You realize early on that Sunshine is going to die with everyone dying. I don’t even consider it a spoiler. It would be contrived if they survived.
Sunshine is a movie centered around a crew of astronauts given a mission of utmost importance: use a nuclear device to reignite the dying sun and give humanity a second chance on Earth. They’re the second of such a mission, after the first went missing seven years prior, and it’s uncertain if there will be time for a third should they fail again. Thus, they endevor forward in hopes of saving their planet and their species. If all goes well and nothing goes wrong, humanity will be saved.
Nothing goes well and everything goes wrong.
To say anymore would mean recounting the plot directly, and I’m not interested in that. Instead, I want to talk about what made this film so stunning to watch.
The most immediate thing someone watching in this film will notice is that the cast is star-studded. Cillian Murphy plays Capa in the leading role, but he’s joined by Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, and others in the side cast. It’s no wonder that so much of the cast would go on to much grander roles in the future. Several actors, Murphy and Yeoh in particular, stood out well enough to give me interest in their recent starring roles like Oppenheimer and Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Everyone does a good job in their roles, and Murphy especially carries the movie in the many sections where he acts alone, against the coldness of space and loneliness alike. His character goes through such a wide array of experiences in this film, which makes the way he can play off all of them rather impressive.
The music in the film is also incredibly strong. It’s all ambient, with a mix of electronic, piano, and guitar instrumentation. Together, these create a great sense of atmosphere to the film. That atmosphere can be terrifying or beautiful depending on the scene. In one, a gentle track may present the audience with the utter beauty of the Sun and the emptiness of space, and in another, a glitchy harsh track may demonstrate just how fearsome that emptiness is. The music takes on a character of its own. It fills the many moments of the film where nothing can be said and adds to the awe of such scenes.
But it’s not just the music. Sound design is rarely something worthy of note, but Sunshine makes the most of it. There’s so many little moments of sound which are spectacular. It’s my belief that sound design is a field best left unseen, because for it to stand out, something has gone wrong, but in this case, much like the music, the sound design is left to fill the empty gaps that space is full of. There’s much emptiness in the film, and even then, there must be sound, and so the film is able to fill it.
But I think the most impressive aspect of the film is the cinematography and direction. The Sun is a constant central focus in the film, and as such, there are many shots both inside and out of the station where everything is cast against it. The Sun is the mission, and the Sun cannot be ignored. It makes for some of the most awe-inspiring shots of the film, especially as the film reaches its end. However, it’s not just the wide-spanning shots that inspire awe. Much of the film is shot in an incredible manner, and even just watching in my bedroom on my computer, the film was something I could not turn away from.
The main theme of the film is what it means for humanity’s end to come. With the end of the world quickly approaching, there’s a sense of morbidity to the cast. No one is sure whether or not their hail mary will even work, but they need to try. It’s all but certain that everyone will die in the process. Death awaits them either way, so they might as well give their death purpose. As the film progresses, the film also begins to broach the question of religion, and whether such a fate as the Sun dying out could really qualify as “God’s plan.” Altogether, it gives a lot to think about, especially as the events of the plot keep progressing.
The film is a complete package. Everything comes together perfectly to create a stunning experience, and one that I recommend highly. The film was a box office bomb when it first came out, but I cannot fathom why. This is everything I look for in a film, and I’m sure that the film is one that will stay in my head for a long time to come. If what I’ve talked about here sounds interesting, then you absolutely should see the film for yourself, because no words can describe the experience of watching it.
Ostensibly Extant 