Having recently revisited Alex Garland’s directorial works in preparation for Men, I couldn’t stop myself from going back and revisiting two of his earlier works, both directed by Danny Boyle, where Garland served as writer, 2002’s 28 Days Later, and 2007’s Sunshine. Both of these films served as gateways for me into their respective genres, or at the very least showed me a side of the genre I had never seen and sunk its hooks into me like never before. I couldn’t decide which one to tackle first so I flipped a coin and Sunshine won out. A divisive film, but one that I simply adore.
The year is 2057 and the sun is dying, plunging Earth into a permanent winter and extinction isn’t far away. The astronauts aboard the Icarus II are humanity’s last hope, carrying a stellar bomb attached to their ship that contains a payload large enough to re-ignite the star. But when unexpected events put the mission in jeopardy the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
More often than not Sunshine is a film that people haven’t heard of. I mean it was a box office bust only making back $32 million of its $40 million budget, but even then it doesn’t seem to have had much life on the home entertainment circuit despite receiving generally positive reviews and has some major Hollywood talent in it. But the one thing I almost always hear from people who have heard of and seen Sunshine is that they best remember it as the sci-fi film that was really good until the third act. Now I adore Sunshine and it’s one of my all time favourite films, but it’s hard to disagree with that sentiment at times despite the fact that I still enjoy what the film does with its admittedly rather baffling late story twist.
The year is 2057 and the sun is dying, plunging Earth into a permanent winter and extinction isn’t far away. The astronauts aboard the Icarus II are humanity’s last hope, carrying a stellar bomb attached to their ship that contains a payload large enough to re-ignite the star. But when unexpected events put the mission in jeopardy the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
More often than not Sunshine is a film that people haven’t heard of. I mean it was a box office bust only making back $32 million of its $40 million budget, but even then it doesn’t seem to have had much life on the home entertainment circuit despite receiving generally positive reviews and has some major Hollywood talent in it. But the one thing I almost always hear from people who have heard of and seen Sunshine is that they best remember it as the sci-fi film that was really good until the third act. Now I adore Sunshine and it’s one of my all time favourite films, but it’s hard to disagree with that sentiment at times despite the fact that I still enjoy what the film does with its admittedly rather baffling late story twist.
The whole thing starts incredibly strong. Throughout the opening act we’re introduced to the Icarus II’s eclectic crew members, as well as get to understand their dynamic. Capa (Cillian Murphy) acts as the main protagonist of the film, and as the ships physicist he is in charge of the bomb. Though Capa is close with Cassie (Rose Byrne), Icarus’ pilot, some of the crew often have difficulties with him. He has a tense relationship with Mace (Chris Evans), the ship’s engineer and the two of them regularly come to blows. Biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) shares very little common ground with him, and the two usually disagree on matters of mission importance. Harvey (Troy Garity) is the ship’s comms officer but has delusions of grandeur often creating a conflict of interest with the rest of the crew. Searle (Cliff Curtis) is the ship’s doctor, who along with Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) has a deep passion for the sun that borders on religious fanaticism; and then there’s Trey (Benedict Wong), the often overworked and stressed navigator.
The story opens with our crew just about to pass into the ‘dead zone’ where they will no longer be able to communicate with Earth, and this brings about unrest with the crew as they become nervous pondering on the unknown fate of the original Icarus mission seven years earlier. As they pass by Mercury they pick up the original Icarus’ distress signal, and with Capa’s deciding vote, they elect to investigate the ship so that they may be able to understand what happened, as well as potentially gather supplies, and perhaps most crucially, determine whether the Icarus I’s bomb is still functional in case of the event that Icarus II’s bomb is unsuccessful.
It’s this decision that begins a downwards spiral of disasters for the crew as the Icarus II begins to encounter mission critical problems with their own ship, and the revelation as to what has become of the Icarus I places the entirety of humanity in danger.
It’s difficult to talk about the problems that befall Sunshine’s story without ruining basically the entire thing. So, if you’ve not seen it before than I highly recommend you watch it as I believe it is a truly incredible film, but from this point on there will be spoilers galore.
After a problem with altering the trajectory of the ship, the success of the mission hinges on docking with the Icarus I. This is all fine, and really where the film kicks itself into high gear by using the crew’s dynamics and increasingly stressful situations to build tension. The scene where Capa, Mace, Searle, and Harvey investigate the Icarus I and the fate of its crew is the most gripping scene of the entire film. But upon returning from the Icarus I is where the film makes a drastic genre shift from sci-fi thriller into slasher movie territory. It is revealed that the Icarus II has an extra, unidentified crew member, which Capa discovers to be Pinbacker (Mark Strong), captain of the Icarus I, who was responsible for that mission failing. From here, Pinbacker becomes the main antagonist of the story, actively trying to sabotage the Icarus II and kill the remaining crew members.
The resulting film bears a lot of resemblance to the original Ridley Scott Alien film; crew investigate a distress signal, discover something that tries to kill them, and then are systematically hunted down. The difference is that with Sunshine it feels as though this wasn’t originally the intention for the story. The film’s distributor, Fox, were initially hesitant to finance the film because of the story similarities to 2002’s Solaris, so it could be that this decision to have Pinbacker become a horror movie villain was done to help the film feel different. But this whole Pinbacker thing comes out of nowhere and it overrides the rest of the film, and considering how the film had been building tension and characters before this point makes the shift even worse because all character motivations and development is kind of thrown away for the sake of an action centric finale.
I feel what also goes against this whole Pinbacker situation is that you never get to see him either, or at least not properly. He’s always obscured from the viewer in some way, you might catch a glimpse of an arm, or an eye or something but you never clearly see him. So not only does it feel like it becomes an entirely different film near the end, but you never clearly see the threat that our protagonists face so it’s underwhelming in that regard too.
The story opens with our crew just about to pass into the ‘dead zone’ where they will no longer be able to communicate with Earth, and this brings about unrest with the crew as they become nervous pondering on the unknown fate of the original Icarus mission seven years earlier. As they pass by Mercury they pick up the original Icarus’ distress signal, and with Capa’s deciding vote, they elect to investigate the ship so that they may be able to understand what happened, as well as potentially gather supplies, and perhaps most crucially, determine whether the Icarus I’s bomb is still functional in case of the event that Icarus II’s bomb is unsuccessful.
It’s this decision that begins a downwards spiral of disasters for the crew as the Icarus II begins to encounter mission critical problems with their own ship, and the revelation as to what has become of the Icarus I places the entirety of humanity in danger.
It’s difficult to talk about the problems that befall Sunshine’s story without ruining basically the entire thing. So, if you’ve not seen it before than I highly recommend you watch it as I believe it is a truly incredible film, but from this point on there will be spoilers galore.
After a problem with altering the trajectory of the ship, the success of the mission hinges on docking with the Icarus I. This is all fine, and really where the film kicks itself into high gear by using the crew’s dynamics and increasingly stressful situations to build tension. The scene where Capa, Mace, Searle, and Harvey investigate the Icarus I and the fate of its crew is the most gripping scene of the entire film. But upon returning from the Icarus I is where the film makes a drastic genre shift from sci-fi thriller into slasher movie territory. It is revealed that the Icarus II has an extra, unidentified crew member, which Capa discovers to be Pinbacker (Mark Strong), captain of the Icarus I, who was responsible for that mission failing. From here, Pinbacker becomes the main antagonist of the story, actively trying to sabotage the Icarus II and kill the remaining crew members.
The resulting film bears a lot of resemblance to the original Ridley Scott Alien film; crew investigate a distress signal, discover something that tries to kill them, and then are systematically hunted down. The difference is that with Sunshine it feels as though this wasn’t originally the intention for the story. The film’s distributor, Fox, were initially hesitant to finance the film because of the story similarities to 2002’s Solaris, so it could be that this decision to have Pinbacker become a horror movie villain was done to help the film feel different. But this whole Pinbacker thing comes out of nowhere and it overrides the rest of the film, and considering how the film had been building tension and characters before this point makes the shift even worse because all character motivations and development is kind of thrown away for the sake of an action centric finale.
I feel what also goes against this whole Pinbacker situation is that you never get to see him either, or at least not properly. He’s always obscured from the viewer in some way, you might catch a glimpse of an arm, or an eye or something but you never clearly see him. So not only does it feel like it becomes an entirely different film near the end, but you never clearly see the threat that our protagonists face so it’s underwhelming in that regard too.
Despite all this, I still love what Sunshine achieves and I do enjoy the final act…I just wonder if it would have been better had Pinbacker been isolated to the Icarus I, or just died along with the rest of his crew.
Beyond the story, what really sells sunshine to me is the visual design of the film. I think the architecture of the Icarus is incredible, totally unrealistic but I love it all the same. Some critics voiced dissatisfaction with the films lack of scientific accuracy, but I love how committed it is to the science it builds for itself. If you were to crunch the numbers it wouldn’t be feasible, but for the sake of making an entertaining film I love the way that things are explained.
I enjoy the chemistry the characters have too (or at least until Pinbacker comes along), seeing the effects of eight people trapped in a metal tube flying through space for almost two years is great. Plus, the moral dilemmas they encounter, even going so far as to diplomatically discussing sacrificing crew members for the sake of oxygen. I do wish they had run with this line of thinking rather than the Pinbacker scenario, but when it’s all said and done, I still love Sunshine.
Sunshine holds a very special place in my heart, and I adore it despite its flaws. It really is a shame that the film doesn’t get more attention, and I try to promote it to people wherever I can. So, if you’re in the need for a good character driven sci-fi drama, look no further. I can’t guarantee that the final act won’t piss you off, but coming in at around and hour and forty minutes, Sunshine will give you over an hour’s worth of greatness guaranteed.
Beyond the story, what really sells sunshine to me is the visual design of the film. I think the architecture of the Icarus is incredible, totally unrealistic but I love it all the same. Some critics voiced dissatisfaction with the films lack of scientific accuracy, but I love how committed it is to the science it builds for itself. If you were to crunch the numbers it wouldn’t be feasible, but for the sake of making an entertaining film I love the way that things are explained.
I enjoy the chemistry the characters have too (or at least until Pinbacker comes along), seeing the effects of eight people trapped in a metal tube flying through space for almost two years is great. Plus, the moral dilemmas they encounter, even going so far as to diplomatically discussing sacrificing crew members for the sake of oxygen. I do wish they had run with this line of thinking rather than the Pinbacker scenario, but when it’s all said and done, I still love Sunshine.
Sunshine holds a very special place in my heart, and I adore it despite its flaws. It really is a shame that the film doesn’t get more attention, and I try to promote it to people wherever I can. So, if you’re in the need for a good character driven sci-fi drama, look no further. I can’t guarantee that the final act won’t piss you off, but coming in at around and hour and forty minutes, Sunshine will give you over an hour’s worth of greatness guaranteed.