Passengers

Right now you can watch Passengers in Australia on Netflix, and in the US on Netflix and Starz Apple TV Channel — and it goes further with its ideas than most genre entertainment bothers to. A tight runtime that never overstays its welcome. With 14,318 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Jennifer Lawrence's performance is the anchor the more ambitious scenes need. Available now on Netflix — press play and find out why people keep recommending it.

Passengers is not trying to be everything to everyone, and that focus is exactly what makes it work. Passengers treats its concept seriously enough to follow it all the way through. A spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people has a malfunction in its sleep chambers. As a result, two passengers are awakened 90 years early. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt lead a cast that keeps the bigger ideas grounded in something human. Passengers came out in 2016. Passengers resists the temptation to explain everything, trusting the audience to sit with ambiguity. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Viewers burned by ambitious sci-fi that could not sustain its premise should give Passengers a chance. If you have run out of similar titles to watch, this is a strong next pick. It is a manageable watch, easy to fit into a single evening. Jennifer Lawrence grounds the bigger ideas in something human. Once you are in, you will want to talk about it.