{"id":19127,"date":"2016-12-21T17:06:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T09:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/how-screenwriter-jon-spaihts-worked-the-physics-of-starship-travel-into-passengers\/"},"modified":"2016-12-21T17:06:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T09:06:09","slug":"how-screenwriter-jon-spaihts-worked-the-physics-of-starship-travel-into-passengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/how-screenwriter-jon-spaihts-worked-the-physics-of-starship-travel-into-passengers\/","title":{"rendered":"How screenwriter Jon Spaihts worked the physics of starship travel into \u2018Passengers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Starship
The starship Avalon approaches Arcturus in a scene from \u201cPassengers.\u201d (Sony Pictures via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The science is under the hood in \u201cPassengers,\u201d a love story set on a giant starship \u2013 and screenwriter Jon Spaihts is the guy who put it there.<\/p>\n

Chances are most movie fans are going to the movie to see Hollywood stars Jennifer Lawrence (\u201cThe Hunger Games,\u201d etc.) and Chris Pratt (\u201cGuardians of the Galaxy,\u201d etc.) rather than to get a tutorial on the physics of the Coriolis effect on a rotating spacecraft. But just in case there are some space geeks in the audience, Spaihts made sure the math works out.<\/p>\n

The one-time physics student and science writer has already made a name for himself as \u201cHollywood\u2019s go-to science fiction screenwriter,\u201d thanks to his work on \u201cPrometheus,\u201d \u201cDoctor Strange\u201d and the upcoming reboot of \u201cThe Mummy.\u201d<\/p>\n

For \u201cPassengers,\u201d Spaihts created a setting that is both expansive and claustrophobic. All of the action takes place on a starship traveling across light-years of emptiness to a colony world.<\/p>\n

But what a starship! \u201cThe ship is a character unto itself,\u201d the film\u2019s director, Morten Tyldum, told GeekWire.<\/p>\n

\"Jon
Screenwriter Jon Spaihts on the set of \u201cPassengers.\u201d (Johanna Watts Photo via IMDB \u2013 CC BY 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In advance of this week\u2019s opening, we chatted with Spaihts about the starship Avalon and the other scientific angles in \u201cPassengers.\u201d He began by explaining that the idea behind the movie came out of a discussion he had with producers about potential film scripts.<\/p>\n

Jon Spaihts:<\/strong> \u201cThey were enamored by the image of a man stranded alone in space, so I began to devise a story that somehow began with that much. My thoughts went to the combination of being on a long flight from Earth to another world, through the vast, isolating interstellar distance. These people will either need to live and breed for generations aboard those ships, or sleep the whole way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went with the notion of sleeper ships, and the possibility of someone waking early and having no way back to sleep. Once I had that idea, and it really sank its claws into my imagination, it gave rise almost inevitably to the chain of events that became the plot of the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst he tries to go back to sleep. Then he tries to call for help. Failing all of that, he tries to make a life alone, but begins to go mad in isolation. \u2026 The places where it led him seemed inevitable, and it became a love story. A love story haunted by tough philosophical questions and ethical quandaries. That fascinated me.\u201d<\/p>\n