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- Passengers Draws Many Parallels to Sleeping Beauty
- Moral Issues and Consent in Passengers
- An Almost Unbelievable Happily Ever After
- A Disappointing Lack of Followthrough
As a woman who has spent a significant portion of my life navigating the complexities and nuances of modern storytelling, I found myself deeply immersed in the cinematic universe of “Passengers”. The film, on the surface, presents a captivating sci-fi romance set against the backdrop of space travel. However, delving deeper into its narrative, one cannot help but recognize the intricate parallels it draws with classic fairytales, and the profound moral and ethical issues that it raises.
Ever since it first hit the screens in December 2016, the movie “Passengers,” starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, has been at the heart of both triumph and debate. This sci-fi and romance fusion explores themes such as isolation, connection, and moral quandaries, under the guidance of director Morten Tyldum and writer Jon Spaihts. The film has proven to be a financial success, earning almost three times its production budget at the worldwide box office. However, it’s been met with criticism, particularly regarding its ending, which seems to have disappointed both viewers and critics alike. Many feel that by opting for a cheerful, everything-is-fine conclusion, the film fell short of its true potential.
In the movie “Passengers,” a spaceship named Avalon is traveling towards a new planet, Homestead II, carrying 5,000 humans in hibernation pods. The journey is expected to surpass their lifetimes due to its length. Thirty years into the voyage, a meteor hits the ship, causing a malfunction that awakens one passenger, Jim Preston (played by Chris Pratt), prematurely. Upon waking, he has no idea what happened. Initially overjoyed at being the only awake person on Avalon, Jim soon grapples with the reality of his impending death and overwhelming loneliness. As these emotions weigh heavily on him, he makes a fateful decision to awaken another passenger, Aurora Lane (played by Jennifer Lawrence), dooming her to share his fate.
The development of the plot in the movie “Passengers” significantly resembles a fairy tale, particularly when it comes to the evolving relationship between Jim and Aurora. It’s a contemporary, space-set retelling with an intriguing twist on the classic storyline.
Passengers Draws Many Parallels to Sleeping Beauty
From the start, the movies Passengers and Disney’s Sleeping Beauty share striking similarities. The protagonist in both stories bears the name Aurora. In the Disney classic, Princess Aurora is under a curse by Maleficent, destined to die before her sixteenth birthday. Yet, the princess’ fairy godmothers intervene, altering the fate instead. Instead of dying, Aurora falls into a deep slumber, and only the kiss from her true love can break the spell and awaken her.
Just like her Disney character counterpart, the Aurora in ‘Passengers’ is found asleep at the start of the movie. Unlike the traditional tale, however, she isn’t awakened by true love’s kiss. Instead, Aurora is in a hibernation pod destined to sleep for 120 years until Avalon reaches Homestead II. However, Jim prematurely wakes her only 30 years into their space journey due to the solitude that comes with being the only human awake on the spaceship. Desperate to combat his loneliness, Jim falsely claims that Aurora’s sleep was interrupted by a mysterious malfunction.
Moral Issues and Consent in Passengers
The central ethical and moral conflict in Passengers revolves around Jim’s choice to awaken Aurora, primarily because he finds her attractive and develops feelings for her. Despite the fact that eternal loneliness and imminent death is a fate no one should endure, many viewers have criticized Jim for condemning Aurora to the same destiny as a way of alleviating his own isolation. Upon discovering the truth about Jim’s deception, Aurora compares his actions to murder, an opinion that resonates with most viewers.
Once more, recalling classic tales like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, it’s important to note that these princesses had no say in who awakened them from their slumber. Both Sleeping Beauty and Snow White were kissed by princes without their expressed consent, a fact that has long been debated by viewers and readers alike. The question of consent and the ethical dilemma raised in Passengers, which mirrors these concerns, is another reason why this space-set story can be seen as a contemporary retelling of a twisted fairytale.
An Almost Unbelievable Happily Ever After
Regardless of Jim’s regrettable action of waking Aurora up and her subsequent annoyance, Aurora eventually forgives him. He makes amends by agreeing to venture beyond Avalon to repair a fault in the spacecraft and thereby safeguard the lives of the remaining humans. Jim’s efforts are fruitful as he manages to restore stability to Avalon. Unfortunately, during this mission, he meets a tragic end, being ejected from the spacecraft.
In an unexpected twist, it’s now Aurora who saves Jim. Using an Autodoc, she revives him, not with a kiss, but with the love that drives her to save him. After being revived, Jim finds technology enabling one of them to sleep until they reach Homestead II. He gives Aurora this option, but she decides against reaching the colony planet, choosing instead to spend the rest of her days with him. The movie ends on a hopeful note, suggesting that Jim and Aurora lived together happily for a long time.
A Disappointing Lack of Followthrough
The movie Passengers skillfully reworks classic fairy tales for a contemporary audience. However, the plot resolution raises significant concerns. Aurora forgiving Jim and staying with him despite his actions being essentially kidnapping and murder, glosses over these moral complexities. By the end of the film, the act that she previously condemned as murder is downplayed. Worse still, it seems to justify Jim’s actions. Essentially, the movie brushes aside the violation of Aurora’s fundamental human rights, her right to privacy and right to life, with Jim’s noble self-sacrifice.
The sci-fi film Passengers, with its superficial resemblances such as the female lead’s name being reminiscent of a fairy tale princess and her prolonged sleep similarity, and more profound connections revolving around ethics, morality, and consent issues, can be seen as a contemporary retelling of a fairytale, though darker and transposed to space. In essence, it features its prince and princess in the guise of Jim and Aurora, it explores the theme of love overcoming all obstacles, even an action akin to murder, and it concludes with a ‘happily ever after,’ though it may initially seem implausible.
Most viewers believe that the movie Passengers should have concluded differently, as it delves into complex topics beyond typical sci-fi romance in space. This film tackles moral dilemmas, questions of consent, and the struggle of a person faced with loneliness and isolation. Although the film’s sci-fi elements are present, they take a backseat to these weighty themes. By opting for a happily-ever-after ending instead of addressing its more significant issues, Passengers missed an opportunity to fully realize its potential.
Passengers
is available for streaming on Netflix.
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2024-09-02 20:01