What would you do if the sun was dying? Bring it back to life by detonating a star bomb on its surface, of course. That's exactly what a team of astronauts tries to do in the 2007 sci-fi thriller Sunshine. I'm broadcasting now on Prime Video And Apple TV.
The film, set in 2057, follows the eight-member crew of the spaceship Icarus II, the last hope to save life on Earth. These scientists are not the stereotypical cold and calculating people. They are smart people, but still subject to their emotions.
They are also played by famous actors. Cillian Murphy plays physicist Robert Capa (16 years before he played another physicist named Robert in Oppenheimer). Marvel's Captain America Chris Evans plays hot-tempered engineer Mace. Malaysian superstar and Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh is Corazon's ship's biologist.
When Icarus II discovers the presence of the ship Icarus I, which tried and failed to restart the sun seven years ago, the crew decides to change course. They try to salvage a star bomb from an old ship in case their own bomb malfunctions. But Icarus II navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) makes a miscalculation that leads to a risky maintenance maneuver.
Donning bulky, bright gold spacesuits, Capa and Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) venture outside the ship to make repairs, and things soon turn grim. The Icarus II's oxygen supplies are damaged, and Corazon estimates that only half the crew will have enough air to survive. And they have an even bigger problem when they finally reach Icarus I.
A quiet horror haunts the second half of Sunshine. But there are also visually stunning shots, such as the sun reflecting off the ship's solar shield. Viewed from the ice-covered earth, the sun is just a dim point of light, but as Icarus II approaches the dying star, its full brightness is experienced by the crew.
The performances of the cast make Sunshine more than just another sci-fi thriller. Murphy adds gravitas to the role of Capa, the astronaut in charge of controlling the star bomb. He is often at odds with Evans' character Mace, and the two are not afraid to settle their differences with their fists. Pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne) acts as the level-headed mediator, while second-in-command Harvey (Troy Garity) struggles to accept the possibility of death. The only character who seems unafraid is psychologist Searle (Cliff Curtis), who risks retinal damage by obsessively watching the sun.
While the premise of the Sun dying in the near future may be pure fantasy, Sunshine director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland collaborated with a physics professor to give the film scientific weight. Boyle also made the actors live together while preparing for their roles. The resulting world has depth and the team's chemistry is a bit dysfunctional, which rings true.
It's amazing to see so much talent gathered in one film years before some of these stars' most famous roles. Combined with a thrilling apocalyptic plot, Sunlight stands out as one of the best sci-fi films of the 2000s.
