Sunshine (2007)

A team of astronauts are sent to re-ignite the dying sun 50 years into the future.

Director:

Danny Boyle

Writer:

Alex Garland

Stars:

Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh

1 win & 10 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Cillian Murphy	...	Robert Capa
Chris Evans	...	Mace
Michelle Yeoh	...	Corazon
Rose Byrne	...	Cassie
Troy Garity	...	Harvey
Hiroyuki Sanada	...	Kaneda
Benedict Wong	...	Trey
Mark Strong	...	Pinbacker
Cliff Curtis	...	Searle
Paloma Baeza	...	Capa's Sister
Archie Macdonald	...	Child
Sylvie Macdonald	...	Child
Chipo Chung	...	Icarus (voice)

Storyline

50 years into the future, the Sun begins to die, and Earth is dying as a result. A team of astronauts are sent to revive the Sun - but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team are sent to finish the mission as they are Earth's last hope.

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Plot Keywords:

sun | icarus | earth | astronaut | future | 

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Taglines:

50 years in the future, Earth's Sun is dying.

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Genres:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violent content and language

Details

Official Sites:

Fox Searchlight [us]

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 April 2007 (UK)

Also Known As:

Sunce

Filming Locations:

Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Box Office

Budget:

£26,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$242,964 (USA) (20 July 2007)

Gross:

$3,675,072 (USA) (12 October 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DNA Films, Ingenious Film Partners, Moving Picture Company (MPC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The actors all had to live together in order to create a palpable feeling onscreen that they all knew each other.

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Goofs

At the beginning of the movie the ship is 36 million miles from the Sun, and thus the Sun would appear about (93/36)^2 = 6.7 times brighter than it would on Earth. But the computer says that at 4% transmission through the screen, the Sun would cause eye damage - despite being four times fainter than it would appear on Earth (and we know that in the story the Sun at Earth is fainter than we observe it today). Still, at 36 million miles, the Sun would only be about 1.3 degrees in angular size - much smaller than one's fist at arm's length.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Capa: Our sun is dying. Mankind faces extinction. Seven years ago the Icarus project sent a mission to restart the sun but that mission was lost before it reached the star. Sixteen months ago, I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven left earth frozen in a solar winter. Our payload a stellar bomb with a mass equivalent to Manhattan Island. Our purpose to create a star within a star.
[long pause]
Capa: Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. My bomb. Welcome to the Icarus Two.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits the sound of the distress beacon of the Icarus can be heard in the background.

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Connections

References Alien (1979)

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Soundtracks

"To Heal"
(uncredited)
Performed by Underworld
Courtesy of Ato Records / Red

User Reviews

Are you an angel? Has the time come? I've been waiting so long.

We are in the not too distant future and the Sun is fading out. After a first mission to reignite it with a nuclear bomb fails, with the ship apparently lost in space, a new team are sent to try again. But it really isn't as simple as that.......

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland team up once again for this sci-fi adventure thriller. For as long as I can personally remember, outer space and the planets that dwell within it, have always served us well for cinematic treats. Fears of the unknown and worries over the destruction of Earth, by and large make for great premise's. Not all films realise this potential of course, but it always makes for a great starting point. For his first venture into this realm, Boyle has gone for the Sun as his point of reference, and it makes for a marvellously claustrophobic picture that poses as many questions as it does answers. And even tho ultimately the science fiction aspects of it do not naturally add up, it's dazzling in its visuals and thought provoking into the bargain.

Boyle has never hid his influences and favourites from the public, and here he homages everything from Alien to Event Horizon, stopping for tea and crumpets at 2001s house along the way. But that is no bad thing, molding elements from great sci-fi past with his own intriguing story has given Sunshine a tremendous heart, to which Boyle then manages to cloak it with high quality drama. The crew are up there and we know that this is a genre piece and things invariably go wrong, this gives the discerning viewer an eager anticipation, a sense that one shouldn't go to the toilet for something will be missed. And Boyle lives up to the promise showed, such a pity then, that Boyle didn't let us get better acquainted with his characters at the start. Because then the impact would surely have doubled as each perilous and wrought scenario unfolded.

Having racked up the tension and intrigued us with the premise, expertly fusing CGI with his own craft work along the way, Boyle's Sunshine lives or dies by it's last quarter; depending on your proclivity of course. It has proved to be a most divisive point with critics and fans alike. To say it's a genre shift accompanied with implausibility is being a touch unkind I feel, this is after all a sci-fi picture about a ship going to reignite the Sun! Never the less it doesn't quite close the film triumphantly after the twists that preceded it, turns and explosions have lulled the viewers in, but personally it satisfies this entertained observer. Not in a big bang dynamic way, but in the way that asks me for a further thought process, and that may just be what Boyle and Garland envisaged when they sat down to make the film? Again, depending on your proclivity of course! 8.5/10