I never thought that an action and adventure rom-com movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt would be one of the most darkly romantic movies I’ve ever seen, but here we are. The movie Passengers debuted in 2016 and is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. It is still one of the most talked about and controversial romance movies and even its strict genre is not quite clear since it blends science fiction, romance, comedy, and elements of psychological and cyber-thriller all into one film. It is packed and multifaceted, which makes it all the more impressive as a film. Not only does the riveting plot keep viewers entranced to the very end and not only do the actors have the perfect amount of spark and chemistry, the gorgeous scenes of celestial realms and outer space intermingled with the high-tech interior of the interstellar spacecraft which serves as the primary setting for the film uplift the movie and make it cinematically striking. Think of movies like Inception and Interstellar being merged movies like How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days, and you’ll get a sense of what this movie is like upon first watch. However, the film is certainly not without its controversies and problematic aspects. Here’s what makes it one of the more controversial romance movies you’ll see yet.
What is Passengers About?
Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) is a mechanical engineer who, along with 5,000 other people, has chosen to go on a 120-year journey from Earth to another planet called Homestead II. He, along with his fellow interstellar travelers, board a luxury spacecraft and enter pods meant to keep their biological bodies intact at the same age and alive until the trip is complete. However, thirty years in, an asteroid collides with the spacecraft and causes Jim to wake up 90 years too early while the other passengers are still asleep. Apart from a lone barman robot to keep him company, Jim is forced to go a year alone, entertained only by the high-tech entertainment on the craft and no human company. While it is fun and exciting at first to play high-tech games and enjoy luxurious settings on the spacecraft, Jim eventually becomes distressed when there is no other human being to connect with who has real emotions and depth.
Witnessing Jim’s year of isolation forces viewers to consider – how long can you go without interaction without another human in sight? Now I know all the introverts are itching to answer this question, but realistically, if solitude was forced upon you rather than chosen, and you had absolutely no possibility or choice at all of being with another human being for another 90 years or so, you may just in fact lose your mind. Jim in fact does deteriorate during this time and his loneliness in the vast expanse of the universe causes him to do the unthinkable – wake another passenger up.
Why Is Passengers So Controversial Yet Deemed Romantic?
When going through the live “profiles” of the fellow sleeping passengers in pods, Jim comes across the charismatic Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), a writer and journalist from New York who he can easily see himself falling in love with. The problem is, Aurora is hibernating in her pod and is not supposed to wake up anytime soon (the name Aurora may also be a clever reference to Sleeping Beauty). However, Jim is able to use his mechanical engineering skills to mess with her pod and awaken her from her sleep – 90 years too early. This choice takes away her consent in the matter and basically subjects her to living life with him on the spacecraft with potentially no way out rather than arriving at Homestead with all her youth still intact which is what she signed up for and actively chose. Essentially, Jim’s actions override her free will which makes the foundation of the romance in the movie quite problematic at best.
While some viewers may sympathize with Jim’s descent into madness due to his isolation and alienation, others may be completely put off by his actions in messing with Aurora’s free will, and understandably so. Yet it does make audiences wonder – what would you do in the same situation? Apart from triggering an existential crisis and making you consider a complicated moral dilemma, the movie does make you lowkey root for the couple at times as they fall in love – as Jim delivers cute little structures of the Chrysler building to her room to inspire her to keep writing her book, uses advanced robots to send her love notes, or romances her with a mesmerizing date night which involves floating together among the backdrop of infinite space and sparkling galaxies, the romance in the movie is admittedly beautiful to watch, even against our better instincts.
Yet the movie compels viewers to ask: is this true love, or a trauma bond, where Aurora is captivated by the person who held her captive and took away her consent and choices, placing her in danger? After all, if you are forced to live a life against your will, wouldn’t you cling out of dependency and survival to the one person who is living this life with you as a survival mechanism? If you fall in love before you know the true nature of how the relationship began, was it really love at all? Can healthy love ever be bred in times where other options don’t even exist? These issues are never quite resolved for the viewer, which is why the movie is so disturbing and compelling all at the same time despite all the romantic moments.
When Aurora discovers Jim’s betrayal in that he is the one who woke her up, she is absolutely blindsided, and Jennifer Lawrence delivers an exquisite performance of all the complex emotions associated with learning the person you’re falling in love with has violated you. Even more disturbingly, we see how Aurora rightfully lashes out at Jim, but becomes more attached to him as a fight to survival begins. The movie takes a dark turn mid-plot which makes it feel like less of a rom-com and more of a psychological thriller when one of the spacecraft’s crew members wakes up, and they both face a choice of reuniting to save the other passengers on the ship. Jim also has a “redemption arc” where he risks and potentially sacrifices his own life to essentially save the world – or, at least, the other people on the ship. All in all, whether you consider it a dark romance, a psychological thriller, a sci-fi, an action rom-com or a film that catapults you into existential crisis and makes you consider your own place and purpose in the vastness of the universe, Passengers is well worth the watch.
