Passengers film improves with small plot change

Spoilers ahead! Don’t view this video or read the following text if you haven’t seen the movie Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. You’ve been warned…

Passengers is a decent movie with attractive actors playing their parts in a predictable story. Nerdwriter explains the weaknesses of the film quite well in his video Passengers Rearranged.  But then he suggests a small change to the plot–which he heard from Doug Walker in Chris Stuckmann’s review of the film–and it’s brilliant!

Instead of telling the film from the point-of-view of Pratt’s character, where he wakes up 90 years before he should and, after agonizing for years (?), decides to wake up Lawrence’s character so he won’t be lonely–INSTEAD, tell the story from Lawrence’s point-of-view.

Start with her waking up, wandering around trying to figure out what’s happened, meeting Pratt’s character, and seeing the condition of the ship. From her point-of-view, and the audiences, we don’t know why she and Pratt awoke prematurely. That creates a sustainable mystery the audience can share with Lawrence’s character. As the film progresses, Lawrence gets suspicious of Pratt’s tale and ultimately presses him for the truth. Then the film can go any matter of ways: Pratt could be the villain, Lawrence could kill Pratt, or the film could just progress as it did. The point is, by focusing on Lawrence’s point-of-view the story opens up and maintains it’s mystery. Love it!