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Sunshine

A logline is a simple, one sentence description for a movie's plot – and for Boyle's films, loglines are often easy and appealing. For Millions, it is simply: young boy finds a duffel bag filled with cash and must decide what to do with it. For Sunshine, a high-concept science fiction experiment, it is: a group of astronauts must reignite the sun in order to save all mankind. The caveat, though, with all of Boyle's works is that they are all so much more than their basic through-lines. Marking new genre territory yet again for Boyle, Sunshine is at times harrowing and suspenseful, while at other times it is both trippy and metaphysical. Think of it as a mash-up of Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey – a movie that manages to thrill and confuse all at once.
The crew, unfortunately, breaks the primary rule in Sci-Fi Logic 101 when they decide to respond to distress singles from the Icarus I, a ship that was lost in space seven years earlier on a failed mission with the same goal. Obviously, no good can come of this. And of course, the plot thickens and the pacing tightens after meeting up with the lost ship and naturally, things don't go exactly as planned.

The movie is filled with the sort of detail that transports viewers into a vividly imagined world – this one being a vessel on which the crew has lived for several years. There is a large greenhouse, gold space suits (presumably to reflect the sun's glare), protective panels on the outside of the shuttle, and an automated computer that voices commands and status updates to the crew (such as how much oxygen is left on board for the remainder of their journey). There is a sense of claustrophobia to the film, which with little exception, is set almost entirely on the spacecraft. As a member of the audience you feel trapped aboard the Icarus II with its diminishing crew as their perilous mission unfolds.

The international crew that represents mankind's last hope boasts a few notable young names (Chris Evans and 28 Days Later alumnus Cillian Murphy among them). And while they are strong actors that bring some gravitas to their roles, and both have been in some big-time blockbusters (Fantastic Four and Batman Begins respectively) neither ended up making a lick of difference at the box office. The movie pulled in an okay $6 million plus in Britain where Boyle and Murphy are notable names, but never really ignited anywhere else. Its international haul of $28 million was complemented by a mere $3.7 million on the domestic front. Ultimately, Sunshine threw under its substantial $50 million price tag. And while Sunshine does have its fans (myself included), opinions on the movie are fairly divisive. Almost everyone agrees that visually, the film is stunning and that at the very least the director of photography deserves high praise. But many of those who lauded the steady and contemplative tension that Boyle builds through the first two thirds of the movie, also complain about a third act that conforms a bit to a Hollywood ending. It's not a perfect film, to be sure, but it is a daring foray into science fiction. After Boyle was able to cross sci-fi off his list, he was able to move on to the next logical step – an homage to Bollywood.

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