Sunshine [2007]:

The Tag-line to Sunshine is stark and true: If the sun dies, so do we.

The premise is stated in the opening monologue:

CAPA:

Our sun is dying. Mankind faces extinction. Seven years ago the Icarus project sent a mission to restart the sun but that mission was lost before it reached the star. Sixteen months ago, I, Robert Capa, and a crew of seven, left earth frozen in a solar winter. Our payload: a stellar bomb with a mass equivalent to Manhattan Island. Our purpose: to create a star within a star. Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. My bomb. Welcome to the Icarus Two.

Sunshine is an intense, intelligent and realistic science-fiction thriller, made more compelling because it could one day become science-fact if our nearest star does start to die ... which, indeed, it inexorably will. Their already dangerous mission: to reignite the sun by exploding a gigantic nuclear bomb at its core, is further complicated when they answer a distress beacon from the ill-fated Icarus I craft and uncover what really happened to the crew of that earlier failed mission. Sunshine concentrates on the human aspect of its characters, how they deal with the closed-in environment of the ship as their mission takes years to complete, the pressure of being together when personalities clash, the looming threat of extinction if their mission fails, the sense of isolation – at being so far from home, ultimately leading to insanity, religious mania, and murder for one character.

I love everything about this movie, but I have chosen one scene in particular, the death of Kaneda, for its technical brilliance, powerful soundtrack, and for the depth and intensity of the emotion through the faultless acting. Seldom in movies is a death scene so genuinely moving.

I have left out the majority of the intercut scenes on board the ship and focused mainly on Capa and Kaneda’s section on the solar shield.

Cassie is played by Rose Byrne, Searle by Cliff Curtis, Harvey by Troy Garity, and the voice of Icarus, the on-board computer AI, is voiced by Chipo Chung.

Scene: Kaneda’s death.

On board Icarus II.

Under stress, concentrating on getting the trajectory right, Trey [Benedict Wong] forgets to re-align the panels on the forward protective shield. Solar winds cause a hydraulic burn-out in four of the reflective panels, causing them to remain open.

Captain Kaneda [Hiroyuki Sanada], and physicist Capa [Cillian Murphy], go EVA to manually close each panel.

Cassie takes manual control, tilting the ship and the shield to provide enough shade from the sun for the men to work on the panels:

Kaneda and Capa successfully close the first panel:

The crew congratulate them and they move on to repair the other three panels:

The euphoria among the crew is short-lived: a fire breaks out in the ship’s oxygen garden.
Kaneda points out that the priority is to protect the pay-load and orders the on-board computer, Icarus, to resume control. Icarus begins the process of returning the shield to its original position:
 

Kaneda and Capa race to close the panels before they are killed and the ship is destroyed.

The crew are forced to flood the oxygen garden with O2, causing a flash that makes the fire burn itself out:

Realizing his fate and that he has to sacrifice himself to save Capa and the rest of the crew, Kaneda orders Capa back to the airlock:

ICARUS:

Eighty-nine percent of shield in full sunlight.

KANEDA:

Capa, go back. I’ll finish this.

CAPA:

Please, I can do this.

KANEDA:

Go.

CAPA:

Capa returning to airlock. Do you copy? Capa returning to airlock. Do you copy?

CASSIE:

Copy, Capa. Hurry.

ICARUS:

Ninety-one percent of shield in full sunlight.

ICARUS:

Ninety-four percent of shield in full sunlight.

CAPA:

Captain? Captain? I’m at the edge of the shield. Do you copy? Captain, you must leave now. Captain?

ICARUS:

Ninety-seven percent of shield in full sunlight.

KANEDA:

Final panel closing. The shield is secure.

CAPA:

You have to move now. Captain, it’s right on you.

HARVEY:

Kaneda’s not gonna make it.

CAPA:

You have to move! You have to move now!

HARVEY:

It’s too far.

CAPA:

Captain, move! Why isn’t he moving?

SEARLE:

Kaneda, what do you see?

CAPA:

Searle, tell him to move!

SEARLE:

Kaneda, what can you see?

CAPA:

Searle, do you copy?

SEARLE:

Kaneda!

CAPA:

Searle!

SEARLE:

Kaneda!

Kaneda screams.

SEARLE:

Kaneda!

Capa screams as he barely manages to swing below the safety of the shield.

ICARUS:

Shield rotation complete.

Ray Bradbury – RIP:

I didn’t discover what a fine writer Ray Bradbury was before seeing the 1969 movie, The Illustrated Man, when I was a kid. Although I don’t write the same fantasy/sci-fi genres of fiction as Bradbury, I find myself empathizing with him in other ways: he was a prolific reader and writer from childhood, a fan of H.G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe and a firm believer in the importance of public libraries in society, especially to those living on a budget.
Among his many novels and short stories, his other notable books are Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, which were also filmed for film and TV, but The Illustrated Man remains my favorite. It was also the movie that made me a fan of Rod Steiger and the beautiful Claire Bloom. The novel is a collection of eighteen fantasy and sci-fi stories, of which only three (possibly due to budget and running time constrictions) are included in the movie:

The Veldt … parents fall victim to a sinister virtual-reality playroom they have installed for their spoilt children;

The Long Rain … a marooned group of astronauts who have crash-landed on a planet with constant torrential rain search for the oasis of a warm ‘Sun Dome’, but will they survive the journey or perish along the way?;

The Last Night of the World … society rulers believe they have been sent a sign predicting the end of the world and decide to spare children the horror to come by euthanasia.

The main plot that bookends these three sections is the story of a carnival worker, Carl (Rod Steiger). During one particularly hot day, he is at first befriended and then seduced by the enigmatic Felicia, who covers his body almost entirely with “skin illustrations”. The difference being that these are not normal tattoos. Carl is a hobo, travelling the roads, when we encounters and tells his story to another traveller, Willie (Robert Drivas), telling him that he intends to murder Felicia for cursing him with the skin illustrations. At first, Willie is sceptical, but ignores Carl’s warnings not to stare at the illustrations too intently because they have a hypnotic effect on the observer, coming to life and recounting horrific stories. Worse still is the bare patch Felicia left on Carl’s shoulder, which predicts the future for all who dare to look into it – but the predictions are always bad; showing how they will eventually be in their old age, or how they will die.

Although the movie may be regarded as dated, especially with the 1960’s fashion trends and that era’s view of how futuristic societies may be, the acting is excellent from the three leads and there is a palpable atmosphere of suspense and threat throughout the movie, generated from Rod Steiger’s masterful and ferocious performance. The scene in which Carl turns to find Felicia’s farmhouse has suddenly vanished, leaving only his clothes draped on a chair still remains chilling.

However, final credit has to go to author, Ray Bradbury, who penned the original source novel that inspired the fine movie. Like many of the greatest authors, he was a true visionary.

I hope future generations discover and enjoy his work as much as I have.

In memory of Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012).