Passengers ending explained: The truth about the plane crash

Patrick Wilson starred as one of the passengers in the 2008 film Passengers, which is about a plane crash that has left the passengers' brains distorted. It's natural when you have survived something that counts as a near-death experience. Post-traumatic stress disorders can develop, and that is where the people who can assist these individuals in coping with their lives come in.

Anne Hathaway is one of the people who sets out to help the victims. She plays a psychotherapist, Claire Summers, who is counseling these plane crash survivors: Eric (Wilson), Norman (Don Thompson), Shannon (Clea DuVall), Dean (Ryan Robbins), and Janice (Chelah Horsdal). The problem is, they all seem to be recalling different experiences.

However, the twist comes in the film when it reveals that what the audience was witnessing on their screens is a walking ghost town, because everyone is a ghost here. It turns out that our leads, including all these patients, were on that plane and there were no survivors left in actuality.

Eric double-checks that he is dead in Passengers

Patrick Wilson played Eric in Passengers. (Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Eric is one troubled individual in this story, more than the other survivors, and he is lucky that Claire chooses to step out of that boundary that crosses the patient/doctor relationship. They enter a relationship after Eric asks her to take his sessions separately.

Now that they are in a relationship, they can visit each other any time, right? But this one visit is going to blow away Eric's mind, because that's all that's left. His brain is already blown away in that airplane crash. So he visits Claire this one day and then sees a husky outside her apartment.

It turns out it's a ghost dog. The dog was his pet when he was young. How can he be roaming the streets like this, right? Now, who will believe they are dead when they are dead, right? So Eric double-checks it.

He leaves the apartment and stands in front of a fast-moving train. That's of no use as he still remains 'alive.' Of course, that's in the afterlife, because that's where the film is taking place. If you are still not convinced that not everyone was dead in there, remember, they can all interact with each other.

So, either they are human or simply ghosts. And the plane crash has already killed them, so the chances of being in the former club are just out of the question here.

How did the plane crash in Passengers?

Rodrigo García directed Passengers. (Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment)

There are multiple theories by the characters that fans will come across in the film. Everyone on the screen recalls a slightly different version of what actually happened in that plane crash. Some think that the engine was blown away. Some believe it was due to a pilot error.

It was indeed a pilot error, it turns out. You see, Claire is in touch with Mr. Arkin (David Morse), an airlines official, since the beginning of Passengers. His version of the tale is that it was a pilot error. Now that we have already established that everyone is dead in the film, it makes Mr. Arkin one of those ghosts naturally.

But it is Clair who finds this list of people who died in a crash, and Mr. Arkin's name is there. And guess what? He is the pilot.

It is safe to say everyone played dead in this film.