With The Magnificent Seven arriving in theaters this weekend and given that film also stars Chris Pratt and is also financed and distributed by Sony/Columbia Pictures it is no surprise we are finally getting our first look at Passengers today. As the film with the best chance for an out and out original property to break out this year the Pratt/Jennifer Lawrence vehicle has become something of a poster child for whether or not the original property still has any weight attached to it when the closest thing to what are current "name on the poster" movie stars are starring in it. Lawrence is indisputably the biggest star on the planet and Pratt is on a roll with his back to back to back successes of The LEGO Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Jurassic World. If Magnificent Seven ends up doing well in terms of box office (as it seems to be getting favorable if not unremarkable reviews from critics) this will only point to more promise on the potential returns for Passengers. Coming from an original screenplay by Jon Spaihts (who famously wrote the first draft of Prometheus) and telling the story of a spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet that is transporting thousands of people and has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers leaving a single passenger awake for the ninety year journey things are immediately engaging. As this unlucky passenger, Jim Preston (Pratt), contemplates the idea of growing old and dying alone he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger named Aurora (Lawrence). It's funny Lawrence's character shares her name with Sleeping Beauty given the circumstances of the situation and would seem to hint not so subtly at where the film will eventually end, but that is also the beautiful thing about such a story: outside of the obvious there are so many places such a premise could take us. Directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) this first look trailer allows the film to at least seem as if it will make good on the promise of attempting to explore more ideological headspaces than those of standard adventure/sci-fi conventions. I was a fan of Tyldum's Oscar contender a few years back and still need to get around to his highly praised 2011 film Headhunters, but all in all I'm pumped for even the idea of a big-budget original sci-fi flick. Passengers also stars Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Jamie Soricelli, Aurora Perrineau, Kristin Brock, and opens on December 21st, 2016.
Synopsis: On a routine journey through space to a new home, two passengers, sleeping in suspended animation, are awakened 90 years too early when their ship malfunctions. As Jim (Chris Pratt) and Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) face living the rest of their lives on board, with every luxury they could ever ask for, they begin to fall for each other, unable to deny their intense attraction… until they discover the ship is in grave danger. With the lives of 5000 sleeping passengers at stake, only Jim and Aurora can save them all.
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