Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a thriller,
sci-fi film from 2007, titled Sunshine. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
It's the year 2057, and mankind is facing extinction because the Sun is dying.
Eight astronauts are chosen to board the spaceship Icarus I and carry a colossal
stellar bomb with the mass equivalent of Manhattan Island with the intent of jump-starting the Sun,
but the spaceship gets lost before they can reach the star. Since they lose communication with Earth
after a certain point, nobody knows what has happened to them. Seven years later, while Earth
is freezing in a solar winter, a new crew of eight is sent out in the Icarus II to try again. First,
it's Searle, the ship's doctor and psychological officer, who has become obsessed with watching the
sun. He even asks the Icarus AI to refilter the Observation Room panel to allow him to see as much
brightness as possible without burning himself. This is such an amazing experience for him that
over dinner, he recommends doing it to the whole crew: the engineer James Mace, the pilot Cassie,
biologist Corazon, the communications officer and second-in-command Harvey, the ship's captain
Kaneda, the navigator Trey, and the physicist in charge of the bomb Robert Capa. But none of them
are attracted to the idea. Kaneda informs them that the solar wind reading is much higher than
they'd anticipated at this distance and soon they will be entering the dead zone, which means they
won't be able to communicate with Earth anymore, so the crew should send home their last messages.
Capa records a video for his parents and his sister, telling them they can't contact him
back but they'll know if they've succeeded if the sun comes out by the time they get this message.
However, he takes so long in recording this, that there isn't any time left for his crewmates to do
the same, and this enrages Mace, who tries to start a fight with him. After the others
separate them, Mace is sent to talk to Searle, who tells him he has lost track of time and prescribes
him two hours in the Earth Room, which is a chamber that simulates their home in order to
calm them down. Meanwhile, Kaneda continues to watch the old reports sent by Pinbacker,
the captain of Icarus I. While Corazon assures him her garden is producing plenty of oxygen
and that's not the problem the previous crew had, Kaneda is still worried, especially when he sees
Pinbacker describe some damage his ship got as "beautiful". A distraction is welcome, however,
when Cassie discovers they're passing by Mercury, so the whole crew goes to the Observation Room to
watch it. Sometime later, while checking comms systems, Harvey makes an important discovery:
a transmission playing the distress signal from the Icarus I, which is reaching them thanks to
the ship reaching the dark side of Mercury and the iron content of the planet acting like an antenna.
Icarus simulates the first ship's trajectory on the screen and they realize nobody picked
up the signal until now because it was hidden in the background light and noise since the Icarus
I actually managed to get pretty close to the Sun. The crew starts discussing
if it would be a good idea to adjust their trajectory and make contact with the Icarus I.
Mace doesn't think it is a good idea because the mission is more important and if they don't
deliver their payload, everything dies. On the other hand, there may be survivors in the ship,
plus extra oxygen and food they can use - and most importantly, an extra bomb that could give
them a better chance at reigniting the sun. Since they can't agree if the risk is worth it or not,
they leave the decision up to Capa because he has the physics knowledge to know what is best.
After running the math with Icarus, he decides the extra bomb is worth the risk and tells them to fly
towards Icarus I. The ship leaves Mercury's orbit after Trey adjusts their trajectory, but he makes
a mistake: he has forgotten to realign the shields that protect the ship from the sun, causing damage
to four panels which if not repaired could destroy the whole ship and kill the crew.
Kaneda and Capa embark on a spacewalk to make repairs while Cassie guides them,
angling the damaged portion of the shield away from the Sun and causing the loss of
two protruding communications towers that have no use right now. However, this also causes the
reflected light to destroy the ship's oxygen garden and oxygen reserves to Corazon's dismay,
who has to watch how O2 is released to put out the fire. They need to re-angle the shield, but this
would kill Capa and Kaneda, who are still not done with the repairs. Harvey and Cassie want to wait,
but Mace reminds them that the priority is to protect the payload and Kaneda agrees with him.
So as Icarus uses autopilot to fix the ship's rotation, Kaneda sends Capa back inside and
sacrifices himself to fix the last panel. Moments later, Searle needs to sedate Trey, putting him in
a catatonic state, because the guilt is putting him at suicide risk. As the second-in-command,
Harvey becomes the new captain, and he informs the crew that after what happened to the garden,
they don't have enough oxygen to get them to their delivery point, let alone survive the journey,
so now they have no other choice but to try to make contact with the Icarus I and hope they
can salvage enough to continue the journey. After everyone else goes to take care of their chores,
Mace, Corazon, and Cassie have a chat in private, where Corazon tells them that their current oxygen
levels would be enough if they lose three people. Afterward, Cassie shares a little talk with Capa,
telling him she is scared of dying, but he admits he is not. Once Icarus II finally docks with
Icarus I, Capa, Searle, Mace, and Harvey go aboard to search the ship. Ignoring the fact lights don't
work and the ship is full of dust, which most likely is human skin, they decide to split the
group to search more effectively. Harvey finds the garden intact with seven years of unchecked
growth, which delights Corazon, while Trey confirms the second bomb is fully operational,
and Searle checks for water and food, finding plenty of both. Mace discovers all systems are
fine as well, except he isn't getting anything from the flight computer, and when he digs deeper
in the files, a recording with a rambling message from Pinbacker starts playing. His face is burned,
and he mentions they've abandoned the mission because they shouldn't defy god. The transmission
code is from six and a half years ago, exactly the time they were supposed to deliver the payload.
Mace keeps on searching for an explanation and finds out the mainframe has been sabotaged,
so they can't fly the Icarus I, officially making this detour completely pointless.
Meanwhile, Searle enters the Observation Room and finally finds the crew: all the bodies are sitting
in front of the panel, having let the Sun burn them to ashes. Suddenly, the two ships explosively
disconnect, destroying Icarus I's outer airlock and stranding the four men as the Icarus II starts
to float away from them. They find only one suit they can use, so Mace and Searle agree to give
it to Capa, who has priority because he is the only one that knows how to operate the payload.
Harvey protests against this, saying he should be the one with priority because he is the captain,
but the others ignore his orders. However, Mace has one more idea that could save the
rest of them: he takes insulation material from the walls of the ship to wrap themselves in it,
this should be enough for them to resist the cold while jumping from one ship to another.
There's only one problem: because the computer isn't working anymore, one of them must stay
behind to open the hatch, and Searle accepts to sacrifice himself and be the one to do it.
Once Cassie aligns both airlocks, Searle releases the airlock and the other three men use the vacuum
release for propulsion to jump between ships while holding onto each other. They are forced
to let go, though, when they accidentally hit the ship on their way out, and only Capa makes it to
the other airlock. Mace manages to hold onto a handrail, and thanks to this Capa is capable to
grab him and drag him inside with him, but Harvey floats away and freezes, dying from asphyxiation.
Back in Icarus I, Searle has accepted his fate, so he goes to the Observation Room and sits next
to the bodies to let the Sun burn him while Cassies says her goodbyes through the comms.
After triple-checking the activity file, Mace is sure Icarus didn't disconnect the airlocks,
and there wasn't a malfunction either, which means someone did it manually.
Since the men were together in Icarus I and the women were together in Icarus II,
the only remaining option is Trey. Capa is skeptical because Trey is so deeply sedated,
it is almost impossible for him to move enough to pull such a thing. Corazon also points out
that now they have lost two breathers, only one more needs to go so they can survive the mission,
and Mace accepts to be the one to kill Trey. Capa thinks this madness is probably what happened to
Icarus I, but he still agrees on doing it, because the future of mankind is more important. Corazon
also agrees, but Cassie doesn't, not that it matters much: since it's three against one, Mace
leaves the crew behind and enters the infirmary. After grabbing an electric scalpel, Mace checks
the bed, but Trey isn't there. He is actually sitting in the Earth Room and he's already dead,
having cut his own wrists. Mace calls the rest of the crew so they can see what happened,
and once they are there, he blames the deaths on Capa's decision to divert the mission and says the
spilled blood should be his. Angry, Capa tackles him and starts a fight, which doesn't last long
because they have trouble breathing since the air is low. While checking on the payload, Capa makes
Icarus run a check on the crew's biometrics and oxygen consumption, and Icarus informs
him they are all going to die before delivering the payload because the oxygen is not enough.
When Capa gets confused and says the remaining oxygen should be enough for four people, Icarus
tells him there is a fifth unknown person aboard, currently standing in the Observation Room.
Capa rushes there and finds the viewing panel bright with sunlight, and standing in front of it,
an insane and disfigured Pinbacker that keeps rambling about god,
angels, humanity, and stardust - he was the one that decoupled the airlocks.
Suddenly, he attacks Capa, managing to cut his stomach with one of the electric scalpels before
he runs out and asks Icarus to change the panel to full sunlight. This isn't enough to kill him,
so he chases after Capa until he enters the airlock and closes the hatch behind him.
Pinbacker takes the chance to lock the door manually to stop Capa from escaping before
going to the coolant tank to remove the panels, which causes Icarus to shut down. Meanwhile,
Corazon is staring at her burned garden when she notices a tiny little baby plant among the debris.
She intends to tell the rest of the crew about it, but Pinbacker finds her and kills her by stabbing
her with the scalpel. Back in the airlock, Capa puts on the vest from one of the suits in an
attempt to stop the bleeding and notices he cannot open the door as the power goes out in the entire
ship. Cassie, who had been sleeping, also notices the lack of power and goes out to investigate with
a flashlight in hand. When she finds Pinbacker, she runs out of there as fast as possible. In the
control room, Mace reactivates the computer with an emergency battery, but Icarus won't answer.
He sees Capa on the security cameras and tells him to use the communicator on the suit helmet,
so now Capa can tell him about Pinbacker and his sabotaging. As soon as he hears this, Mace rushes
to the coolant tank and submerges himself in the freezing water to reinstall the panels Pinbacker
took out, managing to bring back power right before Pinbacker catches up with Cassie at the
Earth Room and tries to attack her. Luckily for her, he gets confused by the shadows and grabs
Trey instead, so Cassie grabs the scalpel Trey had used and stabs Pinbacker before running out again,
hiding in the room with the bomb. As his body slowly freezes to death because his leg is stuck
in the coolant tank, Mace manages to contact Capa to tell him they're in orbit but the computer is
down and he isn't sure he can make it work again, so he will have to separate the payload from the
ship and detonate it manually. Mace dies while begging Capa to finish the mission. Capa puts on
the astronaut suit and uses a torch to make a hole in the door that connects to the hallway, then he
unscrews the lid that covers the emergency button and presses it after tying himself up to the wall.
This causes the main hatch to be expelled, and the combination of the incoming pressure from
outside and the hole on the metal makes the hallway door blow up, giving Capa back access
to the ship. After seeing Mace's frozen body, he goes to the control room and activates the
separation procedure, then jumps out of the ship and into the now separated bomb room while Icarus
II is burned away by the Sun. Inside the bomb, he takes off the suit and comes closer to Cassie,
who is sitting on the floor with a lost look on her face. He barely gets to say a word to
her when Pinbacker ambushes them, grabbing Capa by the neck and taking him over the edge of the
bomb with the intention to drop him into the abyss while talking about the Sun as if it was his god.
It is then that Cassie snaps out of it and runs to help Capa, together they manage to lose his grasp
by ripping the skin off one of his arms. The bomb is finally entering the Sun now, so after being
thrown around a bit by all the shaking, Cassie tells Capa to finish it. He sees Pinbacker waiting
for him by the edge of the bomb but decides to ignore him and concentrate on the mission,
so Capa rushes to the controls and activates the payload. The bomb explodes and Capa watches
how the Sun is re-ignited, even reaching out to it before dying. Back on Earth, Capa's sister watches
his message one more time before taking her kids to watch the sunrise for the first time in years.