I know it's been said before, but Passengers (2016) could have had an amazing plot twist if only the beginning of the movie became the middle, and the middle of the movie was the beginning.

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The original story goes that Jim's hibernation pod malfunctions, he spends a year alone on the ship before deciding to wake up Aurora, trapping her with him. Aurora wakes up and Jim lies and goes with the story that her hibernation pod malfunctioned just like his did. They fall in love until the robot slips up and tells Aurora that Jim woke her up on purpose. They fight and don't talk but eventually come together to save the now completely malfunctioning ship and the other passengers on board.

The problem with this narrative is that the audience is in on what is happening at all times, so there is never an element of suspicion or surprise. The story should have been arranged like this:

Start the movie with Aurora waking up and finding Jim who should be acting surprised to see another person. He would explain that her pod likely malfunctioned like his did one year ago, they won't be reaching their destination before they die of old age, and that they are basically trapped for life on a space ship. They fall in love, live on the ship, then they get to that big dinner scene.

The robot spills the truth that Aurora's pod didn't malfunction at all, and it was Jim that woke her up. She asks Jim if that's the truth, and at this moment we go back to the beginning of the story, showing that Jim's pod malfunctioned and he did in fact wake her up. Then we flash-forward back to the dinner scene once Aurora has found out the truth and the movie plays out like normal from there.

This would have been an AMAZING plot twist that would have made much more impact. I knew it felt weird watching Jennifer Lawrence have to react to something huge that we the audience have known about the entire time. I think it's a huge missed opportunity.

Submitted November 30, 2020 at 01:10AM by omgyoucunt https://ift.tt/3o3pjAL