Latest news with #IcarusII
Tom's Guide
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
If you're hyped for ‘28 Years Later,' you should watch this sci-fi thriller from the same team — it's streaming on Hulu
With all the recent attention on their reunion for '28 Years Later,' it would be easy to forget that director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have worked together on more than just the popular zombie franchise that began with 2002's '28 Days Later.' Their second collaboration was overshadowed by the movie they chose not to make, but 2007's 'Sunshine' is a highlight of both filmmakers' careers. Now that it's streaming on Hulu, fans of the '28' movies can check out another dark, uncompromising sci-fi thriller from Boyle and Garland. In deciding to forgo the zombie sequel '28 Weeks Later' (which was instead directed and co-written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo), Boyle and Garland indicated their interest in looking forward, and 'Sunshine' explores heavy themes about human existence within the framework of an exciting, futuristic space adventure. Like '28 Years Later,' it takes some bold swings in its final act, but it's a more cohesive piece of storytelling that comes to a grim yet strangely uplifting finale. I'd put 'Sunshine' on the same level as Garland's solo writing and directing efforts 'Ex Machina' and 'Annihilation' as a mind-bending sci-fi story, and it deserves just as much praise and attention as those popular, acclaimed films. 'Sunshine' joins a long tradition of movies about space madness, in which characters trapped together on long-haul deep space missions slowly lose their minds, sometimes because they're tormented by outside forces, and sometimes just because they can't handle the pressure and isolation. The crew of the Icarus II could be transplanted to a movie like 'Alien' or 'Event Horizon' and fit seamlessly into those similar stories, in which astronauts confront the terror of the unknown. Although one character jokes about the crew being picked off one by one by a killer alien, there are no extraterrestrials in 'Sunshine.' The danger comes from humanity itself, and also from the unforgiving nature of the cosmos — in particular from the sun, which is slowly dying out. As the sun cools, all life on Earth is threatened, and the Icarus II represents the final hope to save the planet. If they can drop a massive bomb directly into the sun and reignite it, then all the people they left behind will survive. Those are some high expectations to live up to, and as the name of the ship indicates, the Icarus II is already the second attempt to restart the sun, following a failed mission seven years earlier. No one knows what happened to the original Icarus, and as 'Sunshine' opens, the Icarus II is on the verge of encountering the same mysterious difficulties. '28 Days Later' star Cillian Murphy rejoins Boyle and Garland as the main character of 'Sunshine,' physicist Robert Capa, who designed and operates the Manhattan-sized bomb strapped to the Icarus II. Sixteen years before playing another haunted physicist in 'Oppenheimer,' Murphy makes Capa determined but fragile, as his fellow crew members insist on his survival at all costs, since he's the only person who can complete the mission. The ensemble cast includes future Marvel Cinematic Universe stars Chris Evans and Benedict Wong, along with Rose Byrne as the ship's pilot and resident conscience, Cliff Curtis as the ship's doctor, 'Shogun' star Hiroyuki Sanada as the captain, and Michelle Yeoh as the biologist responsible for generating the crew's oxygen. Murphy, Byrne and Evans get the most substantial roles, but each actor knows how to make the most of limited screen time, and every character feels real and significant. As the mission spins out of control, no one's exit is cheap or meaningless. Boyle and Garland honor all of their characters, and the actors imbue them with dignity and emotional weight. In contrast to the muddy, primitive digital cinematography of '28 Days Later,' the imagery in 'Sunshine' is shimmering and gorgeous, as befits a movie that is bathed in harsh, unrelenting sunlight. Unlike so many deep-space thrillers that emphasize the darkness of outer space, 'Sunshine' leans into the light, especially as the Icarus gets closer and closer to the sun. The large curved array on the Icarus that captures sunlight for solar power makes it look like a giant eyeball, and Boyle treats the sun like a mystical, unknowable god, the way that primitive humans would have regarded it. As brilliant as these scientists and explorers may be, they are still traveling directly into a star, where the laws of physics bend and distort. Boyle reflects that distortion in the third-act twist, which brings a new threat onto the Icarus and takes the story in a more horrific direction. The onscreen image is often blurred and stretched as the remaining crew members try to fight that threat while scrambling to complete their mission. It's every bit as tense and terrifying as any zombie attack, further demonstrating that 'Sunshine' belongs among the filmmakers' best and most awe-inspiring work. 'Sunshine' is now streaming on Hulu.
Gizmodo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘Sunshine' and ‘Event Horizon' Bring Deep-Space Madness to Gruesome Heights
With Danny Boyle's recent comments about his never-made 'Sunshine' trilogy, we're revisiting that 2007 film as well as a thematically similar 1997 cult classic. Millions of miles from Earth, a spaceship receives a distress call—so its crew changes course to investigate. Disaster follows. That's famously the set-up for Alien, but it's used often in sci-fi stories, including 1997's Event Horizon and 2007's Sunshine. Sunshine's been in the news since director Danny Boyle revealed he'd originally hoped it would kick off a trilogy; that never happened, because like Event Horizon, it flopped at the box office. But both Sunshine and Event Horizon have since earned new appreciation, and they share enough similarities to make for an excellent sci-fi horror double feature. Both films riff on that Alien 'mysterious transmission' as a plot turning point; both films take place in the not-so-distant future (Event Horizon is set in 2047; Sunshine in 2057). Both films take place in uncomfortable realms of our solar system, with Event Horizon in Neptune's orbit and Sunshine near the surface of the sun. Both films discover the distress call is coming from a ship everyone back on Earth thought had been lost; in Event Horizon, it's the titular vessel, while Sunshine's Icarus II discovers its predecessor, the Icarus. Further, both films feature characters who transform from regular (if eccentric) men into outrageously evil, scenery-devouring villains. And both films feature ridiculously good casts, including those far-out space nuts: Event Horizon's Sam Neill, and Sunshine's Mark Strong. But there are some key differences too. While the weary crew aboard the search and rescue vessel Lewis and Clarke in Event Horizon is on a top-secret mission, chasing down the long-missing title ship, the Icarus crew in Sunshine is on the most high-profile assignment of all time: launching a gigantic payload into the dying sun, hoping to reignite it and save everyone back home from a frozen death. Scientists and astronauts trying to save the planet from certain apocalypse was a trendy theme around 20 to 25 years ago. The Core came out in 2003 and concerns the frantic quest to drill into the center of the flailing Earth and restore the rotation of the core. A few years earlier, we had the battle of the asteroid movies in Deep Impact and Armageddon. But Sunshine, whose central conflict evokes elements of 1961 Twilight Zone episode 'The Midnight Sun,' takes itself more seriously than your average doomsday tale. At the very start of Sunshine, we learn—thanks to a voice-over from Cillian Murphy as Icarus II physicist Capa, a guy dealing with a bomb poised to alter humankind even more than Oppenheimer's did—that the previous mission went missing seven years ago. Capa and company have been in transit now for over a year, and they're closing in on the make-or-break moment to prevent all-out extinction. Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland carefully seed the early part of the story with hints of the terrors to come. Naming the ships Icarus and Icarus II is a bit heavy-handed—flying too close to the sun and all that—but the mood aboard Capa's ship is generally peaceful at first. Sure, the ship's doctor, Searle (Cliff Curtis), is a little too obsessed with staring at the sun, and sure, the engineer, Mace (Chris Evans), is a bit hot-tempered. But even as the mission cruises into the 'Dead Zone' that'll cut off all external communications, things seem to be going surprisingly well. Until, of course, they pass Mercury and pick up a garbled transmission from the Icarus, somehow still functioning all these years later. The debate over whether or not any crew is alive to be rescued—a cause felt more deeply by certain crew members than others—becomes a moot point when Capa decides a detour is well worth it to pick up the Icarus' abandoned payload. Their mission is the very last chance to save Earth, so if they can have two bombs at the ready, that makes the potential for success even greater. Adjusting their trajectory, however, sets off a domino effect of disasters for Icarus II, swiftly imperiling the most important space mission ever—and that's before they encounter the surprise human element that'll further seal their doom. While Sunshine's approach to science may not be entirely fact-based, Event Horizon goes full fantastical once things start to go off the rails. We need the sun to survive, but it's also frightening for a lot of reasons, all of them natural. It's hot! It's fiery! It'll burn you to a crisp! Event Horizon, on the other hand, imagines that a black hole could force a wayward ship into hell—then spit it back out into our dimension with full sentience and an urge to mentally and physically torture anyone who dares step aboard. It's a decidedly operatic idea and the production design backs that up, imagining a spaceship that pulls not just from H.R. Giger (an Alien hat-tip there), but also Hieronymus Bosch and Hellraiser. The Icarus ships are far more utilitarian (and while the AI on Icarus II sometimes goes against the crew, it's always very polite about it), but they do have a key added feature: an observation room that allows crew to admire their irradiated destination with the help of carefully calibrated safety filters. It's there that the madness of Strong's character, Icarus captain Pinbacker (a John Carpenter Dark Star hat-tip there), takes hold. Since we don't really meet him before he's become a raving, solar-mangled mix of evangelist and Freddy Krueger, we can't say if his mind was in a good place before he headed into space. In Event Horizon, we get a meaty foreshadowing that Sam Neill's character, Dr. Weir, is dealing with PTSD following his wife's death by suicide—and we get a front-row seat to his complete unraveling. However, the biggest contrast between these self-mutilated monster men is perhaps their ultimate intentions. Dr. Weir's consciousness becomes entwined with the cursed ship he designed, and he's determined to drag the Lewis and Clarke crew to hell with him. That's entirely freaky, but Pinbacker's twisted motivation is possibly worse. He believes that the sun dying is part of God's plan to end humanity. He's also come to believe that God speaks directly to him, and that none of what God has set in motion should be challenged or altered. 'He told me to take us all to heaven!' he insists, explaining why he sabotaged the Icarus and why he's determined to do the same to the Icarus II—ensuring certain death for everyone back on Earth. It's a lot of heaven talk for such a diabolical man, as the flames from the sun's surface loom ever closer. Against all odds, both Event Horizon and Sunshine find their way to—not happy endings, but something resembling hope. Event Horizon bids farewell to Dr. Weir and the haunted vessel, but lets a couple of shell-shocked characters survive. In Sunshine, all the space travelers perish, but it's implied a successful detonation has indeed kick-started the sun, and that Earth will be saved. For years, filmmakers even beyond original director Paul W.S. Anderson have talked about digging deeper into Event Horizon's world. Fans may never get to feast upon the film's legendary lost scenes, supposedly excised for being too extreme, but prequels, sequels, and most recently a TV series have been floated as potential projects. As for Sunshine, Boyle's recent mention of a trilogy came as a surprise. He didn't give any details beyond noting that screenwriter Alex Garland's ideas were 'interplanetary' and 'extraordinary,' which intriguingly suggests they went way beyond the most obvious add-ons: a prequel following Pinbacker and his crew, or a sequel that sees the Earth bounce back from solar winter. (We'd still eagerly watch either of those, however.) We may never get more Event Horizon or Sunshine. But both films as they are make for extremely entertaining sci-fi viewing—and you can rest assured, there'll always be new stories about interstellar travelers picking up distress calls and flying straight into more deep-space mayhem.
