The 2026 movie Passenger just hit theaters in late May, and it is not for the faint of heart. Directed by André Øvredal known for directing the movies The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Paramount Pictures delivered an interesting tale, but still needed a few touch-ups in the direction of the story.
Passenger – All Aboard
The movie opens with two friends driving down a dark and quiet road in the middle of the night. Eventually, the friend who is riding the passenger seat (no pun intended) wakes up and has to urinate in the most hysterical way possible. They stop on the curve, and as the man is relieving himself, the car horn blows, and the friend is pissed off (no pun intended) as he heads back to the road. He finds the car doors have swung open, and his friend is nowhere to be found. As he investigates further, his friend’s body crashes from above. He soon realizes that his friend has died at the hands of some unseen figure. Upon grabbing the car keys from the corpse, he speeds away, only to find that he is now caught in an endless loop on the road.
Normally, the first 5 to 8 minutes of a movie are an introduction to the audience of what to expect. However, it is used mostly to help with distribution. Although related to the story, in most cases, it is an unneeded point of reference for the rest of the movie. Think of this as an in-film trailer about the movie we are already watching. Just about every film does this, but only a few do it right. This was not one of them, because we end up more invested in their story than the main story.
Passenger – Now, Our Story Begins…
We are taken to an apartment in the city, where a woman named Maddie is packing up her belongings. She is getting ready to live a life on the road with her boyfriend, Tyler. As they set out for their reservation miles away, they are sidetracked, causing them to miss their appointment. Although not perfect, Tyler proposes to Maddie in their RV, and she says “yes,” as the neighborhood watch forces them to leave their residence.
As Tyler is driving, he becomes drowsy, and so Maddie takes the wheel. As she drives, she is holding her engagement ring, which falls to the ground. Maddie attempts to pick it up while driving this dark and dreary road at night, and manages to get her ring as a car speeds by while honking its horn. Tyler awakens, and as they drive, they see the car from earlier in a wreck against a tree, where they call the police. When they get out to investigate, Tyler notices that something is off about the corpse in the car, and Maddie is noticing a dark presence in the area before the police arrive.
Maddie and Tyler continue their trip, but they are not alone as a sinister presence latches onto their vehicle.
Tickets Please
The movie was fun to watch, but some aspects of the story lack originality and believability. Calling the dark entity simply “The Passenger” in the movie’s lore may feel cheap since it is also the title of the movie. Also, it is unbelievable for me as a viewer to think that a woman would agree to marry a man who is living strictly in an RV, while traveling endlessly on the road with no job and no explanation of an income source, in today’s day and age. It appears that they plan to simply “wing it”, and although I assume people are like this in real life, I could not buy into that detail within the plot.
Passenger has good moments, but I do not believe that this alone is enough to be seen in the theatrical sense. Based on the casting and content of the story, this would have been a better movie for streaming, TV, or home distribution. I do not believe the experience is worth the ticket price, regardless of the heightened experience the movie theaters offer.
