Question: At the beginning it's seen that the autopilot knew about the whole "meteor field" in front of Avalon, as the rocks are visible on the projection of the ship right before the autopilot converts energy to main shield. It even "saw" the big meteor that hit Avalon. So why didn't the autopilot fly around and then return to the original heading? (00:02:27 - 00:03:00)
Kathi
29th Jul 2020
Passengers (2016)
Answer: The ship was traveling far too fast surely to change course in time, at half the speed of light.
Answer: The ship was designed to fly through meteor fields and had protective energy shields to repel them (shown at the beginning of the movie). Meteor fields are large and flying around them would add decades (if not centuries) to the journey. As Jim Preston noted, one meteor somehow broke through the shield and damaged the ship.
raywest ★