SUNSHINE

UK, 2007, 108 minutes, Colour.
Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh.
Directed by Danny Boyle.

This is a powerful piece of film-making, all the more creditable that, with all its marvellous technological effects, it was produced in East London studios, a more than respectable effort compared with Hollywood craft.

Sunshine is a contemporary science fiction tale, a kind of 2057: A Space Odyssey, this time set a half century in our future. It should give great satisfaction and pleasure to science fiction aficionados. Those who find space films too technical, too frightening, too different from our mundane experiences, may find it somewhat bewildering and overwhelming.

The parallel with 2001: A Space Odyssey is not just as an easy reviewer’s comparison (along with both Contact and Alien) because director Danny Boyle showed these classics to his cast and has commented that at times he made decisions to nudge his story in the direction of these films. What he has done is to make a fresh narrative that is a compendium of the film tradition of space exploration.

Whereas 2001 was something of a cinema poem or a cinema essay with some mystical dimensions and religious implications, Sunshine is more of a narrative humanist film although mystical and religious questions are raised.

One of the main effects of the film will be to ask of its audience to respond with a profound sense of awe, sharing the crew’s contemplation of space and the sun. For those who do not believe in God, the universe and its vastness and beauty command some respect and humility. For those who do believe in God, there is admiration for the wonders of creation and the workings of such an enormous system of planets, suns and galaxies.

The basis of this story is that in 2057 our sun is dying. Already an expedition has tried to take a powerful bomb to the sun to explode it in the sun’s nuclear reacting core so that the sun is re-generated. That mission failed. Now a second expedition is on its way, towing a payload the size of Manhattan. Whether God made the world or it exploded into being by chance, humans have the custody of creation and to conserve the world. This is a powerful motivation for the eight members of the Icarus II (an ominous name for an expedition when we remember that the mythical Icarus flew too near the sun, his wings melted and he fell to earth).

By 2057, nations have combined to send this mission so there is an Asian contingent from Japan (Hiroyuku Sanada), Malaysia (Michelle Yeoh) and China (British Benedict Wong). The rest (from accents) are American although stars Cillian Murphy is Irish, Rose Byrne Australian, Cliff Curtis a New Zealander. Chris Evans and Troy Garrity (incidentally, Jane Fonda’s son) are the genuine Americans.

The psychological dimensions are important. Despite training, human tensions strain relationships. Male competitiveness erupts. Human error in crisis also takes its toll. Then there is the responsibility of trying to save the human race, especially in the experience of approaching the sun, its light, heat and energy. The crises also send the crew into their deeper selves, their consciences, fears and heroism.

Just as astronaut Dave, in 2001, had to contend with a malevolent computer and then journeyed through the psychedelic dimensions of space, finding the monolith which symbolised the presence of the transcendent, so Capa (Cillian Murphy), the physicist who knows how to detonate the payload, experiences the worries of computer failure (a sympathetic computer here) but also the haunting presence of the commander of the previous expedition (Mark Strong).

Capa’s heroic journey takes him – and us - into the very heart of the sun in the hope for new life on earth.

1.The impact of the film? British-made? The technical skills? The visuals? The aural themes?

2.The director and writer, their previous work, their working with genres and different conventions? Their reworking the science fiction, space exploration, disaster film?

3.The themes, space, danger, exploration, moral decisions, team work, errors, repercussions, consequences? The previous missions? The data and images? The mystery?

4.The photography and special effects, editing? Light, spectacle? Darkness? The space ship and its environment? Space itself? The sense of menace? The final confrontations and effects? The score?

5.The mission, information and background, the failure of the first mission, the personnel, preparations for the second mission, the crew and their personalities and backgrounds, the voyage, time, the payload the size of Manhattan, expectations? The visuals of the spacecraft, space, the exteriors, the interiors? The audiences at home with this kind of mission, yet different? Everybody lost in space? The visuals of the sun, the brightness, the shield?

6.The humans, the characters, interactions, the personalised computer? Its voice? Collaborating rather than sinister? The calm - yet human cantankerous attitudes, human anger?

7.The technology, the travel, communications to Earth, telecommunications, the garden, food, air, each of the group being a specialist? The rising of tensions, especially the two subordinates and their clashing? Fighting?

8.The internationality of the mission, the different cultural representatives? Collaboration?

9.Human error, Trey and his mistake, his reaction? The changing of the plans? The options of docking with the Icarus I or going to the sun? Mace and his stand, Capa and his decisions, the captain following them? The breaking of the shield, the repercussions for the fire, the garden, the loss of the oxygen to prevent the fire spreading? The going out to repair the shield, the captain and the inevitability of his death? The authorities, the takeover? The effect? The men and the two women? The different perspectives? Error and guilt?

10.The different characters? Searle as the psychologist, interactions with people, contemplating the sun? Mace, his authority? Decisions? Harvey and the clashes with Mace? Cassie, the feminine perspective? Corazon and her tending the garden, a strong woman? Trey and his error? The captain and his wise leadership? Capa, the physics of the mission, his ability to advise – and ultimately make decisions?

11.The rendezvous with Icarus I, the difficulties? The inability of all the men to get back? The sabotage? Searle and his self-sacrifice – but experiencing the fullness of the sun? Harvey and the clash with Mace, Capa and his going back, taking Mace with him? Harvey’s death? The device of getting back, Mace and his freezing?

12.Corazon and the garden, the woman’s role, Cassie and her emotional decisions about the fire, about Trey and his death? The effect on Corazon, survival, the irony of her death in the garden? The vote about survival? The decision to kill Trey – and preserve oxygen?

13.Pinbacker, the captain of the first ship, discovering the other crew members were dead – perhaps suicide? His survival, sinister presence, the visuals? His voice? Stalking people? The final sabotage? His death?

14.The captain, Japanese, a strong presence, his self-sacrifice, the reasons for decisions?

15.The sun, its beauty, the effect? The metaphysical dimensions of this exploration?

16.Capa, his surviving, the attack, Mace and his going underwater to fix the computer, his death? The sense of mission, exploding the payload – and a new star being born? His message to Earth?

17.The journey, the self-sacrifice, the hope for Earth? The final images of the sun rising?