Sunshine (2007)

Movie recap of Sunshine (2007)

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 a mass equivalent to Manhattan Island, with the intent of jump-starting the Sun. However, the spaceship gets lost before it 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 aboard Icarus II to try again.

First, there’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. The crew should therefore 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 receive the message. However, he takes so long recording this that there isn’t any time left for his crewmates to do the same, enraging 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—a chamber that simulates their home 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 this wasn’t the problem the previous crew had, Kaneda is still worried—especially when he hears Pinbacker describe some damage his ship received as “beautiful.”

A distraction is welcome; however, when Cassie discovers they’re passing by Mercury, the whole crew goes to the Observation Room to watch it. Sometime later, while checking the communications systems, Harvey makes an important discovery: a transmission playing the distress signal from Icarus I, which is reaching them thanks to the ship passing 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 Icarus actually managed to get pretty close to the Sun. The crew starts discussing whether it would be a good idea to adjust their trajectory and make contact with Icarus I.

Mace doesn’t think it’s 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 on the ship, plus extra oxygen and food they could use—and, most importantly, an extra bomb that could give them a better chance at reigniting the Sun.

Since they can’t agree on whether 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 calculations with Icarus, he decides the extra bomb is worth the risk and tells them to fly toward Icarus I.

The ship leaves Mercury’s orbit after Trey adjusts their trajectory, but he makes a mistake: he forgets 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 at the moment. 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 the O₂ being released to put out the fire.

They need to re-angle the shield, but this would kill Capa and Kaneda, who are still not finished 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. 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 reach their delivery point—let alone survive the journey. Now they have no other choice but to try to make contact with Icarus I and hope they can salvage enough to continue the mission.

After everyone else goes to take care of their chores, Mace, Corazon, and Cassie have a private conversation, where Corazon tells them their current oxygen levels would be enough if they lose three people. Afterward, Cassie has a brief 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 that the lights don’t work and that the ship is full of dust—which is most likely human skin—they decide to split up to search more effectively.

Harvey finds the garden intact, with seven years of unchecked growth, which delights Corazon. 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 that he isn’t getting anything from the flight computer. When he digs deeper into the files, a recording with a rambling message from Pinbacker starts playing.

His face is burned, and he mentions they 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 continues searching for an explanation and finds that the mainframe has been sabotaged, meaning they can’t fly Icarus I, officially making the 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 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 who knows how to operate the payload. Harvey protests, 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, believing 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 agrees 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 can grab him and drag him inside with him, but Harvey floats away and freezes, dying from asphyxiation.

Back on 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 Cassie 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 on Icarus I and the women were together on Icarus II, the only remaining option is Trey. Capa is skeptical because Trey is so deeply sedated that 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 agrees to be the one to kill Trey. Capa thinks this madness is probably what happened to Icarus I, but he still agrees to 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, already dead, having cut his own wrists. Mace calls the rest of the crew so they can see what happened, and once they arrive, 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 are having trouble breathing due to the low oxygen. While checking on the payload, Capa has Icarus run a check on the crew’s biometrics and oxygen consumption, and Icarus informs him that 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 is an insane and disfigured Pinbacker, rambling about God, angels, humanity, and stardust. He was the one who decoupled the airlocks.

Suddenly, Pinbacker attacks Capa, managing to cut his stomach with one of the electric scalpels before Capa runs out and asks Icarus to change the panel to full sunlight. This isn’t enough to kill him, so Pinbacker 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 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 away 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, allowing Capa to explain about Pinbacker and his sabotage.

As soon as he hears this, Mace rushes to the coolant tank and submerges himself in the freezing water to reinstall the panels Pinbacker removed, managing to restore power right before Pinbacker catches up with Cassie in 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 used and stabs Pinbacker before running out again and 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 are in orbit, but the computer is down, and he isn’t sure he can make it work again. He explains that Capa 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 connecting to the hallway. Then he unscrews the lid covering the emergency button and presses it after tying himself to the wall. This causes the main hatch to be expelled, and the combination of incoming pressure from outside and the hole in the metal makes the hallway door blow open, giving Capa access back into 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 approaches 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 of dropping him into the abyss while speaking about the Sun as if it were his god.

Cassie snaps out of it and runs to help Capa. Together, they manage to break his grip by ripping the skin off one of Pinbacker’s arms. The bomb is finally entering the Sun now, and after being thrown around by the shaking, Cassie tells Capa to finish it.

He sees Pinbacker waiting for him at the edge of the bomb, but decides to ignore him and focus on the mission. Capa rushes to the controls and activates the payload. The bomb explodes, and Capa watches the Sun reignite, even reaching out toward it before dying.

Back on Earth, Capa’s sister watches his message one more time before taking her children to see the sunrise for the first time in years.

#ad

Full Movie Recap of Sunshine (2007)