Sunshine is a 2007 science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It features an ensemble cast, including Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, and Michelle Yeoh. Set in 2057 as a global freeze threatens human extinction, the film follows the crew of a spacecraft on a mission to deliver a stellar bomb intended to reignite the dying Sun.
The film was shot primarily at 3 Mills Studios in London, with cinematography by Alwin H. Küchler. The film's score was composed by John Murphy with contributions from the band Underworld. The production consulted scientific advisers including physicist Brian Cox.
Sunshine premiered at the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany on 23 March 2007, and was released in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2007 by Fox Searchlight Pictures, followed by a wide release in the United States on 27 July. It received generally positive reviews from critics, and grossed $35 million against a $40 million budget. Production designer Mark Tildesley won Best Technical Achievement at the British Independent Film Awards.
Plot
In 2057, the Sun is dying and Earth is freezing. Eight astronauts aboard the starship Icarus II are sent on a last-chance mission to deliver and detonate a colossal stellar bomb intended to reignite the Sun. As the ship passes Mercury, it receives a distress beacon from Icarus I, the earlier mission that had disappeared seven years prior. Despite engineer Mace's objections, Captain Kaneda, acting on a recommendation from physicist Capa, decides to divert course in order to investigate and also to double the mission's success potential should the identical stellar bomb payload on the original ship prove operational as backup.
Navigator Trey plots the new route but inadvertently overlooks realigning the ship's heat shields, damaging reflective panels that protect Icarus II from direct sunlight. Pilot Cassie angles the vessel into Mercury's shadow while Kaneda and Capa perform a spacewalk to repair the shield. The operation destroys two of the ship's communications towers, and reflected light incinerates the oxygen garden, reducing air reserves. When the emergency autopilot forces the ship back into its original alignment, Kaneda orders Capa to retreat and completes the final repair himself, moments before a wave of sunlight engulfs and kills him. Trey blames himself for losing Kaneda, and psychologist Searle sedates him after judging him a suicide risk.
Now lacking sufficient oxygen to reach the Sun and deploy the bomb, Icarus II docks with Icarus I to salvage resources. Capa, Searle, Mace and communications officer Harvey board the derelict ship while Cassie and biologist Corazon remain on Icarus II with Trey. Although Icarus I appears largely operational, its mainframe has been sabotaged, preventing payload delivery. Mace finds a damaged entry log from Captain Pinbacker, badly burned and insisting their mission defies God, dated to roughly six and a half years earlier. On the observation deck, Searle discovers the charred bodies of the Icarus I crew, who were apparently exposed to unfiltered solar radiation.
An explosive decoupling separates the ships and destroys Icarus I'''s outer airlock, stranding the boarding team. With only one intact spacesuit and limited insulation, they decide that Capa, despite Harvey's protests, must take the suit because he is the only crew member able to arm the bomb. Searle stays behind to open the airlock, allowing the others to jettison back toward Icarus II using insulation for protection. Harvey misses the airlock and freezes to death, while Capa and Mace make it back. Left alone on Icarus I, Searle returns to the observation deck and exposes himself to unfiltered sunlight, killing himself.
Back aboard Icarus II, Corazon calculates that the remaining oxygen will only sustain four people to the Sun. In order to preserve oxygen, the crew votes to have Mace kill Trey, but Trey has already committed suicide. Although the mission now seems possible, the ship's systems still detect five life signs. Capa investigates and finds Pinbacker alive now aboard Icarus II, having boarded during the docking and caused the decoupling. Pinbacker attacks Capa, traps him in an airlock, disables the ship by lifting its mainframes from coolant baths, and kills Corazon. Mace attempts to manually reset the mainframes, and succeeds with two, but the third crushes his leg and traps him in the coolant; freezing, he urges Capa to finish the mission.
Capa pierces an interior hatch with a blowtorch and opens an exterior airlock so decompression tears away the obstruction and frees him, allowing him to deploy the payload. The bomb structure separates from Icarus II, and Capa makes a leap towards the payload as the ship is destroyed by solar radiation. Inside the payload, he finds a wounded Cassie, but Pinbacker confronts them again, claiming he has spent years "speaking to God," and subdues Capa; Cassie pulls Capa away, and he tears burned skin from Pinbacker's arm. As the bomb's gravity shifts, Capa reaches the controls and detonates the payload; in his final moments, spacetime distorts and he reaches out to the Sun's surface as it reignites.
On Earth, Capa's sister and her children build snowmen on a frozen Sydney Harbour. As they listen to Capa's final transmission, the sun brightens and sunlight begins to shine down on them.
Cast
Cillian Murphy as Robert Capa, the physicist who operates the massive stellar-bomb device. Murphy described the character of Capa as a silent outsider, which was due to the fact that only Capa understood the operation and true scale of the bomb. Murphy worked with physicist Brian Cox, who praised Murphy's performance as "brilliant" and a "great portrayal as a physicist", to learn about advanced physics, touring the CERN facility and learning to copy physicists' mannerisms. The actor also studied the thriller The Wages of Fear (1953) with Boyle to gain an understanding of the type of suspense that Boyle wanted to create in the film. Murphy said that his involvement in the film caused him to change his views on religion from agnosticism to atheism. Chris Evans as James Mace, the engineer. Evans described his character Mace as one with a military family and background. Mace has a dry and morally uncomplicated personality. Said Evans, "[He] has a very level head which enables him to operate fairly coherently under pressure-filled situations." Rose Byrne as Cassie, the space vessel's pilot. Byrne was chosen by the director for her role in Troy (2004). Byrne described Cassie as the most emotional member of the crew, "wearing her heart on her sleeve". Byrne considered Cassie's role among the crew was to possess an even temperament, which helps her last the journey. Michelle Yeoh as Corazon, the biologist who takes care of the ship's "oxygen garden". Boyle cast Yeoh based on her performance in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). Yeoh described her character as more spiritual, explaining Corazon's background as an "Asian influence or that she's always constantly surrounded by organic things – she's very grounded and more down-to-earth." Cliff Curtis as Searle, the ship's doctor and psychological officer. He is obsessed with the Sun and how it looks when staring at it without any type of protection. The role of Searle was originally written to be a "slightly stiff" British character. Curtis was drawn to the role based on the script and also expressed interest in working with the director. Boyle was familiar with Curtis from Training Day (2001) and Whale Rider (2002), and Curtis's audition appealed to Boyle strongly enough to cast the actor as Searle. Curtis initially foresaw an esoteric approach for his character, but he later pursued a military and scientific approach based on the seriousness of the mission. The actor also compared Searle to the character of Pinbacker, noting their similarities and differences: "[Searle] would sacrifice those beliefs and views, his life, for the greater good, whereas Pinbacker, who's come to a place he believes is right, would sacrifice the world for his beliefs. They're two sides of the same coin." Troy Garity as Harvey, the communications officer and second-in-command. Garity's previous work was unknown to Boyle, but the director was impressed enough with the actor upon meeting him that he cast Garity. Garity described the character of Harvey as the only crew member who misses his family back home on Earth and attempts to hide the fact. Hiroyuki Sanada as Kaneda, the ship's captain. The script originally had an American captain, but Boyle changed the nationality to Japanese after studying the opinions of scientists and space experts. Boyle saw Sanada in The Twilight Samurai (2002), and director Wong Kar-wai recommended the actor to Boyle when the latter sought someone to cast as the Asian captain of the ship. Sanada's character was originally called Kanada, but he asked Boyle to change the name to Kaneda, a more natural Japanese name. The character was Sanada's second English-language role in cinema, and Sanada learned different forms of English, depending on the circumstances. Sanada's base English language had a British dialect, and when the actor recited official statements as Kaneda, the dialect was official English. In communicating with other characters as Kaneda, Sanada spoke with an American English accent to reflect the fictional situation of the character training with the rest at NASA. Benedict Wong as Trey, the navigator. Boyle saw Wong in Dirty Pretty Things (2002). Wong's character, Trey, was a child prodigy who created a computer virus that brought down one-sixth of the world's computers. As a result, Trey is recruited into the space program so his genius could be applied more beneficially. Chipo Chung as the voice of "Icarus", the on-board computer of the spacecraft Icarus II possesses a "natural-language" communication interface, allowing the crew to ask questions, give orders, and receive status updates and warnings verbally, as if they were talking to a human. Indeed, the ship itself is a major character in the movie. This was Chung's first named film role.Listed in the film's credits. Mark Strong as Pinbacker, the murderous captain of Icarus I, the first ship that was sent to reignite the Sun. Pinbacker was inspired by the character of Sergeant Pinback from Dark Star. The character's disfiguring burns were influenced by the injuries suffered by F1 driver Niki Lauda. Boyle described the character of Pinbacker as a representation of fundamentalism. The director also described the potentially unrealistic presence of Pinbacker as an example of something that breaks the pattern of realism, similar to his scene in Trainspotting (1996) in which Ewan McGregor's character dives into a toilet. Paloma Baeza as Capa's sister.
Production
Origins