How The Most Star-Studded Space Sci-Fi Of All-Time Exploded Into A Historic Disaster

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 10 seconds ago

Being a sci-fi fan can be hard. The genre was born out of futurists wondering what life would be like in ten, fifty, or even thousands of years, and how the technology and societies of tomorrow would reflect today’s world. Over decades, mainstream sci-fi became more about visual spectacle first and philosophical musings on our place in the universe, a distant 42nd.

In the early 2000s, one movie tried to return to the genre’s big idea roots and failed spectacularly. Yet now, nearly twenty years later, director Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is breaking through the debate among fans to become a cult classic.

Astronauts Blow Up The Sun Or Something More?

Sunshine is normally described as the movie about  “astronauts blowing up the sun to save humanity,” but that fails to capture the scope of Boyle’s film. It’s more about the crew struggling against the weight of their mission, the isolation of space, and what to do when the sun itself is trying to kill you. The first 45 minutes of the film focus on developing the crew and how they relate to one another, so that the last third of the movie hits the audience like a ton of bricks. 

From the opening minutes, what’s clear about Sunshine is that it’s a gorgeous film. Made with a budget of $40 million, every single dollar can be found on screen. The colors inside the ship tell their own story as well, with no red, orange, or yellow to be found onboard. Darker colors absorb the most UV rays, which makes sense in the universe, but for the viewer, it turns up the intensity of the sun and makes the smallest sunbeam stick out as a sign of the crew’s impending doom. 

The Cast Is A Who’s Who Of Today’s Stars

The Icarus II is crewed by a who’s who of today’s stars, before they were stars. It features Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy as Capa, the physicist who can handle the sun-igniting bomb. There’s Captain America himself, Chris Evans, as Mace, who’s both an engineer and a soldier. Michelle Yeoh is Corazon, the biologist. Rose Byrne as Cassie, the pilot. Marvel’s Benedict Wong as Trey the navigator. Troy Garity as Harvey, the second in command. Future Shogun star Hiroyuki Sanada as Kaneda, the captain of the Icarus II, and the always underrated Cliff Curtis as Searle, the doctor. When the least well-known among the cast, Troy Garity, is a Golden Globe nominee for best actor, it’s one of the best ensembles in sci-fi history. 

That murderer’s row was working off a script written by Alex Garland, Boyle’s frequent creative partner, who went on to create Ex Machina, among countless other hits. Sunshine gives a moment to each and every crew member, and by the time everything goes wrong, we know how all of them will think and feel in a given situation. You might think that the dialogue-heavy first half would turn off audiences, but sci-fi fans love how the film opens and slowly unfolds. The problems begin in the film’s second half, when it turns into an ’80s slasher in space. 

The Third Act Twist Audiences Love Or Hate

Damaged thanks to Trey forgetting to reset the sun shields, an honest mistake with catastrophic consequences, the crew finds their sister ship, Icarus I, floating in space. It’s now a ghost ship, and the crew on board is found to have killed themselves on the observation deck, letting the sun’s rays hit them full force. The exception is Captain Pinbacker, who is not among the dead. Played by a scared and burnt Mark Strong, Pinbacker has become a zealot, convinced he must help humanity reach Heaven. 

Pinbacker’s inclusion as Deus Ex Killer turns viewers against Sunshine by transforming what should have been a modern version of 2001 into a space-based horror movie. The amount of time spent with Pinbacker is minuscule compared to the opening, but the pivot from slow, meditative sci-fi to stabbings is so sudden and violent, it throws off the whole viewing experience. If it weren’t for Boyle’s love of similar third-act twists in his other films, including 2025’s 28 Years Later, it would reek of studio interference, but it’s what the director always intended. 

Why Sunshine Failed

Sci-fi fans were turned off by the twist, but the mainstream audience didn’t seem to mind; after all, they weren’t going to the theater to see the film in the first place.

The second obstacle against Sunshine becoming a hit was its release date: July 20, 2007. That placed it three weeks after the first Michael Bay Transformers (before we knew he’d hurt us over and over), only a week after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and the same day as the return of John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard. The Simpsons movie arrived a week later! This was one of the worst weekends to release a contemplative sci-fi film. 

Because of a bad release date and a weak trailer that misled opening week audiences, Sunshine earned $10 million in the United States. In modern terms, that barely more than Borderlands.

Eventually, legging out to a total haul of $34 million, the film failed to earn back its budget, and turning a profit was never going to happen until it hit DVD and Blu-Ray. On the home market, Boyle’s inventive film finally found success and turned a profit thanks to selling over $20 million worth of home media in only two years. 

JON’S SUNSHINE REVIEW SCORE

With its stunning visuals, smart dialogue, and an emphasis on the science in science fiction, Sunshine is either a cult classic or one of the worst films ever made, depending on who you ask. Today, with a lack of decent original sci-fi in theaters, Boyle’s mission to blow up the sun is a breath of fresh air, as even at its worst, it’s better than Netflix’s Electric State. We love sci-fi, we love movies that dare to do something different, and Sunshine is the best movie of the 2000s you’ve never seen.

Judge for yourself if Sunshine is a masterpiece or a disasterpiece by streaming it on Disney+ and Hulu.