The first trailer for Passengers is finally here.
We”ve been hearing about this film since 2010 – well before America”s sweethearts now starring in movie became America”s sweethearts, before Jennifer Lawrence was cast as Katniss Everdeen, when Chris Pratt was shooting the second season of Parks and Rec.
Watch the trailer below, where you can also see Michael Sheen as a robot bartender and a brief glimpse at Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia:
It”s a bit difficult to tell from this trailer what kind of movie this will be – it starts off rom-com but then the trailer morphs into psychological thriller for a bit then full-on space disaster movie. Maybe this is just the space Titanic (“You jump die, I jump die!”).
The trailer”s certainly billing this to be much more of a disaster/action movie than the concept reported back in 2010. Then this was touted as “a love story on a spaceship” when a man (then meant to be played by Keanu Reeves) wakes up 90 years early from cryogenic sleep and “faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he, in turn, awakens a beautiful woman.” It seemed like it would be a quiet, elegant romance that strongly and solely showcases two actors.
This is how Sony”s describing the film now:
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are two passengers onboard a spaceship transporting them to a new life on another planet. The trip takes a deadly turn when their hibernation pods mysteriously wake them 90 years before they reach their destination. As Jim and Aurora try to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction, they begin to fall for each other, unable to deny their intense attraction… only to be threatened by the imminent collapse of the ship and the discovery of the truth behind why they woke up.
Hopefully Passengers will deftly blend all its tones and genres, from romance to philosophical to disaster. At best, this could be a Moon-esque romance. At worst, a movie that couldn”t decide what kind of movie it wanted to be.
And I suppose we”ll find out once the film”s out whether Pratt”s character did have something to do with Aurora waking up out of hibernation, or whether sometime in the past six years the filmmakers have updated their script with some kind of more sci-fi, insidious reason for their early awakening. I can”t imagine that romance lasting long, disaster or no disaster, if Aurora finds out Jim condemned her to live out the rest of her days adrift and nearly alone in space.
The trailer comes just in time to screen in front of the Chris Pratt-starring Magnificent Seven remake opening this Friday.
Passengers, written by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus) and directed by Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), opens in theaters December 21.