“Passengers” had the premise to be a potentially good, or even great, movie, but in writer Jon Spaihts‘ version, it became one gapingly huge exercise in impossible and unexplainable events.
Morten Tyldum‘s bewildering film follows Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), who is on an intergalactic journey on a starship transporting 5,000 colonists and 258 crew members. Due to a malfunction, Jim wakes up from his hibernation pod all alone, 90 years before he’s supposed to arrive at his destination. Fearing a lifetime of loneliness, he decides to wake a fellow passenger, Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), and this is where things start to take a downward turn (**spoilers ahead**). Spaihts’ story was heavily scrutinized as Jim manipulates Aurora, constructing a relationship and romance all fabricated on a lie.
What did its stars, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, think about the whole endeavor? Pratt admitted to Variety this spring that criticism of the film “surprised” him, elaborating, “I was really caught off guard by that. It was definitely a lesson.” Lawrence has refrained from saying anything, probably waiting for the right moment, but now she has decided to chime in on the picture.
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Speaking to Vogue for their latest September cover story, the actress admitted that she should have been more aware and looked a little closer to the story when first reading the screenplay. “I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t spot it,” she says. “I thought the script was beautiful — it was this tainted, complicated love story. It definitely wasn’t a failure. I’m not embarrassed by it by any means. There was just stuff that I wished I’d looked into deeper before jumping on.”
It’s understandable that someone wouldn’t catch on to the film’s missteps until it finally came together because its flaws are cumulative in nature. Lawrence and Pratt were right at the center of the backlash and it mustn’t have felt good to experience it, especially for Lawrence, who has fought hard for gender equality in the industry over the last few years. “Passengers” did end up grossing $300 million worldwide and was nominated for two Oscars (Best Original Score and Best Production Design), but it will forever live in infamy as a sci-fi trainwreck.