Passengers (2016)

[GaT]

20 hours ago, scriggle said:

REVIEW: Passengers Soils Its Escapism With Repulsive Reveal

Wow, this review pretty much takes away any interest I had in seeing this.

[raezen]

Oh, the reviews get better.

http://touch.metro.us//entertainment/review-passengers-is-one-sick-male-fantasy-in-space/zsJpls---aswgPv32dYnI/

[AimingforYoko]

Hollywood thinking 2016:

1. Cast attractive, likable stars.
2. Spend a boatload of money
3. Ruin the goodwill toward the stars with an execrable premise
4. Get everyone mad at you.
5. ???????
6. Profit!

[dusang]

I wonder if people would have even noticed the grossness of this if it had been made 10 years ago?

[ribboninthesky1]

Heck, with the popularity of the Twilight franchise and those Grey movies, I don't think we need to go back that far. 

[CofCinci]

I adored the script but the movie is terrible. During the "holding hands while space bungeeing amongst the stars" scene I was embarrassed for Chris Pratt. 

[hendersonrocks]

Here's a Detailed Plot Description of Passengers That Should Prevent You From Ever Having to See Passengers.

(Worked for me!)

[galax-arena]

Passengers' director says he'd do what Chris Pratt's character did.

Ugh. Peak male entitlement rears its head. 

ETA:

I think waking up someone for companionship when facing a life alone due to circumstances beyond your control is one thing. That's morally questionable but not outright gross IMO. But waking someone up just bc you think she's hot so that you can basically have someone to fuck and then not being honest to her about the situation? Yeah, fuck no.

Sorry, forgot spoiler tags.

Edited December 22, 2016 by galax-arena

[Schweedie]

2 hours ago, galax-arena said:

 

  Hide contents

I think waking up someone for companionship when facing a life alone due to circumstances beyond your control is one thing. That's morally questionable but not outright gross IMO. But waking someone up just bc you think she's hot so that you can basically have someone to fuck and then not being honest to her about the situation? Yeah, fuck no.

 

Sorry, forgot spoiler tags.

Exactly! And initially when I first heard of the movie it sounded to me like that was what it was about.

Spoiler

What do you do if you're faced with being alone for the rest of your life? How do you make that decision, to wake someone else up? Is it defensible? What would YOU have done? Etc. And I would've been down with that movie, because that's interesting to me. It's about humans not being made for being alone, and our desire to have companionship. You can understand him wanting someone else there. But when you boil that down to "I'm gonna wake this girl up because she's beautiful and I'm definitely in love with her from reading her profile", that ruins it. Especially when you take into account the part where he lies about it.

(Spoiler tags on all of it just to be safe.)

So, yeah. I'm extremely frustrated with this movie, because it's very different from what it could have been and sounded like it was going to be.

[Proclone]

I just got back from seeing it.  I'm unfamiliar with the script that's been apparently floating around for years, but I was spoiled for the so called "twist".  YMMV, but I don't think it's a bad movie.  It's not a great one, but I it's not bad. I can totally see why the "twist" would turn someone off from watching it, but I really did feel like Jim woke Aurora up less because he just wanted to bang her and more because of his profound loneliness.  

Overall I enjoyed it as a popcorn movie.  I thought the performances were decent.  It's nice to see Chris Pratt not play Star Lord and Jennifer Lawrence not play Katniss or a crazy person.  And I thought they had pretty good chemistry.  Michael Sheen is a hoot as the android bartender (and both the angel and devil on Jim's shoulder).  The effects are also pretty good.

There's some tweaking that could have been done to make it better and make the relationship between Jim and Aurora a little less icky.  First I thought the pacing of the movie was really off.  The first two acts are long and have very little action, but the third act seemed really rushed.  I think some editing down of watching first Jim wander around the ship alone, and then Jim and Aurora wander around the ship together would have helped pacing.  I also think stretching out the section (with the extra time from trimming the first two acts) with Lawrence Fishburn and them trying to fix the ship would have been better. It would have made Aurora's forgiveness of Jim a easier to buy if it had taken more time and she had more interaction with another person to voice her feeling to.

It would have made Jim's character a bit more likable if he had been a least a little bit hesitant to have their relationship become sexual.  His relief at finally actually talking to another person could have also been played up.  I'm of two minds about the ending.  I don't really hate that she chose to stay awake, but I really would have liked if they made it clear that she chose to stay with him not out of some sort of weird Stockholm Syndrome, but rather that she decided to live the life in front of her instead of looking for the next adventure.  It think that was the arc they were going for with her character, they just didn't quite hit the mark.

Like I said, not a great movie, but probably one of those movies I'll watch if I'm flipping channels and land on it.

[methodwriter85]

Yeah, I didn't think it was bad as its getting savaged as being. Kind of a shame this is head towards a huge bomb. I hope Jen and Chris do an actual romantic comedy together.

[CofCinci]

6 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Yeah, I didn't think it was bad as its getting savaged as being. Kind of a shame this is head towards a huge bomb. I hope Jen and Chris do an actual romantic comedy together.

Sadly, because this film flopped they won't be paired together again by studios. 

[Spartan Girl]

Yeah that's the worst part about this whole thing. In another movie with a better script those two would have been awesome together.

[Anela]

On September 21, 2016 at 1:30 AM, methodwriter85 said:

You mean you would want a Keanu who is 25 and a Rachel McAdams that is 50?

I don't know, it's kind of working for me. I'll give the movie a shot.

I wouldn't mind that. We have all of these older actors paired with much younger women. 

I don't think I'm interested in seeing this movie in the theatre.  Maybe on DVD. 

[VCRTracking]

The Plot Of Passengers Seems To Be Based On This Old '50s Comic Strip

[Ms Blue Jay]

Michael Shannon was good and creepy as the robot.  

[AimingforYoko]

6 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Michael Shannon was good and creepy as the robot.  

Michael Shannon really would have been creepy as the robot, but this was Michael Sheen.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Ok.  I still think Sheen was really good.

[TobinAlbers]

4 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Michael Shannon really would have been creepy as the robot, but this was Michael Sheen.

And now I have visions of Michael Shannon as a host on Westworld. 

Really hope Pratt and Law can do another movie together. Funny I could see them more as antagonistic siblings in a family comedy than as love interests. 

[Pixel]

I liked it. And as far as the creepy "twist"-if people can get over Beauty and the Beast romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome, surely they can deal with this. 

I thought they did a good job of showing Jim being very conflicted before he gave in to his loneliness and woke her. 

[magdalene]

The pity is that Pratt and Lawrence have chemistry and if this had been a romantic comedy there is a good chance I would have enjoyed it. But the whole premise of this movie is awkward and the "twist" makes it unpalatable.

Sadly, the way Hollywood works, we'll probably never see those two in a project together again.

[slf]

I might've liked this better if Aurora had killed him. I would have killed him.

Or, even better: if their personalities hadn't meshed at all (far more likely than what happened) and she hated him right from the start. Then kill him after finding out he woke her. That would've been much better.

[Pixel]

8 hours ago, slf said:

I might've liked this better if Aurora had killed him. I would have killed him.

Or, even better: if their personalities hadn't meshed at all (far more likely than what happened) and she hated him right from the start. Then kill him after finding out he woke her. That would've been much better.

While that certainly would have been interesting, it sure would have been a different movie! :)

[BigBeagle]

On 12/27/2016 at 8:53 AM, Pixel said:

While that certainly would have been interesting, it sure would have been a different movie! :)

She kills him, then a year later, gets so lonely that she wakes somebody, who hates her and kills her, then a year later ...

[JessePinkman]

2 hours ago, BigBeagle said:

She kills him, then a year later, gets so lonely that she wakes somebody, who hates her and kills her, then a year later ...

I read a suggestion similar to this the other day. She kills him, goes a little mad like he did then the film ends with her going to open another pod--cut to black.

Like a big budget episode of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. I'd be into it.

[thuganomics85]

Well, I will at least give it the faintest of praises and say I didn't think it was as bad as I thought it would be (after hearing the reviews and spoilers.) There even a few things I really liked: the look of the ship and some of the tech, Michael Sheen was a hoot as Arthur, Fred Melamed's badass voice as the Observatory, and I actually enjoyed the chemistry and interactions between Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence.  They didn't exactly have hot and heavy chemistry, but they were pretty fun together and likable.

That said.... yeah, the "twist" really just made it hard to every really enjoy it or root for Jim and Aurora as a couple.  I mean, yeah: being isolated for a year can do a number on anyone, so I get Jim was messed up.  And if I really wanted to be lenient, I could even see why he would finally breakdown/have a lapse in judgement, and let Aurora out of her pod.  But even if I was to do that (and I really even can't do that, because it was wrong on so many levels), him actively hiding it from her, and then eventually seducing and then sleeping with her, just makes him an icky creep.  If they had to do it this way, I would have rather he automatically admit what he did, she is rightfully pissed, and the rest of the film was him slowly trying to make up for the horrible thing he did.  If done correctly, maybe; if unlikely; I could buy her forgiving and maybe even falling for him.  But this?  I didn't buy at all.  He hides it, Arthur finally blabs the truth, she gets pissed, but then after he "nobly" puts his life on the line to save the ship, she's all "Wait, no!!  I actually do love you!"  Yeah, that's some bullshit right there.

Also, despite the Oscar and getting first-billed, I kind of felt like Jim/Pratt was actually the main character, and Aurora was less significant, so I couldn't figure out why Lawrence would have done this, unless the initial script/pitch was different, or she's really just a fan of Andy from Parks & Recs or Starlord.

And was there reshoots or cuts, because it was really strange seeing Andy Garcia pop up in the very end, and not even say anything.  At least he was credited, so hopefully he got a good paycheck for this.

Speaking of paychecks, nice to see Laurence Fishburne get one, I guess.

I like all the alternative ideas I've heard, at least.  One suggestion that I enjoyed was how it would have been better if the film started with Aurora being woken up, both her and the audience assuming Jim was woken up to, and then the truth is revealed, and instead of a bizarres sci-fi rom-com, it's more a horror story, with Jim truly being a creep, and Aurora having to fight him off.  If nothing else, it would be a nice change for Pratt to play someone more sinister.

I hope Hollywood give the pairing another go, at least, but overall, it just didn't work, and was a waste of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence's chemistry.

[Proclone]

35 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

I like all the alternative ideas I've heard, at least.  One suggestion that I enjoyed was how it would have been better if the film started with Aurora being woken up, both her and the audience assuming Jim was woken up to, and then the truth is revealed, and instead of a bizarres sci-fi rom-com, it's more a horror story, with Jim truly being a creep, and Aurora having to fight him off.  If nothing else, it would be a nice change for Pratt to play someone more sinister.

I hope Hollywood give the pairing another go, at least, but overall, it just didn't work, and was a waste of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence's chemistry.

I agree there was a really good sci-fi thriller in there if they had had the balls to go dark with it.  As I said, I'm not familiar with the original script but I think there were hints that of a darker story still in the finished product.  Even the comic scene of Jim deciding whether to wear his jacket or not to meet everyone else, while funny, hints at Jim having some social issues.

That being said I think they could actually have managed to pull off a decent if not unconventional romantic story if they had made some changes to what we saw on screen. 

I'm of two minds about whether having the "twist" be an actual twist would have been better or worse.  On the one hand I thought Pratt was best in the opening act where he's alone.  I thought he did a really good job of showing the utter loneliness and I thought the scene where he hugs the space suit just to have contact with something "human" was really powerful.  And I'm not sure the audience would ever be able to forgive him if they don't see the despair at being alone.  On the other hand I really did think that section of the movie was too long and really could have been trimmed to give time to the third act, which I thought was really rushed.

I think the movie could have worked (and probably would have been better) if Aurora was the main character and not Jim.  The movie could have opened with her waking up and meeting him and him telling her that he had been awake for a year already.  Then we could have watched them fall in love and then the twist is revealed that he woke her up.  We could have gotten scattered flashbacks to him alone throughout the movie culminating in showing him wake her.  But I think Pratt really would have had to give more emotion then we got in the actual movie to pull it off.  As good as I thought he was in the first act, one the biggest reasons I really couldn't get behind the romance (and they did have good chemistry) is that we never really see Pratt show Jim to be truly sorry for what he did. He says he's sorry but an emotional scene of him begging her forgiveness would have went a long way. Nor do we really see his relief at being able to talk to another person.  He's just his normal charming Chris Pratt self, pretty much once she wakes up.  I just needed more from him emotionally to able to buy her forgiveness of him in the end.

Lawrence I thought was really good and really sold her anger once she learned the truth, but her character wasn't given enough time to actually get to forgiveness so it makes her decision at the end look like Stockholm syndrome.  Cutting much of Jim wandering around alone and focusing on events once Aurora woke up could have given her more time to come to forgive him if they had handled it properly.  If they had her perhaps being trapped alone in part of the ship for a little while, or even just had her imposed self isolation from Jim start to drive her a little crazy.  And then have her realize just how crazy Jim must have went over a year would have helped.  Also having to have them work together again longer on screen (I know the horse is dead, but the third act was rushed IMO) to fix the ship and have them talk and her express while not excusing what he did she might be able to forgive him would have made the ending light years easier to swallow.  Because in the actual movies we get, "He murdered me!" and about three scenes later with nothing really changing and them not really talking to each other, "You die, I die!"  Lawrence did her best but I just couldn't buy it with how rushed it was.

I'm probably overthinking a fairly mediocre movie, but I'm kind of sad because I think it could have been a really good movie.  They could have gone full dark thriller and Pratt as a villain would have been a really interesting way to go.  But even if they had it as a romantic action movie, it could have worked if they had just given both Aurora and the audience the time to actually forgive Jim.

[benteen]

I thought briefly that Arthur would be the one to wake her up, after Jim had decided not to.  That would have been an interesting twist.  Arthur could have malevolent and then you would have a different movie.  Actually, it would have reminded me of an old sci-fi film called Saturn 3.  Anyone ever seen that?

I ended up liking the movie.  That twist made it very difficult to root for Jim afterwards.  I eventually "got over it" but that was rough I must admit.  I thought the two actors were good, as was Fishburne and the Arthur character was fun.  Pratt and his character definitely drove the action and Lawrence was more in the supporting role.  Kind of like Silver Linings Playbook.  Bradley Cooper absolutely drove that movie and would have gotten the Oscar if not for Daniel Day Lewis while I found Lawrence's Oscar-winning performance to be average at best and more towards a supporting role.

Aurora's emotional freakout over the revelation was very well done and realistic. 

[Bruinsfan]

I saw it tonight (hey, nothing was on TV and I had cinema gift certificates burning holes in my pocket) and liked it a lot better than I expected. There were at least transitions that made it clear time passed unseen after Aurora discovered the truth and between saving the ship and her decision not to go back in suspended animation. Seeing more scenes in those gaps would have been better, but I got the sense of her having the time to process that we didn't get. Also, after what Aurora went through with being locked in her room for two days and nearly killed by the swimming pool and runaway reactor, there might have been other reasons besides romance for refusing to go under. I know after seeing Gus die via freezer burn I wouldn't have trusted the U.S.S. Murphy's Law to freeze and thaw me safely again.

I also thought the moments where Jim clearly stopped defending himself to acknowledge Aurora had a right to kill him, and pointing out he had to risk being burned up for the sake of the other passengers as well as her were pretty strongly redemptive. It might have helped Aurora reach forgiveness if she realized that without Jim's decision to wake her up they'd have likely all been vaporized as well—Gus wouldn't have made it long enough to take her place in the control room while Jim worked from the outside the ship. Jim waking her didn't really take her future away; the ship's mishaps would have done that on their own anyway without the two of them working together to repair everything.

Edited December 31, 2016 by Bruinsfan

[VCRTracking]

[johntfs]

This movie felt like a smaller budget psychological horror film stalked a bigger budget sci-fi action romance, killed it, cut its skin off and used the stolen flesh to make a sci-fi action romance costume like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

[Artsda]

I liked it, in the bizarre twist had Jim not woken someone up they all would have died anyways. The space ship was pretty cool. 

Michael Sheen made a robot bartender interesting. Was it the ship malfunction that caused him to tell Aurora the truth? Seemed like he went split evil there for a bit.

[frogzapper]

15 hours ago, Artsda said:

Michael Sheen made a robot bartender interesting. Was it the ship malfunction that caused him to tell Aurora the truth? Seemed like he went split evil there for a bit.

No, he just picked up on the comment that Jim had made just before leaving the room when he said that there were "no secrets" between him and Aurora. So he reasoned that Jim had told Aurora the truth and that it was okay now to talk about it with her.

[Artsda]

2 hours ago, frogzapper said:

No, he just picked up on the comment that Jim had made just before leaving the room when he said that there were "no secrets" between him and Aurora. So he reasoned that Jim had told Aurora the truth and that it was okay now to talk about it with her.

Ah thanks. That makes sense, the robot didn't understand he was lying.

[BigBeagle]

Finally broke down and watched this On Demand. Overall, it was better than I feared it would be, which may be damning with faint praise.

Although what the Jim character was wrong, wrong wrong ... at the same time, I was wondering what I'd do if I was in his place. I'd like to think I'd be noble and self-sacrificing and all that, but to spend 50 or 60 years alone — and with a handy (albeit disgusting) solution to the problem so close at hand — I can't say I wouldn't be severely tempted to follow his course of action.

As for Aurora, I thought the movie did a great job at showing her anger at what happened (few actors do pissed off as well as Lawrence), but short-changed her journey to forgiveness. Like a poster said above, the third act seemed awfully rushed.

 

Overall, a decent, but not great, movie.

[SlovakPrincess]

I rented this for the cool look of the scenery and for something kind of mindless / action-packed.  So it did not disappoint in that respect.

What Jim did was unforgivable ... but I think he'd gone somewhat insane by that point (after about a year of contemplating a lonely existence trapped on a spaceship until death with no human contact)?  I think that was the writers' excuse for this mess.

Aurora's forgiveness (and jumping all over Jim and kissing him) would have made a lot more sense if it was after Jim had found - and offered up - a way to put her back into hibernation while he went back to his intolerably lonely existence.    Hence, at least the offer of some real atonement and sacrifice for what he'd done.  

Edited April 9, 2017 by SlovakPrincess

[VCRTracking]

I like that it does ask the audience what would they do in Jim's shoes.

A blogpost from Bitter Script In defense of PASSENGERS when the movie came out.

Excerpt:

Quote

Moreover, this is easier to see if you're not determined to equate Jim with being a "stalker." He's not a calculating and manipulative predator. The film more accurately diagnoses him as a drowning man grabbing for any life preserver. You can decry his actions, but the point of the film is to make you ask, "What if you were the one who was drowning?"

It disturbs me that we see art being attacked for merely exploring complex scenarios like this. Back when Indecent Proposal was made, did people think that just by making the film, the creators were advocating that a married woman sleep with a billionaire for one million dollars? If we discourage art that asks uncomfortable questions or explores moral grey areas, what will be left with? You can be uncomfortable with Jim does and still acknowledge that the film doesn't endorse it by building drama around it.

[BetterButter]

Passengers, Rearranged

[AimingforYoko]

Nerdwriter is one of the bright lights of YouTube.

[ribboninthesky1]

On 4/20/2017 at 2:29 PM, BetterButter said:

Passengers, Rearranged

This is really interesting because I suspect most people who knew what the plot was (whether from reading the script online or reading spoilers) and took exception to this film before it was released already knew what this video suggests - particularly women.  

[VCRTracking]

I think it would have made a great horror thriller if they rearranged it like Nerdwriter suggested but that's not the movie they wanted to make. They wanted to explore the ethical dilemma of the main character. About a basically good person driven to make an awful choice.

It's like Fatal Attraction was originally a serious look at the ramifications of infidelity and modern gender dynamics. The original ending Glenn Close kills herself and frames Michael Douglas for her murder. Then his wife played by Anne Archer finds the tape and she clears her husband. The final scene where they show Close' suicide was an homage to Madame Butterfly. Preview audiences hated it and re-shot it where it's like a slasher movie and Glenn Close is Jason.

Edited April 23, 2017 by VCRTracking

[raezen]

5 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

I think it would have made a great horror thriller if they rearranged it like Nerdwriter suggested but that's not the movie they wanted to make. They wanted to explore the ethical dilemma of the main character. About a basically good person driven to make an awful choice.

Yes and no. They might say that that they wanted to make that film but what they also wanted to make is a romance with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt with a happy ending.  I don't think they convinced enough people that this film coul be both.

[RadiantAerynSun]

I actually liked this. The decision to wake her up was wrong ethically but I think most people would make the same choice if not after 1 year maybe after 5 or 10 or 20. If they didn't lose their minds first. 

 

I do wonder why they didnt propose trading off time in the doctor tube one year at a time alone. 44yrs each. They could be alive upon arrival. And maybe spend a day or week a year together before the other goes back in the pod. 

[Bruinsfan]

In theory that could've worked, but Laurence Fishburn's character got lethally messed up from just one poorly-executed revival from suspended animation. No telling what could have happened if they were getting frozen and thawed 44 times each.

[scrb]

I think the premise of people leaving their families and friends behind is dubious.

Some single people might do it but it would predominantly be whole families more likely so that they live out the rest of their lives with loved ones, on a distant planet.

They obviously wanted to make it about two attractive leads but what if they both had spouses or significant others also traveling on that ship?

Why was Jim able to find out so much about Aurora, who's a stranger?  Invasion of privacy which the company should have protected.

What if the moral dilemma for Jim was whether to wake his wife, gf, family or friends instead of a hot stranger?  They made that ship look luxurious, with boundless supplies, but waking anyone would be sentencing them to a pretty limited existence.

[Which Tyler]

7 hours ago, scrb said:

Why was Jim able to find out so much about Aurora, who's a stranger?  Invasion of privacy which the company should have protected.

Invasion of privacy? I may be mis-remembering, but didn't he just look her up on Wikipedia, and read a few magazine interviews? Possibly also her public interview about why she boarded the ship.

Edited May 27, 2017 by Which Tyler

[Bruinsfan]

15 hours ago, scrb said:

What if the moral dilemma for Jim was whether to wake his wife, gf, family or friends instead of a hot stranger?  They made that ship look luxurious, with boundless supplies, but waking anyone would be sentencing them to a pretty limited existence.

At least theoretically it'd be a lot less selfish to wake up a spouse, what with the pre-existing  committment to living your lives together opposed to the presumed anguish of them waking up at the destination and finding out their significant other died of old age decades ago while they slept. Kids would be a hard call—never see them again and condemn them to being orphans on the colony world, or wake them and have your remaining years together but deprive them of the chance of growing up with friends, finding love, and building families of their own.

[methodwriter85]

19 hours ago, Bruinsfan said:

At least theoretically it'd be a lot less selfish to wake up a spouse, what with the pre-existing  committment to living your lives together opposed to the presumed anguish of them waking up at the destination and finding out their significant other died of old age decades ago while they slept. Kids would be a hard call—never see them again and condemn them to being orphans on the colony world, or wake them and have your remaining years together but deprive them of the chance of growing up with friends, finding love, and building families of their own.

That's my guess as to why it seems like they didn't have kids. Aurora didn't seem like the type who'd want kids, anyway.

[Anela]

I saw this in March - can't believe it's been two months - and it wasn't as bad as I feared, but I didn't agree with the happy ending. She was rightfully pissed before that. The android creeped me out - he was like the bartender out of The Shining. 

It was better than Alien: Covenant, though. 

[slf]

On 4/15/2017 at 11:43 PM, VCRTracking said:

I like that it does ask the audience what would they do in Jim's shoes.

A blogpost from Bitter Script In defense of PASSENGERS when the movie came out.

Excerpt:

Quote

Moreover, this is easier to see if you're not determined to equate Jim with being a "stalker." He's not a calculating and manipulative predator. The film more accurately diagnoses him as a drowning man grabbing for any life preserver. You can decry his actions, but the point of the film is to make you ask, "What if you were the one who was drowning?"

It disturbs me that we see art being attacked for merely exploring complex scenarios like this. Back when Indecent Proposal was made, did people think that just by making the film, the creators were advocating that a married woman sleep with a billionaire for one million dollars? If we discourage art that asks uncomfortable questions or explores moral grey areas, what will be left with? You can be uncomfortable with Jim does and still acknowledge that the film doesn't endorse it by building drama around it.

 

It's not that deep, tho. That may be the movie they wanted to make but it's not the movie they made. The movie they made starred two people far more attractive than the average person. The woman is fit and younger than the man, as Hollywood requires, and they're both white 'cause that's important, too. He picks her out, doesn't just randomly wake someone. And wouldn't ya know: she likes him. What are the odds? He didn't wake another human in a fit of desperation, he basically picked out a mate. That's different. And the movie wants us to root for their romance. The movie is not exploring deep themes. Frankly, his "madness" feels more like an excuse to justify what he does rather than something the film actually examines.