A chance at companionship after being left marooned. What may be considered unethical could be lifesaving. Along with its consequences, would you do it? A chance to answer this question is one reason you may be drawn to the film. To fully explain the concept of this action-thriller and poetic story are director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), writer and executive producer John Spaihts (Doctor Strange) and stars Chris Prat, Jennifer Lawrence, and Michael Sheen.

“We always live ahead. We’re always planning what we’re going to do in the future. What happens if you take two characters and say, ‘There is no future. There is only now.’ What is it that we need now? To me, these two characters need two things. They need to love something and they need to fulfill something in themselves.” Morten explains the importance of bringing this story. “You take something that is so private and personal and intimate, and at the same time, give it this big scope of space, this spaceship, and this world which is very unique and only belongs to this film.” 

A story that while fictional, comes from a real place. Spaihts shares he was once asked who the loneliest person in human race is. He tells us Moon astronauts. “The person that was probably the farthest from the nearest human being in human history was Michael Collins, the astronaut in the command capsule orbiting the Moon when the other two guys got to land. He’s on the far side of the Moon from those guys. He’s farther from the nearest human being than any other person has ever been. I thought, ‘Alright, what if you take that distance and magnify it by many orders of magnitude?’ I fell in love with the notion of a man stranded alone between the stars and where that story would take him.”

The originality of this film along with its intimacy is one of the main reasons both Jennifer and Chris were drawn to the script. “It was a total page turner. I loved the story. When you’re reading the script, you don’t have all the special effects. You don’t have this amazing ship. You don’t have all of the other elements that came together to make this movie so impressive. All you have is this very human story between these two people. I fell in love immediately with it. Then, Chris was already attached. I couldn’t have said yes fast enough,” says Lawrence. Pratt who was also eager to work Lawrence expands. “When I read this script, I realized that it was so original. It is a piece of intellectual property that’s not based on a previous title… With Morten being the director that he is, and I was a huge fan of his, and with Michael jumping on board, we kept getting dealt these amazing cards. It’s really rare to have projects like this that just come together.”

Michael Sheen plays Arthur, an android programmed to be the greatest bartender. “I was so excited on my first day to walk onto the set and to meet Jen and Chris. I thought I’m going to look fairly spiffy as I walk on in my costume.” A costume involving tights as Arthur’s legs consist of a robotic stand. Bringing humanity to a machine without over fabricating it can be a challenge, but Tyldum points out Sheen’s utterly believable performance. “He’s at the edge of the bar, having to pour drinks very fast while being swooshed around on a machine, and he makes it look like the most natural thing. I mean, just try and pour a glass without looking at it. Then, performing and giving this beautiful level of humanity and also being non-human at the same time, which is amazing. I was blown away every time we had Arthur on set because it seems so effortless.

Passengers opens in theaters everywhere on December 21.