The first trailer for Passengers is here. The newest film from The Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum looks to be a far cry from that grounded biopic: this is all about space, baby. Specifically, what happens when the colony ship you're traveling on malfunctions, waking you from hypersleep about 100 years early. Those blasted ships!
That's the case for the two leads who discover shit's getting real in the far reaches of the cosmos and it's up to them to course correct. From this glorious little glimpse at the film, appetites have been thoroughly whetted. There's a lot of cool stuff packed into this trailer, so let's break it down, shall we?
Ladies and gentlemen, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt!
Two of the world's most attractive people who happen to be compelling entertainers, out in the middle of space? Audiences will flock. Lawrence and Pratt totally kill it here. They both ooze charm and sex appeal AND prove their action chops when things start to go wrong. It's delightful to hear J-Law spit out action star one-liners like "If you die... I die!"
Michael Sheen's Robo-bartender
Imagine if Lloyd from The Shining and Ash from Alien had an android baby. That's obviously the direction Michael Sheen was given: he plays the smooth robot super-cool. Until his circuits get fried that is, and he wipes the bar down with his face instead of an old rag.
There's so many space explosions!
Man. So it looks like J-Law and C-Pratt wake up, realise they shouldn't have, then everything goes to hell, THEN they discover actually they were woken up on purpose. Smells like conspiracy to me. It also looks like the duo are gonna have to do heavy maintenance on their ship, the Avalon. That is, if they can avoid about a gajillion MEGA EXPLOSIONS like the one above. Also, does that screenshot remind anyone else of Sunshine?
Yes, that's Laurence Fishburne
Seriously, if you're hiring heavyweights for your supporting cast, you cannot go wrong with Fishburne. I don't even know his role in the movie but look at his face! He's just laden with emotion, brimming beneath the surface. Bit like his Captain Miller in Event Horizon. He's also joined in the supporting category by a heavily-bearded Andy Garcia.
All the long, lingering shots of spaceship tech - it's a bit Alien-y
This futuristic space-set love story, action tale is written by Jon Spaihts. He's credited with writing Prometheus, but it's his earlier draft of that which was crammed with proper Alien lore. It looks like he's carried a lot of those visuals over into Passengers. There's plenty of gorgeous wide shots showing all the advanced tech aboard the ship, including... yep, hypersleep chambers.
The water blobs that are very reminiscent of The Abyss
Right at the end J-Law swims her way up through water. But this ain't a luxury swimming pool tucked away on the ship. That's actually a water bubble type thing which looks equal parts terrifying and cool. It's similar to parts of The Abyss. That's never a bad thing. Check out the full thing below, and shout out your favorite parts in the comments.
Directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, and Aurora Perrineau, Passengers arrives in US theatres on December 21, 2016 before opening in UK cinemas on December 23, 2016.
Images: Sony
