Passengers

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

Factual error: The Avalon generates its gravity by rotating, which is made evident by the fact that the elevators connecting the three helical pods are without gravity. When the passengers go spacewalking, the instant they walk out the airlock, they have to be secured by magnetic boots. When they turn them off, they become weightless. Both assertions are wrong for the same reason: If the gravity is created by centrifugal force, that force is present on all points of the ship with the strength depending on the distance to the hub of the ship, no matter whether that point is inside or outside the ship's hull. That of course includes the ledge in front of the airlock. Any surface that is oriented towards the hub of the ship is felt as "floor", surfaces radially oriented to the hub would feel like "walls", surfaces oriented away from the hub would be "ceilings." So if you step off a ledge on the outside of the ship the way the actors do, you'd be drifting away from the ship on a tangent to the ledge you stepped off, and end up hanging by your tethers. You wouldn't accelerate away from the ship like you would in a real gravity field, but you would float away with a speed equal to the acceleration simulated by the artificial gravity. The only way to become weightless would be to cancel the sideways motion imparted by the rotation of the ship. At the rotation speeds depicted in the movie, that would take at least a motorbike to do.

Doc

Factual error: During Jim's first spacewalk, while floating, with no gravity, a tear rolls down his cheek.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: He's not in free fall. He's at the end of a tether, held taut by centripetal force. The tear should have fallen "down" into his suit's visor.

Factual error: The ship supposedly has some sort of artificial gravitational field because there's a light which notifies when the gravity is off. When the gravity turns off, suddenly everything flies off into different directions. If the ship is moving with uniform motion, turning off the gravity will do nothing unless an object is accelerated. Where it moves to depends on the direction of your acceleration.

sexxypeety

Factual error: Exterior shots of the spaceship show the main thruster/engine running. In outer space, this would cause continuous acceleration meaning that, during the spacewalk, Jim would have been left behind as soon as he let go of the ship.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Not entirely correct. He will feel two inertial forces: the first is the forward acceleration you mention, and the second is the radial acceleration outward from the center of the ship, as a result of the ship's rotation. So he will be pulled to a balance point between these two forces.

tsahi

Continuity mistake: In the scene in the bar where Aurora discovers she was woken up, when she walks out and says to Jim "stay away from me" - she points at him initially then spreads open her fingers, but when scene cuts back to Jim a second later you see a single finger pointing.

More mistakes in Passengers

Aurora: If you live an ordinary life, all you'll have are ordinary stories.

More quotes from Passengers

Trivia: Despite receiving fifth billing, Andy Garcia is only on screen for 10 seconds and has no lines at all.

More trivia for Passengers

Question: How would they have gained access to the command ring from the main ship? The main ship arms are spinning anti clockwise and the command ring is spinning clockwise, so they're out of sync. The command ring also appears to be spinning faster.

Answer: With difficulty is the answer! Question is why are command ring and engine room spinning in different directions, to make this an issue?

Answer: To spin the ship on its axis, you have to spin it against something. You can use side rockets to push it against the thrust of the rockets, or you could push it against a core rotating in the opposite direction. The conservation of momentum, with the right balance of mass between the inner core and the outer spirals, will make the two parts rotate one against the other, without carrying fuel for the rockets.

tsahi

More questions & answers from Passengers

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.