The Coolidge Theater screened Sunshine (2007) on November 6th as part of their “Science on Screen” programming, including a talk by Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Katharine Reeves. The talk that accompanied the Sci-fi/horror film was on the topic “What It’s Like to Fly Through a Solar Eruption.” The audience laughed along with Dr. Reeves throughout the entire half-hour presentation as she gave a humorous and accessible lecture to a room full of moviegoers. It provided a nice introduction to the very intense film, a film Dr Reeves stated that she loves. The film screening, in 35mm, was free to Coolidge Theater members—so despite it being on a Monday night, the audience in the auditorium was full.
The movie is about a crew of 8 astronauts aboard the Icarus II who are on a years-long mission to take a nuclear bomb to jump-start the dying sun after the Icarus I went missing 7 years earlier on the same mission. Along the way, they encounter a distress beacon and things begin to go awry. It was written by Alex Garland (Ex Machina) and directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting). The film stars Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Benedict Wong, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cliff Curtis, Mark Strong, and Chris Evans.
Sunshine starts with narration voiced by Cillian Murphy playing ship physicist, Robert Capa, who sets the stage with “Our sun is dying, mankind faces extinction.” he continues, “Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb, my bomb, welcome to Icarus II.” The year is 2057 and the effects of the sun weakening are already being felt on Earth. The Icarus II is nearing the end of its mission where they plan to deposit the payload inside of the sun, then return to Earth. As they circle behind Mercury, the crew can hear an until now, inaccessible, distress call from Icarus I. After some debate and an accident that leaves the crew short on oxygen, they decide to locate the Icarus I and use their payload and ship to increase their chance of a successful mission. As with any sci-fi, space-themed movie, things do not go according to plan. Something or someone is sabotaging the mission, picking off crew members one at a time and forcing them into impossible situations where they must fight to survive to save all of mankind.
The casting director of this film deserved an award for placing actors into roles where they can thrive. Cillian Murphy did a brilliant job as Capa, a physicist placed into an impossible situation. He excels at the crazed expressions of absolute horror and desperation, it’s where Murphy does his best acting. Michelle Yeoh was aptly named as the ship’s biologist, a compassionate heart of the crew in this film–Corazon. She is believable as the scientist who cares tenderly for her garden of oxygen-producing plants and the other crew members. Hiroyuki Sanada made a brief impact as the Captain of the ship who makes the ultimate sacrifice early on, setting a high bar for the rest of the crew for the rest of the film. It was nice to see Chris Evans stretch his acting chops in a non-Marvel-related role as a hot-tempered, obnoxious, yet self-sacrificing engineer, James Mace.
The music drove the action in Sunshine. At times there were long, achingly beautiful scores that were interspersed with tense moments and jump scares full of jarring, screeching strings, and horns. The music was produced by composer and bassist John Murphy and the band Underworld. The visual effects were striking with unique gold space suits that were unlike anything seen previously. The suits and the actors wearing them brought the audience inside for a claustrophobic, cumbersome experience.
Overall, Sunshine is a solid film. There were a few minor issues with the film such as the fact that while inside the space suits it seemed as if it was very difficult for the actors to move and accomplish the tasks before them. However, the outside shots of the suit made it look as if it were much easier for the actors to maneuver. It was a disconcerting difference and took away some of the tension that the film was working so hard to build. The actors seemed to struggle more at certain points with being able to breathe in the oxygen-deprived environment than they did in later scenes when it should have been even more difficult. The film relied heavily on certain tropes that might not be as palatable to an audience in 2023, such as the disfigured villain whose wounds are used as body horror. I wouldn’t say it’s the best film we’ve seen by the director, the writer, or even any of the lead actors. But it was a solid showing for the genre. Sunshine is a movie that has the power to get people to come out on a Monday night and get them talking more than a decade after its release.
