Passengers Trailer: Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt Find Love—and Danger!—in Outer Space

Morten Tyldum directs the movie, in theaters December 21, 2016

By Zach Johnson Sep 20, 2016 11:35 AMTags

Passengers looks, well, out of this world.

Sony Pictures Entertainment premiered the trailer for Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt's space epic Tuesday. According to the film studio's official synopsis, Lawrence, 26, and Pratt, 37, star as "two passengers onboard a spaceship transporting them to a new life on another planet." Unfortunately, their voyage "takes a deadly turn when their hibernation pods mysteriously wake them 90 years before they reach their destination."

Aurora (Lawrence) and Jim (Pratt) are just two of 5,000 people traveling aboard the luxury vessel bound for a colony 120 years away. According to the movie studio, "As Jim and Aurora try to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction, they begin to fall for each other, unable to deny their intense attraction...only to be threatened by the imminent collapse of the ship and the discovery of the truth behind why they woke up."

"This can't be happening," Aurora says. "We have to go back to sleep."

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Jaimie Trueblood/Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

The action-packed trailer ends with a startling revelation from Jim. "There's something I have to tell you," he says with dread in his voice. "There is a reason we woke up early."

Gasp!

The blockbuster had been in development for several years before Lawrence and Pratt were cast and director Morten Tyldum was hired. Previous actors attached to star in the film include Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon.

Jaimie Trueblood/Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

"It was a popular script. It's one of those stories that really grabs you and you fall in love with it. It's very smart and funny and clever and such a page-turner I couldn't put it down. Every 10 pages, something new happens!" Tyldum told Entertainment Weekly for the magazine's Fall Movie Preview issue. "At the same time it's a very intimate movie while taking place on this epic scale."

"For me," he said, "it's a story about what's important to live a full life. What are the things we need as humans? It's not afraid to entertain but at the same time it asks big questions about what does it mean to really feel happy. Every generation has its love story. I feel like this is it. I had to do it."

Passengers is in theaters Dec. 21.