Sunshine

"If it dies, so do we."

2007 1h 48m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

🍅

77%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 4,457🍅77%Rotten Tomatoes●64Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 284,835

Science FictionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.

“If it dies, so do we.”

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Cast

Cillian Murphy
Capa
Rose Byrne
Cassie
Chris Evans
Mace
Michelle Yeoh
Corazon
Cliff Curtis
Searle
Hiroyuki Sanada
Kaneda
Troy Garity
Harvey
Benedict Wong
Trey

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Danny Boyle
Writers: Brendan Houghton, Alex Garland
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $50M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 70% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 19 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

354+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Danny Boyle, shot by Alwin H. Küchler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Murphy. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Chris Gill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne and Chris Evans carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Danny Boyle directs. Alwin H. Küchler behind the camera. John Murphy scores. Chris Gill cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $50M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Earned back only 70% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released 19 years ago.
4354+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Danny Boyle, shot by Alwin H. Küchler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by John Murphy. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Chris Gill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne and Chris Evans carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "If it dies, so do we.".
10IMDB entry: tt0448134 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 21 themes, including "space marine", "saving the world", "bomb", "sun".

The technical file

Cinematography: Alwin H. Küchler
Original score: John Murphy
Editing: Chris Gill
Production design: Mark Tildesley
Costume design: Suttirat Anne Larlarb
Makeup / hair: Mark Coulier
VFX supervisor: Tom Wood
Sound: Richard Pryke
Stunt coordinator: Julian Spencer
Runtime: 108 min · 1h 48m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $50,000,000
Box office: $34,800,000
Return: 70% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Sunshine (2007)
Rotten Tomatoes: 77% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 64/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 284,835 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win & 22 nominations total

Also by

Danny Boyle

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Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-05-30
★ 9/10
Are you an angel? Has the time come? I've been waiting so long. We are in the not too distant future and the Sun is fading out. After a first mission to reignite it with a nuclear bomb fails, with the ship apparently lost in space, a new team are sent to try again. But it really isn't as simple as that... Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland team up once again for this sci-fi adventure thriller. For as long as I can personally remember, outer space and the planets that dwell within it, have always served us well for cinematic treats. Fears of the unknown and worries over the destruction of Earth, by and large make for great premise's. Not all films realise this potential of course, but it always makes for a great starting point. For his first venture into this realm, Boyle has gone for the Sun as his point of reference, and it makes for a marvellously claustrophobic picture that poses as many questions as it does answers. And even tho ultimately the science fiction aspects of it do not naturally add up, it's dazzling in its visuals and thought provoking into the bargain. Boyle has never hid his influences and favourites from the public, and here he homages everything from Alien to Event Horizon, stopping for tea and crumpets at 2001s house along the way. But that is no bad thing, molding elements from great sci-fi past with his own intriguing story has given Sunshine a tremendous heart, to which Boyle then manages to cloak it with high quality drama. The crew are up there and we know that this is a genre piece and things invariably go wrong, this gives the discerning viewer an eager anticipation, a sense that one shouldn't go to the toilet for something will be missed. And Boyle lives up to the promise showed, such a pity then, that Boyle didn't let us get better acquainted with his characters at the start. Because then the impact would surely have doubled as each perilous and wrought scenario unfolded. Having racked up the tension and intrigued us with the premise, expertly fusing CGI with his own craft work along the way, Boyle's Sunshine lives or dies by it's last quarter; depending on your proclivity of course. It has proved to be a most divisive point with critics and fans alike. To say it's a genre shift accompanied with implausibility is being a touch unkind I feel, this is after all a sci-fi picture about a ship going to reignite the Sun! Never the less it doesn't quite close the film triumphantly after the twists that preceded it, turns and explosions have lulled the viewers in, but personally it satisfies this entertained observer. Not in a big bang dynamic way, but in the way that asks me for a further thought process, and that may just be what Boyle and Garland envisaged when they sat down to make the film? Again, depending on your proclivity of course! 8.5/10
CinemaSerf2022-03-26
★ 7/10
Danny Boyle has assembled a stellar (had to be said) cast for this rather far-fetched story. The crew of the "Icarus II" are charged with dragging a massive nuclear bomb towards the sun with a view to giving it a bit of a pick-me-up. It's dying, you see. Needless to say their journey is fraught with danger, made worse when they discover the wreckage of a previous ship sent on a similar mission many years earlier. When they board it, though, all is not as it seems and danger lurks! Alex Garland knows how to write a good story and Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne and Chris Evans work quite well together as the extra-terrestrial adventure gathers pace. The dialogue is not the best and the score overwhelms at times, but Boyle still manages to create quite a decent degree of peril mixing well the high quality special effects, a bit of sabotage, sexual tension and a good old-fashioned baddie.
whitsbrain2024-01-30
★ 6/10
This sci-fi thriller started so strong. It began as a hard science fiction film with a spaceship basically pushing a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan towards the Sun. The ship and crew's task is to reignite the dying Sun. The look and feel of the first half of the movie are wonderful. One of the best parts occurs early as the crew gets to witness the tiny planet Mercury passing between them and the Sun. The science of the movie; the 2001-"feel" of it, the repair of the ship and the golden space suits are really excellent. Unfortunately, in its last 30 minutes, Sunshine confuses, becoming more like Event Horizon. It also becomes quite confusing as Capa (Cillian Murphy) struggles or hallucinates, I'm not sure which, to complete the mission. It's difficult not to like Sunshine for its Sci-Fi wonders, but it falls off sharply in its final half.