Written by Caballero Oscuro
Sunshine came and went without much of an impact at the box office last year, which is really a shame because it’s a standout effort that deserves to find an audience. Boasting direction by always-watchable Danny Boyle and a script from his 28 Days Later collaborator Alex Garland, the film belongs to the school of brainy space sci-fi classics like 2001 and Solaris. That’s not to say it’s a really smart film, in fact it has its share of groan-inducing dialogue as well as a healthy amount of brawny action, but it’s more concerned with the cerebral rather than the physical journey of its crew. As such, it’s an extremely refreshing take on a tired genre and a fine reminder of how good sci fi can be in the right hands.
The crew of the good ship Icarus II is tasked with a mission to save humanity, hurtling through space on a mission to deliver an explosive payload that will reignite the dying sun, or more specifically to generate a new sun from the embers of the old one. Earth has entered a virtual ice age due to the sun’s diminishing strength, and the crew represents Earth’s last hope to save humanity. They’re not planning on a one-way trip though, as the Icarus II is a state-of-the-art solar-shielded vessel designed to allow them to get in, deliver their cargo, and return home with barely a tan. The bummer is that they’re cut off from radio contact with home after entering a communications blackout zone near the sun, which of course conveniently leaves them to their own devices with no hope of outside counsel.
When they encounter a distress signal from their predecessors on Icarus I, a mission presumed failed over five years prior, they’re faced with making their own decision about whether to alter their course to check for unlikely survivors and a second functioning bomb, or continue on with just their sole shot at success. Their genius captain decides to place the choice on the shoulders of their physicist, Capa (Cillian Murphy), a still-naïve lad barely competent to make the decision, let alone weather any resulting fallout from the choice. Capa’s choice isn’t really a surprise, and it’s no shock that things don’t exactly go as planned for the duration of the mission, but the film takes a questionable turn near its end to set up a thrill-packed final act.
Article comments
1 - Doug
Hold on-- the whole story basically centers around one incredibly dumb judgment call left to the questionable wisdom of the crew's most naive (and nonprofessional) member, and this somehow makes for quality drama and a "refreshing" take on old sci-fi tropes? Excuse me if I beg to differ. I thought that Alex Garland was so busy making his supposedly smart characters look hapless and stupid that "Sunshine" was, at best, highly depressing and, at worst, deeply unwatchable.