Sunshine (movie, 2007)

Synopsis

In 2057 , the sun died out gradually. A ship with a crew of eight astronauts is sent into space to try to reignite it. This mission, called Icarus 2, aims to send a thermonuclear charge of a mass equivalent to the island of Manhattan in the heart of the Sun to “light” again. Seven years ago, the first attempt of humanity had ended in failure with the mysterious disappearance of Icarus 1. This second mission is the last hope of humanity because it has exhausted all fissionable materials from the Earth at the manufacture of the second bomb (Icarus 2).

Summary

Near Mercury , the communications officer picks up a signal of distress, apparently from Icarus 1. The crew decides to go to Icarus 1 to increase the chances of success of the mission, thinking to use its explosive charge in more.

Arrived aboard Icarus 1, they realize that the crew is dead, and that the ship had been sabotaged. Back on Icarus 2, an unknown is detected on the ship. They realize that the captain of Icarus 1 has boarded, and is trying to sabotage Icarus 2 now.

They nevertheless manage to deliver the explosive charge, and seen from the Earth, the plan seems to have worked.

Technical sheet

• Original title: Sunshine
• French title: Sunshine
• Quebec title: The Last Rays of the Sun
• Director: Danny Boyle
• Scenario: Alex Garland
• Sets: Michelle Day
• Costumes: Suttirat Anne Larlarb
• Photography: Alwin H. Kuchler
• Editing: Chris Gill
• Music: John Murphy and Underworld
• Production: Andrew MacDonald, Bernard Bellew and Mark Tildesley
• Production Companies: DNA Films and Fox Searchlight Pictures
• Distribution Company: 20th Century Fox
• Budget: 40 million of dollars
• Country of origin: United Kingdom
• Language: English
• Format: Color – 2.35: 1 – 35 mm – DTS / Dolby Digital EX / SDDS
• Genre: science fiction , thriller
• Duration: 107 minutes
• Release dates:
  •  United Kingdom : April 6 , 2007
  •  Belgium , France :  April 11 , 2007

Distribution

• Cillian Murphy ( VF : Adrien Antoine ) : Capa
• Chris Evans ( VF : Maël Davan-Soulas) : Mace
• Rose Byrne ( VF : Françoise Cadol ) : Cassie
• Michelle Yeoh ( VF : Juliette Degenne ) : Corazon
• Cliff Curtis ( VF : Joel Zaffarano ) : Searle
• Troy Garity ( VF : Patrick Mancini ) : Harvey
• Hiroyuki Sanada ( VF : Boris Rehlinger ) : Kaneda
• Mark Strong ( VF : Philippe Vincent ) : Pinbaker
• Benedict Wong ( VF : Régis Lang ) : Trey
• Chipo Chung ( VF : Caroline Victoria ) : voice of the Icarus 2 spacecraft

Source and caption : French version ( VF ) on AlloDoublage ¹

Production

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is composed by John Murphy , old accomplice of Danny Boyle since they had already collaborated for Millions and 28 days later . The main theme, The Surface of The Sun , particularly used for the final scene and the death of Kaneda, has since been reused in many other projects: in addition to illustrating the trailers for True Grit films , The Man Who wanted to live his life and X-Men: Days of Future Past the piece composes the main sound architecture of Kick-Ass . Finally, it is used in episode 5 of the first season ofThe Walking Dead , apocalyptic series aired sinceOctober 2010on AMC in the United States .

Home

Despite a generally favorable reception, the film ended in a rather disappointing commercial performance: the 32,017,803 dollars raised during its theatrical release did not cover the filming budget, which in turn amounted to 40 million dollars.

Analysis

The theme of science is very present in this film, which can be seen as a tribute to science and scientists in many ways. However the scientific coherence of the film lent to controversy.

The Sun will die not by fading away, but on the contrary, magnifying up to 100 times its current size (from the yellow dwarf type to that of red giant ). Its mass being insufficient to cause its explosion, it loses its external layers and becomes a white dwarf . But this phenomenon will take place only five billion years from now.

The idea that the Sun can be revived by a thermonuclear bomb is also not believable, even if all the fissionable matter of the Earth would be used. The Sun, like all stars , derives its energy from nuclear fusion reactions of great magnitude. The fissionable material sent by the mission would be the effect of a glass of water thrown into the sea This critical point, actually known to the director, however, is the core element of the film which is its entry point scriptwriting.

The organizational aspect is also improbable: such a mission would be carried out with much greater reliability using an automatic probe than by an inhabited mission. Moreover, in the film, the human factor is not far from causing the failure of the mission on many occasions.

Finally, the management of the gravity remains incoherent, for example, during the pressurization of the airlock or the absence of variation despite the proximity of the Sun.

Notes and references