Danny Boyle's Sunshine is an underrated science-fiction gem worth seeking out for anyone who has yet to see it. Though the movie was not a box office hit, it is well-regarded by fans and critics as an exciting genre film that is also thought-provoking and powerful in its themes.
The film tells the story of a group of astronauts on a mission to deliver a nuclear bomb to Earth's dying sun in the hopes of reigniting it and saving the world. From the excellent direction to the sharp script to the knock-out cast, Sunshine is a sci-fi epic like no other. Learn how this stunning film came together with these behind-the-scenes details.
Near Future
The event at the center of the film, the dying of the star, is something that experts predict will not happen for billions of years. However, this movie is set in the not-too-distant future, in the year 2057 to be exact.
The futuristic setting was needed to explain some of the technology that is seen in the film. The filmmakers chose not to go too far into the future because they wanted audiences to be able to attach themselves to the story as a world that they know. The themes draw on the ever-present threat of climate change.
Inspirations
Though Sunshine feels like its own unique story in the genre, Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland did draw on some classics when shaping their film. One of the biggest influences was Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is one of Danny Boyle's favorites.
Another movie that the filmmakers acknowledged as guiding them is Solaris, which also deals with a more cerebral sci-fi story. Ridley Scott's Alien was another inspiration, specifically in the ensemble crew and the claustrophobic feel of the story.
The Team
One of the best aspects of the film is its stellar ensemble cast that makes up the crew of the spaceship Icarus II. Among the talented cast are Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, and Benedict Wong.
Boyle insisted the cast live together for months leading up to the project to get build that sense of a team. Boyle also looked to cast a diverse group of actors to reflect the mission to save humanity. Experts advised that a space crew in the future would likely be made up of American and Chinese astronauts, and thus the casting reflects this.
Michelle Yeoh
One of the most recognizable actors in the film at the time of its release would have been Michelle Yeoh. Apart from being an action star in China, she had found success in Hollywood with roles in Tomorrow Never Dies, Memoirs of a Geisha and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Having seen her work in those films, Boyle asked Yeoh to audition. He was so impressed with her audition that he allowed her to choose any role in the script for herself, including the male roles. Yeoh decided to play the ship's reserved biologist, Corazon.
Harvey
The main crew is made up of heroes who are somewhat flawed but deeply committed to the mission at hand. If there is one character who sticks out among the others in his behavior, it is Harvey, the second-in-command. He is the only arrogant, cowardly and selfish member of the crew.
Recently, Alex Garland revealed that the character was actually named after disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. Boyle chose this name as a bit of payback against Weinstein as the two did not see eye to eye when they collaborated on Trainspotting years before.
Claustrophobia
This film does a tremendous job of communicating the anxiety and intensity of being in space. These people are trapped inside this vessel knowing that so many things could go dangerously wrong, and there is no help coming for them.
Again, Boyle looked at the claustrophobic feel of Alien as an inspiration for this tension. He achieved it by never cutting back to earth, and showing few shots outside the spacecraft, so the audience feels they're stuck on this ship as well. He also had the cast tour a nuclear submarine to get a sense of that feeling.
Pinbacker
Though the film starts as a team mission to save the world with the horrors of space as the only major threat, a human villain eventually emerges in the form of Pinbacker (played by Mark Strong). Pinbacker is the captain of Icarus I who went mad and sabotaged the mission, thinking he was doing God's work.
Boyle chose not to give the audience a good look at the character, always filming him with a shaky camera to add to his unsettling nature. We also see quick flashes of him before he ever appears on screen as a way of hinting at the coming threat.
Religious Aspects
Pinbacker represents a fundamentalist view of religion in this story. He believes the dying star is God's way of bringing the human race to heaven, and the mission to reignite it is an affront to God's plan.
Originally, there were more religious themes in the story as introduced by Alex Garland. The idea was that as the character traveled closer to the sun, the atheism at the center of their science conflicted with the religious feeling of their mission. However, Boyle thought these aspects were too distracting.
Space Suits
When the characters do have to venture out into the unforgiving blackness of space, they don their own unique space suits for the mission. The unusual look of the suits, which are painting gold, was a deliberate choice by the filmmakers who hoped to distinguish the look from other cinematic space suits.
Apart from the gold color, the suits have a funnel-shaped helmet. Apparently, the inspiration for this design was the look of Kenny from South Park. An unusual inspiration, but memorable nonetheless.
Boyle's Journey Into Sci-Fi
Danny Boyle has said that he had always wanted to make his own science-fiction movie, and helped develop this story with Alex Garland so he could finally explore the genre. While he was satisfied with the film he made, the process was maybe not as pleasant as he had hoped.
Boyle its that the work of building a science-fiction story made was more emotionally exhausting than any film he had done before. Once it was finished, he announced that he would never return to the genre again, and, to date, he has kept that promise.
