14th Hall of Fame

I went into this movie with the worst attitude possible. I'd seen this advertised when it first came out, and I immediately said to myself, 'no way am I watching Jennifer Lawrence in outer space!'

I'm not a fan of Jennifer Lawrence and the few movies I've previously seen her in, I didn't like. But when I watched the trailer and seen this was about two people stranded for life on a huge spaceship. I was intrigued. So I watched it, and to my surprise I was impressed with the themes that it explored.

I know a lot of people wanted to see an action packed, thrill-a-minute movie, not me...I don't like those. I like my movies more esoteric and reflective.

Passengers explores the loneliness of a human soul that's cut off from the rest of humanity. And that exploration isn't always pretty, in fact it gets ugly, and that to me is interesting.

Jim, the unlucky man who finds himself alone on a huge ship, reminded of Tom Hanks in Castaway. We see him do the things that I image I would do in that situation...He tries to get help and makes a call to Earth. Then he tries to break into the command center and even tries to go back into hibernation. All of his attempts felt logical to me. The 'what would I do if I was there' is an important part of the film.

We see his spirits lift as he breaks into a posh cabin and entertains himself by shooting hoops, shadow dancing, and drinking in the bar. And he drinks, and he drinks. Each time we see him, the time line has advanced and the toll of isolation begins to show on his face.

His beard has grown with food embedded in it, and he looks like Howard Hughes as he wonders around the ship naked. Then as he hits rock bottom and complainants suicide, he stumbles upon Aurora, which saves his life...but at what cost to her? And that's when the movie gets really interesting!

When Jim first walks into the bar, it reminded me of a similar scene from The Shining. I loved the way the bar looked too. It was quite peaceful, like a sanctuary with a friendly face, on an otherwise impersonal ship.

I loved the scene were he first mentions Aurora to the bartender who then replies, 'ahh, the sleeping girl'...that was brilliant writing! With that one sentence we know Jim has been fixating on her for a long time. I really like Michael Sheen as an actor, and as the android bartender he played a pivotal role in the story.

So much of the writing is brilliant...the way Aurora reacts to learning she was deliberately woke up by Jim, was impressive acting...and writing. I could really feel her outrage at having been violated, and having her life stolen from her. That and her complete anger and avoidance of Jim, gives even more weight to the moral dilemma of what Jim has done.

My favorite line in the entire movie comes from Gus (Laurence Fishburne) who doesn't have much screen time but makes a memorable impact. When Gus examines the pods and looks at Jim and ask 'if he did this?' And Jim answers, ' yes I woke Aurora up'...what follows gave me goose bumps...Gus looks at him and says, 'D a m n'...just the way he delivers that one word and the look on his face is pure sublime. That moment was an epiphany.

I respect the way the film doesn't shy away from Jim being like an obsessive stalker and yet, we can understand why he did it too. To me that's powerful stuff. No other film has made me ponder the morals of it's story like Passengers has.