Passengers

Passengers (2016)

3 plot holes - chronological order

(9 votes)

Plot hole: In multiple scenes in the movie the starship is in a gentle rotation which allows 1G gravity on the ship. When the power to the propellant is cut the rotation stops and gravity is lost. Such a design for a starship doesn't make sense as the entire structure could be put in a continuous motion, as is indeed done with many probes today without requiring the continuous addition of power. Even if this design was chosen with part of the structure fixed and party of it moving around it still seems unlikely that the rotating part would come to a grinding halt within seconds (if it did, the friction of the structure would be huge, requiring enormous levels of energy to keep it moving) The only reason the movie chooses this unlikely design is to integrate the crucial shot of Aurora floating out of the pool when power is first lost.

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Suggested correction: There are parts spinning with different speeds and directions. Spinning an entire solid ship wouldn't allow for things like that. Regardless, we can't say which starship designs make sense or not. The ship has a reactor with seemingly endless energy, so powering the rotation is not a problem. The sudden stop is because whatever spins the ship has lost power. If you try to turn an unpowered motor or engine, especially if geared, you will feel resistance because the mechanism is acting as a brake.

ironcito

Plot hole: Gus wakes up and doesn't realise initially that he's seriously ill, although he knows he's not right. When Jim woke he was given a full body scan to check his health minutes after waking, so surely Gus must have had the same scan? When all his medical problems would have been identified. So he'd have known he was very ill minutes after waking.

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Suggested correction: Minutes after waking there was nothing wrong with his body yet, his body started to deteriorate rapidly afterwards.

lionhead

How do you know nothing was wrong with him minutes after waking up?

Because he got a full body scan like you said and nothing came up. The first sign of symptoms he shows is after they enter the bridge (or command center) and he dismisses it as something common. Before that he shows no sign of any medical problems.

lionhead

That's the mistake here - he should have had a body scan on wake-up. So did he develop multiple medical issues in the pod because his pod function was affected by the central computer being damaged by the asteroid strike? Which would fit as his pod woke him up early, a built in safety feature perhaps so people don't die in their pods? Maybe his pod wasn't working right for 2 years, so slowly damaging his body? So the wake-up body scan should have detected his multiple issues! He couldn't go from healthy to over 600 disorders in a day.

I'm not sure the pods are sensing anything, they're essentially freezers, but without freezing you. The finger connections are not sensing anything from a person in the pod as there's nothing to sense, as people are dormant. It only senses vital signs when people are woken up. So Gus blaming his pod for his medical issues is inaccurate surely? A movie mistake?

The malfunctioning pod caused his medical issues. It keeps them in cryogenic stasis. We don't know exactly how they work of course but it is more than just sensing. Basically the people inside the pods are kept dead, but the pod manages to halt any deterioration of the cells. Imagine that going wrong and the pod isn't able to keep the cells in check. Just like when exposed to high levels of radiation the cells have been damaged but there won't be any signs immediately. Only after a few hours the cells will start to break down.

lionhead

He developed several severe medical issues after being woken up too early in a pod that was malfunctioning. This is fictional, future technology and we have no idea how it works, but I think its safe to assume that the pod has to keep the entire body in check during cryosleep, and if the pod malfunctions it could cause all kinds of problems, both directly and later on. If it works on a molecular level than no issue can be detected for quite a while before problems start to show, much like with radiation poisoning when cells suddenly and rapidly start dying whilst hours or even days before you feel fine.

Plot hole: Starship Avalon is supposed to be an extremely highly advanced spaceship with capabilities well beyond current technology. Because the pods are supposed to be "fail-safe"/fail-proof, no provisions whatsoever were made to detect a pod failure or sound an alarm - a severe "oversight" for the ingenious people/engineers behind its creation. There apparently are sensors everywhere to automatically activate certain things (e.g, doors, holograms) when a passenger or crew member enters or approaches yet some of the things the holograms said indicated they were preprogrammed to say certain things, even though those things weren't appropriate under the circumstances. For example, soon after Jim entered the room for Learning Group 38, a hologram said, "Hello, passengers. Will you all take a seat." Surely there would be a sensor to detect that all the passengers supposed to be present were or know that almost all were not! The holograms/androids could not respond to some anomalies.

KeyZOid

Factual error: During the 31st year of the Avalon's voyage, the ship passes close to the star Arcturus, which is about 37 light years from Earth. Later in the movie, it was stated that the Avalon was moving at around 50% of the speed of light. The ship would not have reached Arcturus in the time allotted.

Blathrop

More mistakes in Passengers

Jim Preston: How do I send a message to Earth.
InfoMat: Interstellar messages are sent by laser array. This is an expensive service.
Jim Preston: Bite me!
InfoMat: Happy to help.

More quotes from Passengers

Trivia: The sleeping girl that Jim awakens is named Aurora. The character in the Disney animated film and in the Brothers Grimm's version of Sleeping Beauty is named Aurora.

raywest

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Question: If he can't afford more than crappy coffee and oatmeal, then how does he afford all the alcohol and fancy restaurants he goes to?

Answer: I think the breakfast is free, however the lower class doesn't get a fancy meal for free but a more basic type. The restaurants and bar on the other hand cost money.

lionhead

Answer: Perhaps customers at the bar and restaurant are allowed to run a tab that doesn't have to be settled until they are leaving the Starship Avalon and about to go to Homestead II. (This could be risky given the different resources of the passengers.) Or maybe the bar and restaurant are included in the fee for some passengers and staff would typically be at the door to allow admission to these passengers; Jim - awake and roaming - may be assumed to be eligible to use the bar/restaurant when, under normal circumstances, he would not be permitted to enter.

KeyZOid

Answer: I wondered about this, too. His lower-class passage limits his breakfast choice. However, it seems that any passenger should be able to upgrade their individual meals at anytime and order what they want, as he does in the multiple on-board restaurants. It may be that breakfast, for whatever reason, is exempt from that option.

raywest

Yeah but they simply push a button for the breakfast and actually order food from the restaurants. You might think he would just go ahead and go to one of the restaurants to get his breakfast, but maybe they aren't open yet at that time. The ship seems to be more of a cross between a luxurious cruise and boot-camp. The breakfast is perhaps standard ship protocol.

lionhead

I agree the paid for bar and restaurant don't probably open until 'Evening time' on the ship (You don't want your workers getting drunk all day, Jim is work group). The ship has a day and night clock system as heard by the announcer. I suppose Jim could change his wake up and sleep time to get a decent breakfast in the Chinese, but then his dinner would be basic and he wouldn't be able to have a drink before bed. What would you choose? Basic breakfast, good evening meal with drinks or good breakfast, basic evening meal and no drinks.

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