Movie Review: Sunshine (2007), directed by Danny Boyle

Final Opinion: New favorite movie! 8/10

I really enjoy listening to movie soundtracks. Most of the time, I don't even bother watching the movie, I just listen to the soundtrack. This is how I stumbled upon Sunshine, a 2007 British science fiction film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Cillian Murphy. I only learned about this movie today, but I've already watched it twice. That's just how good it is. Plus, I've probably listened to the soundtrack twenty times over already. The Adagio in D minor is amazing and highly recommended to movie soundtrack lovers.

Anyway, this film takes place in the near future. The sun is slowly growing dimmer and dying, so a group of astronauts are sent on a mission to detonate a bomb in the sun and reignite it from the inside out. However, the first mission fails, and a second one is sent out in a last, desperate attempt to save mankind. Unfortunately, their mission begins to unravel when they discover the distress beacon from the first ship and decide to go investigate. In doing so, they damage their ship, their captain dies during the repair, and their source of oxygen burns up, leaving them with not enough air to allow all of them to reach the sun. It is at this point that they realize they are not going to make it home alive, but they understand that humanity is at stake so they push on and manage to rendezvous with the remains of the first ship, and discover that the crew members have died long ago. Yet someone or something manages to sabotage their ship, causing them to lose their second-in-command as well as the ship psychologist. That "something" manages to board their ship and begins to pick off the remaining crew members as well as screw up the computer system. It turns out to be the captain of the former ship, who is completely deranged and disfigured from burns from the sun. It is revealed that he was the one who caused the first mission to fail because he believes that it is God's will for mankind to die out. Now his goal is to destroy the second mission as well, so he runs around naked on the ship, hunting down the crew members. Everyone dies except for Cillian Murphy and one other girl. In a last desperate attempt, Murphy manually deploys the bomb and blows it up. The last scene before he presumably dies shows him finally touching the surface of the re-ignited sun, and smiling happily. Back on earth, the sun brightens.

Though the movie was really confusing to understand, I thought it was still a really beautiful movie. All of the characters were very like-able except for the scary deranged man, who was just scary and gross. What I especially liked was how they depicted the sun almost as another character, as both an antagonist and as a motherly figure. Throughout the movie, the human characters admire the sun's beauty but are weary of its intensity. Many of the characters are obsessed with looking and being near the sun, and the sun in its full intensity is the last thing the captain, the ship's psychologist, and Capa see. Though they know that seeing the sun without protection will kill them, they do it anyway in order to satisfy their last, intense desire to be near it. It is often repeated throughout the movie that humans are made from the stuff of stars, so in a way, by being reduced back to ashes by the sun, they are going "home," and returning to their "mother."

Moreover, what I also liked about the characters themselves was their perseverance and commitment to their mission. The fully understand that the fate of humanity is in their hands, so they must succeed at all costs. They go into space with the understanding that they may not return, and the moment when they finally realize that they will not return, they simply accept it and move on. They don't discuss it much except for a short exchange between Murphy and the ship's pilot, but they all know that their lives are nothing compared to the whole of mankind. Additionally, when they realize that they will not have enough oxygen for all of them to reach the sun alive and complete their task, they quickly make the decision to kill the most useless crew member. After all, the cost of their own humanity is nothing in comparison to the cost of all of humanity. Similarly, in another scene, when they realize that there is only one spacesuit, they quickly make the decision to allow the key person in the mission (Murphy) to have it without going over the same tiresome arguments about human life being all worth the same and blah blah blah. Thus, though the movie seems to gloss over ethical ambiguities, I believe that this is intentional as it illustrates the deeper meaning that "fairness" and "morality" are irrelevant in the face of such heavy responsibility. This is also established early on in the movie, when the captain snaps at the crew that "this is not a democracy" and that they will not vote; rather, they will make the most informed decision by leaving the decision to one person, Murphy, who is the expert.

All in all, I thought this was a very good movie. It had a good mix of drama, suspense, and action. It was also creatively filmed, and the graphics were pretty well done. The scenes of the space ship, the sun, and space were beautiful. My only problem with it was that it was a little hard to follow, and I had to cheat and read the Wikipedia plot summary to get a better idea of what was going on. But it was totally worth it and I will probably be buying the DVD sometime in the future. Also, I will probably be checking out 28 Days Later, which is also directed by Danny Boyle and starring Cillian Murphy. In addition, the soundtrack is also by the same guy, John Murphy, so I have high expectations for this film.