Hollywood’s Biggest Stars Shine in This Lesser-Known Sci-Fi Thriller
What would you do if the sun died? Bring it back to life by detonating a star bomb on its surface, of course. That’s what a crew of astronauts attempts to do in Sunshine, a 2007 sci-fi thriller now streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV.
Set in 2057, Sunshine follows the eight-person crew of the spaceship Icarus II, the last hope to save lives on Earth. These scientists are not stereotypically cold and calculating. They are intelligent human beings, but always subject to their emotions.
They are also played by renowned actors. Cillian Murphy plays physicist Robert Capa (16 years before playing another physicist named Robert in Oppenheimer). Marvel’s Captain America Chris Evans plays the hot-headed engineer Mace. Malaysian superstar and Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh is the ship’s biologist, Corazon.
When Icarus II detects the presence of the ship Icarus I – which had unsuccessfully attempted to restart the sun seven years earlier – the crew decides to change course. They attempt to recover the star bomb from the ancient ship, in case their own bomb fails. But Icarus II’s navigator, Trey (Benedict Wong), makes a miscalculation that leads to a risky maintenance maneuver.
Donning bulky, gold spacesuits, Capa and Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) venture outside the ship to make repairs, and things quickly turn grim. The Icarus II’s oxygen reserves are damaged and Corazon calculates that only half of the crew will have enough air to survive. And they have an even bigger problem when they finally reach the Icarus I.
A quiet terror haunts the second half of Sunshine. But there are also some visually stunning shots, like those of the sun reflecting off the ship’s solar shield. Seen from the ice-covered earth, the sun is only a faint point of light, but as the Icarus II draws closer to the dying star, the crew feels its full intensity.
The performances of the entire cast make Sunshine more than just a sci-fi thriller. Murphy adds seriousness to the role of Capa, the astronaut responsible for operating the star bomb. He is often at odds with Evans’ character, Mace, and the two are quick to settle their disagreements with their fists. Pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne) serves as a level-headed mediator, while second-in-command Harvey (Troy Garity) struggles to accept the possibility of death. The only character who seems fearless is psychologist Searle (Cliff Curtis), who risks injuring his retina by obsessively observing the sun.
Although the idea of the sun’s imminent death might be pure fantasy, Sunshine director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland collaborated with a physics professor to give the film scientific weight. Boyle also had the actors live together when preparing for their roles. The resulting world has depth and the crew has a slightly dysfunctional chemistry that rings true.
It’s fascinating to see so much talent brought together in one film, years before some of these stars’ most famous roles. Combined with a captivating and apocalyptic plot, Sunshine stands out as one of the best science fiction films of the 2000s.
