Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsABFFPride MonthOutfest OutfrontsSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Sunshine

  • 2007
  • R
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
257K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,394
154
Cillian Murphy in Sunshine (2007)
Theatrical Trailer from Fox Searchlight Pictures
Play trailer1:56
20 Videos
99+ Photos
Sci-FiThriller

A team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.A team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.A team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.

  • Director
    • Danny Boyle
  • Writer
    • Alex Garland
  • Stars
    • Cillian Murphy
    • Rose Byrne
    • Chris Evans
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    257K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,394
    154
    • Director
      • Danny Boyle
    • Writer
      • Alex Garland
    • Stars
      • Cillian Murphy
      • Rose Byrne
      • Chris Evans
    • 1KUser reviews
    • 280Critic reviews
    • 64Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 23 nominations

    Videos20

    Sunshine
    Trailer 1:56
    Watch Sunshine
    Sunshine
    Trailer 1:57
    Watch Sunshine
    Sunshine
    Trailer 1:57
    Watch Sunshine
    Sunshine
    Clip 0:38
    Watch Sunshine
    Sunshine
    Clip 0:33
    Watch Sunshine
    Sunshine Scene: Character Deaths Montage
    Clip 0:58
    Watch Sunshine Scene: Character Deaths Montage
    Sunshine Scene: We Need To Lose Two More
    Clip 0:38
    Watch Sunshine Scene: We Need To Lose Two More
    Sunshine Scene: Fire In The Oxygen Garden
    Clip 0:34
    Watch Sunshine Scene: Fire In The Oxygen Garden
    Sunshine: Featurette (Training)
    Clip 2:07
    Watch Sunshine: Featurette (Training)
    Sunshine Scene: The Airlock Has Decoupled
    Clip 0:59
    Watch Sunshine Scene: The Airlock Has Decoupled
    Sunshine Scene: Oxygen Garden & Earth Room
    Clip 1:05
    Watch Sunshine Scene: Oxygen Garden & Earth Room
    Sunshine Scene: Nothing More Important Than Completing Our Mission
    Clip 1:27
    Watch Sunshine Scene: Nothing More Important Than Completing Our Mission

    Photos141

    Cillian Murphy in Sunshine (2007)
    Cliff Curtis in Sunshine (2007)
    Hiroyuki Sanada in Sunshine (2007)
    Chris Evans in Sunshine (2007)
    Michelle Yeoh in Sunshine (2007)
    Rose Byrne in Sunshine (2007)
    Rose Byrne in Sunshine (2007)
    Sunshine (2007)
    Michelle Yeoh, Troy Garity, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Benedict Wong in Sunshine (2007)
    Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, and Hiroyuki Sanada in Sunshine (2007)
    Chris Evans and Cillian Murphy in Sunshine (2007)
    Michelle Yeoh in Sunshine (2007)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Cillian Murphy
    Cillian Murphy
    • Robert Capa
    Rose Byrne
    Rose Byrne
    • Cassie
    Chris Evans
    Chris Evans
    • Mace
    Cliff Curtis
    Cliff Curtis
    • Searle
    Chipo Chung
    Chipo Chung
    • Icarus
    • (voice)
    Michelle Yeoh
    Michelle Yeoh
    • Corazon
    Hiroyuki Sanada
    Hiroyuki Sanada
    • Kaneda
    Benedict Wong
    Benedict Wong
    • Trey
    Troy Garity
    Troy Garity
    • Harvey
    Mark Strong
    Mark Strong
    • Pinbacker
    Paloma Baeza
    Paloma Baeza
    • Capa's Sister
    Archie Macdonald
    • Child
    Sylvie Macdonald
    • Child
    Kevin Hudson
    Kevin Hudson
    • Crew, Icarus I
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Danny Boyle
    • Writer
      • Alex Garland
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    28 Days Later
    7.5
    28 Days Later
    Moon
    7.8
    Moon
    Event Horizon
    6.6
    Event Horizon
    Pandorum
    6.7
    Pandorum
    28 Weeks Later
    6.9
    28 Weeks Later
    Contact
    7.5
    Contact
    Gattaca
    7.8
    Gattaca
    Equilibrium
    7.3
    Equilibrium
    Dark City
    7.6
    Dark City
    The Abyss
    7.5
    The Abyss
    Prometheus
    7.0
    Prometheus
    Children of Men
    7.9
    Children of Men

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The actors all had to live together in order to create a palpable feeling onscreen that they all knew each other (Cillian Murphy was given dispensation to go home every night as his wife was pregnant at the time).
    • Goofs
      (at around 50 mins) Searle's statement about 80% of dust being human skin is a commonly held, but false, urban myth. Common household dust on Earth is composed of many different things, and none of them individually account for anything close to 80% of it. Moreover, the crew of the Icarus I apparently committed mass suicide early in their mission (when they reached Mercury), and dead people do not produce new skin cells. And even then, Searle should be able to deduce that the inch-thick dust over everything could never have accumulated from the skin cells of such a small crew - dead or alive.
    • Quotes

      Pinbacker: Are you an angel?

      [Panting]

      Pinbacker: Has the time come?

      Capa: Huh?

      Pinbacker: I've been waiting so long.

      Capa: Who are you?

      Pinbacker: Who am I? At the end of time... a moment will come when just one man remains. Then the moment will pass. The man will be gone. There will be nothing to show that we were ever here... but stardust... The last man, alone with God. Am I that man? My God.

      Capa: My God. Pinbacker.

      Pinbacker: Not your God. Mine.

    • Crazy credits
      At the end of the credits the sound of the distress beacon of the Icarus can be heard in the background.
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix/Talk to Me/Transformers/Hairspray/Broken English/My Best Friend (2007)
    • Soundtracks
      Peggy Sussed
      Performed by Underworld

      Written by Karl Hyde & Rick Smith

      Published by Sherlock Holmes Music Publishing Ltd. / Chysalis Music Group USA

      Licensed courtesy of Smith & Hyde Productions t/a Underworldlive.com

    User reviews1K

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Sunshine - rather good..
    Sunshine cost £20 million. Jerry Bruckheimer and his Hollywood cohorts must be shaking their heads in disbelief. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, British born and bred, have outdone America's effects laden finest, and at a mere fraction of the price. Armageddon ($140 million) and Pirates of The Caribbean 2 ($225 million) have nothing, nothing on the majestic visuals that Sunshine offers. From the jaw dropping opening sequence to the fantastically realised final moments, Boyle's latest is a mighty treat for the eyes.

    But of course, effects do not make a film. You need only consider the two aforementioned Bruckheimer blowouts for proof. But happily, behind the blinding visuals, Sunshine has a violently beating heart. One that offers absolutely no let up, that gains speed and then gains a little more, before finally threatening cardiac arrest. You can't help but live and breath every moment of the crew's breathless existence.

    The year is 2057 and a select group of astronauts are given that most trifling of tasks. The sun is dying. Drop a bomb in it. Save all of mankind. And to top it all, on a ship rather ominously named 'Icarus II'. Add inevitable inter crewmember tension and you have a rather heated situation. The sweaty crew are played wonderfully by a decidedly un-starry, but talented cast. Cilian Murphy, taking the lead role as the ship's resident physicist Cappa, the only member who has the wherewithal to actually drop the bomb, is coolly enigmatic as ever, the blue orbs of his eyes forming a nice counterpoint to the never far rather redder orb of the sun. You can't help but feel he isn't particularly challenged as an actor, but nevertheless he provides a suitably ambivalent, androgynous and faintly unsettling core to the proceedings.

    Perhaps more impressive is Chris Evans. Recently seen in a similarly hot headed role in the undercooked comic book adaptation 'Fantastic Four', he consistently snatches scenes from Murphy as engineer Mace, about as volatile and fiery as Cappa is composed and cool. Without Evan's energetic performance, the film would sink into an anti-libidinal quag. Mace's emotive instability injects pace when it's needed and brings some welcome variety to the otherwise glum faces. Evans is surely on the brink of big things. A small quibble would be that there are perhaps a few too many characters; meaning that a fair share of the cast never really gets a chance for development, which is irritating, as one gets the feeling that there's a lot of wasted potential.

    Another chink in Sunshine's spacesuit, is in many places, Alex Garland's screenplay. Whilst he has a remarkable talent for creating intense psychological tension, of which there is plenty in Sunshine, his philosophising is much less satisfactory. This is not to say he doesn't play with some fascinating ideas. With the crew circling so close to the Sun, to the giver of life, Garland begins ask the biggest of questions. Is there something, something inestimably greater than ourselves, something that could create such a magnificent star, or are we, like the sun, simply dust? It's a great idea, but for the larger part of the film, it seems oddly shoehorned into what is at base a sci-fi pot-boiler. In fact these ideas are better expressed in Boyle's imagery. Time and time again we see members of the crew staring aghast at the immensity of the burning ball of gas and dust in front of them. The relationship between giver and taker is better explored here than in any line of Garland's.

    The structure of his screenplay is also a little unwieldy. The first hour and a half play as an intense psychological study - the pace at times painfully weighty as the tension is ratcheted up ever higher. The film works beautifully here - it may not introduce anything particularly new; claustrophobic stress is certainly nothing new in sci-fi, but it follows genre conventions with such panache and artistry that it's difficult to fault. However, come the final 20 minutes, Sunshine takes a rather abrupt and unwelcome turn. A pretty hammy (not to mention poorly explained) plot twist is ushered in and suddenly we find ourselves in a horror film - a clichéd one at that. To say much more would spoil things, but needless to say, had the filmmakers showed a little restraint in the closing moments, they would have had a real classic on their hands. When the film ditches pretensions, and sticks with the clammy, slow burn thrills it excels at, it's fantastic. When it descends into predictable melodrama, it's still alright, it's just disappointing considering what we know it's capable of. As such it's remarkably well shot, superbly rendered, occasionally poignant and occasionally flawed. Whatever the case, Sunshine is never far from entirely thrilling, and, all said and done, film recommendations don't come much higher than that.
    helpful•515
    185
    • lozza778
    • Apr 16, 2007

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ13

    • What's with the flashing images on Icarus I?
    • Why does Searle begin to burn himself?
    • What is the ultimate objective of the Icarus' respective missions to the sun?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 27, 2007 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Fox Searchlight (United States)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Đi Thắp Mặt Trời
    • Filming locations
      • Hakberget, Gärdet, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden(Sydney scene)
    • Production companies
      • DNA Films
      • Ingenious Film Partners
      • Moving Picture Company (MPC)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • £26,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,675,753
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $242,964
      • Jul 22, 2007
    • Gross worldwide
      • $34,806,812
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 47 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • SDDS
      • DTS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.