15

Is there any explanation in the movie that I missed as to why the two main characters in Passengers have no children despite living 60 or more years after getting together?

I can come up with lots of supposition, but I don't recall anything in the movie that gave a reason why this would be so. There was no suggestion that they were unable to conceive.

Are we simply to assume that they chose not to have children, and the ship provided sufficient means for them to control conception?

Please note that I'm not asking what happened after their death.

0

1 Answer 1

11

Maybe they did - it's up to your own interpretation.

I asked the same question on another site: Did they ever consider having children in Passengers? The answer I received there from @Valorum was very interesting and informative, and I've copied it more or less verbatim here.


The ending of the film was left intentionally vague by the director, Morten Tyldum. In short, he's happy for you to imagine that they went on to have kids, but only if you want to.

We had a longer ending with Andy Garcia walking out of the elevator. 'Why is he in one shot?' Because it was two scenes that we shot with him, but we find out that by doing the ending a little shorter, it made people talk more about it. I want to like, 'Did they have children? What happened?' It's good. Somebody will go like, 'Oh, I think I saw some children inside the house.' Somebody goes like, 'Wait, if you saw that, then there probably is!' 'How was their life?'

But they both get to do what they set off to do. She set off to write a story. She thought it was different story. She had to, instead of looking outward, she had to look inward... Which I think is amazing, and he build his house, and was able to live in it... So, in many ways, they completed what they needed, and the rest I want people to imagine and talk about and it should be up to them.

'Passengers' director defends the movie's controversial ending


By contrast, in the film's original script, the ending was far less ambiguous. They had kids and even made use of artificially inseminated sperm along the way.

The ship’s hull is scorched and abraded from its cosmic crossing. But the lights shine, the engines throb, the landing gear receive the weight of the ship.

The starship’s gangway lowers. The doors open. CHILDREN run down the gangway. Children of all ages, of all races. Twenty of them, thirty. They point at the sun, at the clouds, laughing, wide-eyed in wonder.

We move up the gangway, through the disembarking passengers. Behind the children: Teenagers. Adults in smaller numbers as they grow older. Finally a handful of gray-haired elders.

...

At the aft end of the Concourse, a high wall. Here a long list of dates is inscribed. The last date is the ship’s landfall on Homestead II; the first, Jim’s awakening. In between: an accelerating tally of births, deaths, marriages, catastrophes and achievements...a century of shipboard life.

Which was a necessity because they'd

accidentally vented all 5000 of the other passengers into space.

6
  • 3
    Downvoter: any way I can improve this answer? Commented Jan 5, 2017 at 18:32
  • I didn't down-vote but I didn't up vote either since the answer is pretty much a copy and paste job. I think it should have been a wiki answer. That's my opinion though and perhaps I'm wrong.
    – Erik
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 17:54
  • @Erik I checked with the author of the original post, and he was fine with me using the info he'd found for an answer here. Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 17:55
  • 1
    I saw that, and I appreciate that you linked back to work too. It is just my opinion when nothing new is really added and the answer is from other people's contribution(s) it should be wiki'ed. Just my opinion though. I'm not casting stones. I'm just speculating on the down vote.
    – Erik
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 17:59
  • 1
    @RobertSoupe Not in the actual film; in a previous version of the script which didn't make it to the screen. Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 11:29

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .