Why are Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt stuck on that spaceship in Passengers?

*This article contains absolutely no spoilers at all

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in Passengers
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in Passengers
(Image credit: Sony)

*This article contains absolutely no spoilers at all

On Wednesday a trailer for the hotly-anticipated film Passengers was released online. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, the sci-fi film appears to promise plenty of Platt-Lawrence screentime as well as a pretty juicy plot twist.

Passengers centres on two main characters, the exotically named Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jim (Chris Pratt) who agree to leave earth with a large group of people and remain in 120 years of hibernation before waking up to a new life on a distant planet.

But, as the trailer reveals, Aurora and Jim are woken up 90 years too early, while everyone else is still in hibernation. The two must then find out why this has happened or presumably face living out the rest of their days on the spaceship with only each other for company. Although if we had to be stuck for the rest of our lives on a spaceship with only one other person, Chris Pratt would not be a bad shout.

So why have Jennifer and Chris woken up early? And why just the two of them and not everyone else? Could it be a massive conspiracy against them? Or an elaborate dating ruse?

Here are a few possible reasons, plucked entirely from our own imagination (all spoilers here are completely accidental):

  • They've woken up because one of the scientists wasn't concentrating and accidentally put '30' rather than '120' years on the 'year counter' bit of their hibernation machines and only realised after the ship had taken off ('Susan, I think I've done something awful.')
  • They've woken up because they both accidentally offended one of the scientists before they went into hibernation, who deliberately put the wrong amount of years into their capsule.
  • They've woken up because two of their mutual friends wanted to set them up and thought this was the most surefire (if elaborate) way to make it happen.
  • They've woken up because the spaceship has run off course on the way to the destination planet and is now heading straight into the sun and they have 24 hours to put it right before everybody melts.
  • They've woken up because they needed to pee.
  • They've woken up because there is no destination planet. They've just been sent into space to fly around pointlessly because nobody likes them.
  • They've woken up because they need to start an Adam and Eve-style space colony before they get to the destination planet.
  • They've woken up because they've not actually left earth at all and are being secretly filmed for a Channel 4 reality TV show.
  • They've woken up because aliens have intercepted the spaceship and wanted to meet 'the hot ones' first.
  • They've woken up because the film's director just really wanted an excuse to put Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt together in a movie for 120 uninterrupted minutes and see what happened.

We have until 21st December - the release date for Passengers - to find out the truth.

Why have Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt woken up? Tweet us with your suggestions to @MarieClaireUK and we will retweet the most entertaining and creative ideas.

Lucy Pavia