PASSENGERS 2016

The movie passengers reveals itself a piece of reflection on the human condition and solitude, from codependence to letting go, from passion to unselfish love and true commitment.

More then a romantic comedy or a sy-fi gender it becomes a serious reflection on the path from the condition of being alone to that of sharing a life. On the existence that all have to bear and a reflection about the human relationship on the context of someone who can´t love himself and from that place of deep abandonment and attachment, become obsessed with having a partner to give love to, but also to fill in the felted void.

It is an excelent portrait of the dificulty of being alone, on our human condition and on the goals we need to establish in order to give meaning to the existence.

Jim Preston get on board of the Avalon, a sleeper ship transporting 5,000 colonists and 258 crew members in hibernation pods, is on course from Earth to the planet Homestead II, a journey lasting 120 years.

The ship entered in a asteroid field and the engine stop working in proper manner and eventually switch off a pod, the pode of Jim Preston, letting him alone in a damaged sleeper ship, without anyone to interact with. The impact of the asteroid field had affected the ship more than Jim Preston could concieve, but only later in the story we discover that.

So thirty years into the journey, an asteroid collision damages the ship, resulting in a malfunction that awakens one passenger, mechanical engineer James "Jim" Preston, 90 years too early to the moment that was supposed to.

After a year of isolation, with only an android barman named Arthur for company, Jim grows despondent and contemplates suicide until he notices a beautiful young woman named Aurora Lane inside her pod. Jim views Aurora's video file and is smitten with her. After this he become obsessed and deeply in love to the person he only knew from what he red about in the archive files of the ship.

In this early period the audience comprehend Preston own dilema, in which the character fights with his human condition aboard the ship. The vessel ampty of people to interact contend with human nature and deepens his abandonment trauma, the fact that he will die without sharing or communicating with anybody until his own death, leaves him without choice beside to condition someone else´s life.

During the first year he confront himself with the fact of travling in second class ticket, but with time his survival issues get even and the moment he surpasses his immediate needs the loneliness and boredom take over his thoughts and feelings. It become more and more obvious his need to share, mingledwith the codependece attachment issue. It brings him to urge of doing something to change his dull life, because if in the beginnig of the acident of delting only with himself get him to loose his ethics and respect towards copassagers.

After struggling with the morality of prematurely reviving Aurora for companionship, thereby robbing her of her future life, he awakens her anyway, letting her believe that her pod also malfunctioned. Jim asks Arthur to keep the secret that he woke her up until Jim himself has told her. Aurora, devastated at having to live out her life on the ship, unsuccessfully attempts to re-enter hibernation. Resigned to the situation, Aurora, a writer and journalist, begins writing a book about her experience.

Over the next year, Jim and Aurora slowly grow closer, eventually falling in love with each other. Jim intends to propose to Aurora, but after Arthur hears Jim say that there are "no secrets" between Aurora and him, Arthur inadvertently reveals the truth to her. Aurora, anguished, alternately berates, shuns, and physically attacks Jim. She furiously rejects Jim's pleas for forgiveness, and she avoids any contact with him.

This sets the main plot of the movie, about passion, attachment, love and commitment. As it deepens the early feeling of attachment, codependence develops to respect, loyalty and profund trust, in that place attachment must be broken because it´s no longer needed, but when desloyalty was planted right from the beggining, healing time was essential.

Soon after, another pod failure awakens Gus Mancuso, Chief Deck Officer. He discovers multiple failures throughout the ship's systems, although the computer does not reveal what is causing them. If not repaired, the ship will continue suffering critical system failures and the mission may fail, which could cost the lives of all the hibernating passengers and crew.

Gus attempts to repair the ship with Jim and Aurora's help but he soon falls critically ill, due to complications from the failure of his pod's life support. The Autodoc, the ship's automated medical diagnostics and treatment pod, reveals that Gus has only hours to live. Before dying, Gus gives Jim and Aurora authorization to access crew-only areas and to repair the ship.

After the revelation about Jim intentions towards Aurora, hate follows the passion, and Jim is left alone as consequence of his bad deeds, but the fairness they developed during their´s early relation stage empathizes the journey together. Their deep afinity prevails and reconciliation happens in the most difficult moment, when survival was in stake, beacause the ship was disintegrating, and Jim sacrifice himself to save Aurora and the Ship.

Later on he discovers a way to put Aurora to sleep and recover her life reparing his early fault, when he deliberately abdicates and renounce his attachment in favour of her freedom, he steps into the road to true commitment, beacause he put her first to his ego, and by doing so he thinks and feels accordingly to true love. Aurora also made her choice when she renounce her future success and choose to die beside Jim, forgetting her selfish desires in detriment of her true feelings, because she knew now, he has willingly to free her into her own independence in a total selfless attitude.