an old vampire clan named Aro.
Lawrence Fishborn as Hans
In the drama Passengers, Lawrence Fishborn, the star of The Matrix, appeared as Gus Mancuso, a crew member of a space liner.
Mancuso was less fortunate than anyone: he also woke up due to problems in the hibernation capsule, but his awakening did not go so smoothly and dramatically affected his health. As a result, the character of Fishbourne managed to live only a few days, which Gus Mancuso spent with Jim Preston, trying to fix the spaceship. After Gus died, the responsibility for the lives of 5,000 passengers fell entirely on Jim's shoulders.
Lawrence Fishborn is one of the most colorful performers in Hollywood. He often gets the role of heroes who sacrifice themselves in the name of the common good. For example, in the “Matrix” of the Wachowski brothers, Fishborn played Morpheus - the mentor Neo, who believes in the gift of a student and is ready to give his own life for him.
In the "Passengers", the hero of Lawrence does not try to save his own health and extend his life in the time allotted to him - Gus Mancuso spends precious hours and minutes trying to fix the space liner and ensure the successful delivery of the colonizers to another planet.
Other role performers
The role of Admiral Norris in the picture of Morten Tildum was given to Cuban Andy Garcia. “Passengers” is almost the largest project in the filmography of the artist over the past 10 years.
The peak of the actor’s popularity occurred in the 90s. Then, gangster-themed movies were in fashion, and Garcia was great for the role of mafia. For filming in Francis Ford Coppola's drama Godfather 3, the Cuban was nominated for an Oscar. Prior to that, he played a major role in the gangster thriller The Untouchables by Brian de Palma and in Ridley Scott's action movie Black Rain.
In the 2000s, they began to offer less and less participation in worthy projects. During this period, only a few successful films can be singled out - the crime-comedy series “Eleven Ocean Friends” and the thriller “Scam”. The last tape with the participation of the actor is the Geostorm disaster film, where Andy's company in the frame was Gerard Butler and Jim Sturgess.
In the film "Passengers" also appeared actress Aurora Robinson Perrino, who played the role of Celeste. In the US, Perrino is known for the series “Blood and Oil,” where she appeared in the image of the illegitimate daughter of an oil magnate. A little earlier, Perrino took part in the filming of the TV show "Pretty Little Liars." But in the full-length movie, the actress gets only episodic roles. In addition to “Passengers”, she can be seen in the science fiction film “Equals” with Kristen Stewart and in the musical film “Jam and Holograms”.
Premiere and box office
“Passengers” is a 2016 film. It was first shown to the public on December 14, 2016 in Westwood, California. On December 17 of the same year, the solemn premiere of the tape took place in Beijing.
On December 21, Passengers were simultaneously launched in British, Vietnamese, Irish, Canadian, Arab, American, Croatian and Swedish rentals.
Spectators of the CIS saw the picture on December 22. In Russia, more than 3 million people came to the premiere. The last to be familiarized with the tape was the residents of Japan - in the country of the rising sun, the premiere took place only on March 24, 2017.
From the very beginning, Morten Tildum’s project looked promising. Columbia Pictures has allocated $ 110 million for the filming of post-production. All investments paid off with interest: only in the American box office "Passengers" raised $ 100 million. In Russia, the film earned $ 18 million. Worldwide box office revenues totaled $ 303 million.
Persons under 16 years old were not allowed in the cinema, as the film has an MPAA rating of PG-13.
Awards and nominations
The feedback on the film "Passengers" from the jury of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts was positive: the picture of Morten Tildum was included in the list of nominees for an Oscar in two categories - "Best Soundtrack" and "Best Artistic Work." In both the first and second nominations, “Passengers” lost to “La La Lendoux”, but in any case they made a worthy competition.
Critic reviews
What do professional critics think about the painting Passengers?
The plot of the film is interesting and captures attention from the first minutes of viewing. Almost all reviewers agreed with this. Still, 61% of the world's critics' reviews of the drama Passengers are written in a negative way.
Reviews of the film "Passengers" by Russian journalists are more loyal. They noted a lot of positive points. For example, the reluctance of scriptwriters to speculate on the suffering and love experiences of the main characters. The script is dynamic and crowded with events and active actions of the main characters. The entertainment of the picture and the work of the production designer deserve praise.
However, more than once more picky movie connoisseurs agree that there is less and less sense in Hollywood cinema, and the actors hide behind beautiful staged shots, without transmitting any tangible emotions with their play. Moreover, not a single coherent author’s thought or super task can be traced to the whole plot.
Viewers movie reviews passengers
The mass audience, of course, is not inclined to analyze films too corrosively. It is enough to have spectacular shots and recognizable faces in the cast. That is why the reviews of the film "Passengers" from the audience in 80% of cases are positive.
The fantastic melodrama of Morten Tildum performs its entertaining function, and this is enough to watch it at least once to satisfy curiosity.