Director: Vadim Perelman

Cast: Djimon Hounsou, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Leigh-Ann Rose, Carolina Campos, Tegan Couchman

The Passenger is a 2026 American-Canadian thriller film directed by Vadim Perelman, starring Djimon Hounsou as a Somali-American shuttle driver whose routine fare turns into a harrowing cross-state ordeal when his mysterious passenger reveals a terrifying hidden agenda.

What is The Passenger about?

Hassan drives an airport shuttle in Minneapolis, barely holding his finances together. One night he agrees to transport Lloyd, a young man stranded at the terminal, overland to Chicago in exchange for cash that Hassan desperately needs. The arrangement seems straightforward at first — two strangers, one long highway, a simple transaction. But as the hours pass, unsettling details about Lloyd begin to surface, and Hassan gradually understands that his fare is concealing something deeply dangerous. Cornered in a moving vehicle with no easy way out, Hassan must weigh his own survival against the possibility that walking away could put many other lives at risk. The film builds its dread slowly and deliberately, confining almost all of its tension to the cab of that shuttle.

Cast & crew

Djimon Hounsou brings weathered conviction to Hassan, drawing on a career that spans literary adaptations and big-budget genre films alike. Kodi Smit-McPhee, known for physically and psychologically demanding roles, plays Lloyd. The supporting cast includes Leigh-Ann Rose, Carolina Campos, Tegan Couchman, Adrian McLean, Sarah Constible, and Teddy Parker. Director Vadim Perelman previously made the critically noted drama House of Sand and Fog.

Context & significance

Iranian diaspora audiences have long been drawn to tightly wound road thrillers where a single wrong decision spirals into an inescapable crisis — a genre tradition that resonates with the experience of navigating unfamiliar systems in a new country. The Passenger taps into that anxiety through the lens of an immigrant protagonist, a Somali-American man whose economic vulnerability makes him susceptible to exactly the kind of coercion the film explores. Persian-speaking viewers can watch with Persian dubbing, meaning the emotional beats land in a familiar register without losing any pacing. The film runs 93 minutes and keeps its geography tight — Minneapolis to Chicago — which sustains pressure throughout.

Where & how to watch

The Passenger is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing. Watch on the web, your TV, or your phone — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, and no extra download required. Cancel anytime.