Passengers is a 2008 American psychological thriller film directed by Rodrigo Garcia, starring Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson.
Claire Summers (Anne Hathaway) is a grief counselor who's been assigned by her mentor, Perry Jackson (Andre Braugher), to conduct therapy for a handful of survivors from a plane crash. She quickly learns that some of the passengers remember an explosion that is at odds with the official explanation provided by the airline's representative, Arkin (David Morse), who maintains that it was a case of operator error. She's even more intrigued by one of the passengers, Eric (Patrick Wilson), who refuses therapy and seems to know things about Claire before meeting her. As she begins falling for Eric, the patients begin disappearing, one by one, leaving Claire to try to determine what's happening to her.
Not to be confused with the 2016 sci-fi film of the same name.
Tropes included:
- Afterlife Angst: At the end, it turns out that they didn't really survive, and all of them (including the grief counselor, who was also on the plane) are in the afterlife, which they have trouble accepting. Once they accepted it, they could move on.
- Color Motif: The color grey shows up in situations related to the truth.
- Dead All Along: Everyone - as in, every single person shown in the movie (apart from the very last minute of it). There were no survivors of the plane crash - and that includes Claire.
- Everybody Did It: In a way. Apart from the plane crash victims themselves, literally everybody else, including people who appear onscreen just for a second, is a ghost meaning to help them into the afterlife.
- Foreshadowing: "I find my way into their story. Then I find my way back to the truth."
- "You could step out front of a bus or something, and then what?"
- Hollywood Psych: Largely averted. Claire is new to practicing her psychology, but she largely operates under correct professional ethics. Other than sleeping with one of her patients...
- I Never Told You My Name: Claire's neighbour lets slip the name of Claire's patient/love interest Eric, which makes Claire realise she is in on the plane crash cover up/conspiracy... but actually the neighbour is the ghost of Claire's dead Aunt pretending to be a neighbour, and she is trying to help Claire come to terms with the fact that she is dead and move on.
- It's All My Fault: What Mr. Arkin really meant all along. He doesn't seem to be entirely fair to himself though.
- Manic Pixie Dream Boy: Eric acts to shake up Claire and bring her out of her sheltered world.
- Mockspiracy: There was never any airline conspiracy trying to silence the survivors. Passengers just moved on to another world once they came to terms with their death.
- Portent of Doom: Before the patients disappear, they see people watching them. These people are dead friends and relatives trying to guide them to the light.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Most of the survivors have blocked out large segments of the crash, including one man who doesn't even remember his name anymore. One of the concerns raised by Arkin is that the Repressed Memories the therapy group seem to be recovering are induced by Claire's questions. There's hardly anyone out there with more deeply repressed memories than Arkin himself though...
