Analyzing Sunshine (2007)

 Analyzing Sunshine (2007)

    Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my blog about rediscovering and analyzing what I consider underrated movies worth your time to watch and study. For last week's film, we focused on The Guest, a throwback film to horror/action films from the '80s. While the film is masterfully made with incredible performances, the story is simplistic and linear. While that's not a detriment to the film, this week, the movie we are covering is Danny Boyle's Sunshine 2007, a science fiction psychological thriller whose story contains themes about physics, existentialism, and religion. In 2057, the plot follows a group of Astronauts aboard the Icarus II on a mission to reignite the sun. In this film, the sun is dying, leading to the end of all life on earth. How exactly does the crew of Icarus II plan to accomplish this exactly? By nearing the heart of the dying sun and detonating a nuclear bomb. The ship's name, Icarus II, holds a purpose, as The Haughty Culturist's paper Sunshine (2007) Explained: The Sound of Inevitability: "The ship's name is the biggest red flag. In Greek mythology, Daedalus crafts wings from feathers and wax to escape from the city of Crete. His son, Icarus, carried away by pride and arrogance, flies higher and higher towards the sun. The wax melts, the wings disintegrate, and the boy crashes to his death." Without getting too much into spoilers, the mission begins to go awry in strange ways, and the crew must make difficult decisions. 

    The film has many important themes interwoven and signs about the true meaning of the mission. The Icarus II crew is on a suicide mission, whether they acknowledge it or not. In Like Stories of Old video essay titled Sunshine - A Visceral Experience of Life, Death, and Meaning, he states, "On board the Icarus II, the astronauts, each in their way, deal with the tininess of mankind and the grandeur of the sun in this great cosmic dark." The film also delves into the relationship of us as humans to death and life. The symbolism of the sun in the film represents this point because the sun provides life to humanity, but being too near to it can also cause death.

    Despite the bleakness of the subject matter, Sunshine is exceptionally well written and acted all around. The film contains many explanations surrounding the science and physics of the film's world. It also includes many questions about humanity and religion. The effects in the movie are also incredible. All of the sets inside the Icarus II are very cold and dark, which serves as a nice contrast to all the bright yellow and oranges when the sun is in view. The special effects in the film, especially all the sun shots, are stunning to look at. Especially the film's final sequence has some special effects work that is still incredible by today's standards. The only detriment to the film is the sudden change of the tone to a horror slasher towards the final third of the film, which, despite its purpose to the religious aspects theme, does not fit with the style of the rest of the film. Despite this, I wholeheartedly recommend this film to anyone interested in science fiction or philosophical films questioning what it means to be human. 

Picture Credit

Movie Review: Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007) - Sci-Fi BloggersSci-Fi Bloggers (scifibloggers.com)