Tagline: The truth can’t hide forever.
Passengers movie storyline. Dr. Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway), a therapist, has lived her life within a small comfort zone without taking any risks. It is because of that life that her mentor Perry, to get her out of that comfort zone, assigns her to act as the group therapist for a handful of airplane crash survivors, that handful out of just over one hundred passengers who did not survive the crash. Perry warns her especially about one survivor, Eric Clark, who, instead of grief, feels ecstatic about life. Indeed, Eric does not want to attend group sessions along with the others, but he does encourage Claire to come see him anytime as a friend in his personal interest in her.
On the caveat that he no longer hit on her, Claire decides to do so in her effort to help him. As such, she has to tread that fine line of acting but not acting as his therapist while he still has that attraction to her. Her ulterior motive in seeing Eric is that he, without coming right out and saying so or why, seems to know small details of her personal life. In the group sessions, Claire finds that there are conflicting details from some of the surviving passengers against the official statement of the airline, which is that it was pilot error that caused the crash, the pilot who is among the deceased and thus cannot defend himself. Claire wants to discover the truth behind the crash if only to help the survivors heal properly.
In trying to discover the truth, Claire begins to butt heads with Mr. Arkin, the airline representative who she does not trust, especially as he seems to be following her. Also following her and the other survivors is an unknown man. As such, Claire also begins to believe the conspiracy theory of one of the survivors that the airline is trying to get to them to shut them up, permanently if need be, that unknown man suspected to work for Arkin. That theory is strengthened in Claire’s mind as one by one, those surviving passengers stop attending the group therapy sessions, she not knowing where they are. Through it all, a kindly neighbor seems to be able to provide Claire with extra comfort during this time, like Eric she who seems to know what she needs without her asking.
Passengers is a 2008 American-Canadian romantic mystery thriller film directed by Rodrigo García, written by Ronnie Christensen, and starring Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson. It was released in the United States and Canada in 125 theaters by TriStar Pictures and earned $173,544 on the opening weekend. The film grossed a total of $5,787,152: $292,437 from domestic location and $5,494,715 from overseas locations.
About the Production
“It’s all about denial and truth bleeding through that denial,” says writer Ronnie Christensen. “No matter what scenario you’re in in life, no matter how bad it gets, truth always bleeds through.” For Christensen, the truth that inspired Passengers was his fear of parenthood as he approached the birth of his first child. That fear of the moment that changes your life forever was translated into a plane crash, that “scariest of situations,” through which emerges a love that bears witness to the truth. “I was really scared about having my first kid,” says Christensen. “In the process of writing Passengers I came up with this love story, this love that transcends all boundaries. Love is the only continuous thing through the story.”
In her analysis of Passengers, producer Keri Selig, a long-time friend of Christensen, goes further with the metaphor. “Ronnie was terrified of becoming a father because life as he knew it might be over. Passengers represents death and a new life beginning, life after death. When I read it I thought, wow, this is unbelievable.”
Christensen had been working with Selig and her partners, Matthew Rhodes and Judd Payne, on developing other projects, and gave them Passengers on a whim. The three producers read it independently one Sunday afternoon and on Monday they agreed it was a project worth pursuing. What struck them all was the surprise ending which, they agree, benefited from reading the script cold. “Because we hadn’t been prepped,” recalls Rhodes, “we had no idea what a huge surprise was in store for us. That’s what really hooked us on the movie.”
The project was sold to Mandate Pictures and then the producers set about finding a director. Selig had just seen Rodrigo Garcia’s Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her and was convinced he was the one for Passengers. “I went to everyone at Mandate and said, ‘This is our director.’ He wasn’t the most obvious choice, but to me he gets under character and he brings something fresh; his work is exquisite. I called his agent and begged her and Rodrigo to read the script. A month went by and no answer, so I started calling every day. Finally, as she tells it, she gave him the script just to get me off her phone sheet. And the day after he read it he said yes, so I guess persistence pays.”
“Rodrigo had just finished Nine Lives,” adds Judd Payne. “It hadn’t come out yet but we were able to see the picture and the performances were just unbelievable. We knew he was someone that would attract a phenomenal cast. So we hopped on the phone and started discussing Rodrigo with the talent agents. They were really excited; Rodrigo’s considered an actor’s director. Their response got us really jazzed and so we sent him the script.”
Garcia says he found the story engaging, “but definitely the events of the last twenty pages really captured me,” says the director. “The story is very strong, very emotional, and I have a preference for stories that involve leading ladies, stories for women. It is just very strong as a love story, as a thriller, a conspiracy story; it’s very well-balanced.”
The script made its way to Anne Hathaway, who signed on to play Claire. The daughter of stage actress Kate McCauley, Hathaway caught the acting bug early, attending the Barrow Group in New York as a teenager. Hathaway “loved the idea of playing a girl who wasn’t living her life to the fullest, who was being ruled by fear but was being shown opportunities, ways to break out. Claire knows she has talent and she’s very smart, but she’s trying to appear adult to the world while at the same time not dealing with her emotional life in an adult way. What a fantastic juxtaposition. And the movie has everything: action, love, personal growth. It’s big and classic yet it feels small, like a character study. I thought it was the best of both worlds.”
Hathaway was also smitten with the idea of working with Garcia after the two met to discuss the script. “I was completely enamored of Rodrigo from our first meeting,” says Hathaway warmly. “We had a very long conversation about the big issues, life and death and romance, integrity, how you live your life. I can be a fairly shy person when you first meet me so to be able to speak so freely with someone was very exciting for me because I thought, well, if we’re just sitting here across a table and I can tell him all these things about myself, I’ll feel very comfortable in character going to these places that we’re talking about. He’s an incredibly lovely, funny, warm, and loving man. I want to make all my movies with him.”
When Hathaway agreed to the project the producing team was thrilled. “Annie has an incredible charisma,” raves producer Julie Lynn. “She has a searing intelligence that the camera can’t help but pick up. It comes through in the talent that she brings to the table and how she delivers her work. It’s an essential part of her being and it works really well for Claire.”
With Garcia onboard and now Hathaway, the project exploded. “We woke up the next morning and the calls started flooding in,” exclaims Matthew Rhodes. “We were slammed so quickly into preproduction that for the first couple of weeks we were still working out schedules. Meanwhile we had twenty people building an airplane.”
Hathaway said yes in November 2006 and by January 2007 the film was shooting. “The crux was that we had a very small window because Anne had her next picture,” says Rhodes. “So it was all hands on deck. But Rodrigo is such a consummate professional and he had spent so much time understanding the characters in the story, he knew clearly what he wanted. That made everything a lot easier.”
With so little time before principle photography, the producers made up a wish list for the remaining cast then set about snapping them up, with a little help from the director. “We were lucky we had Rodrigo,” says producer Keri Selig, “‘because he would just pick up the phone and say, ‘I want to do this with you.’ He was so forthcoming we got everyone we wanted.”
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Passengers (2008)
Directed by: Rodrigo Garcia
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Chelah Horsdal, Ryan Robbins, Andrew Wheeler, Robert Gauvin, David Morse, Clea DuVall, Dianne Wiest, Chelah Horsdal, Karen Elizabeth Austin, Stacy Grant
Screenplay by: Ronnie Christensen
Production Design by: David Brisbin
Cinematography by: Igor Jadue-Lillo
Film Editing by: Thom Noble
Costume Design by: Katia Stano
Set Decoration by: Carol Lavallee
Art Direction by: Kendelle Elliott
Music by: Ed Shearmur
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements including some scary images, sensuality.
Dstributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: October 24, 2008
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