Playing Nice: Sunshine, by Sarah Brinks
Thank you for reading “Playing Nice,” a series of articles that will examine group dynamics in film.
**This article will contain spoilers. I strongly recommend you watch the film first and then read the article if you care about spoilers.** Danny Boyle, the director of Sunshine, describes it as a film about a ship and a signal. More than that, though, it is a film about a crew dealing with maybe the highest stress situation possible. Years in the future the sun is dying and as a result Earth has been plummeted into a nuclear winter. In an effort to save itself Earths best scientists and astronauts gathered together building a ship call Icarus I with a nuclear bomb on board with the mass of Manhattan Island. The hope was that the Icarus I would drop off its payload at the sun and create a nuclear event that essentially jumpstarted the sun. We learn early in the film that the Icarus I failed and the crew we meet is onboard the Icarus II. The mission for Icarus II is the same as Icarus I: Restart the sun and save humanity. The crew of Icarus II consists of a physicist to handle the bomb, a pilot, an engineer, a botanist to manage the oxygen garden, a captain, a first mate, a navigator, and lastly a psychologist (a new addition after the mysterious failure of Icarus I). Things are pretty much as would be expected aboard the Icarus II when the film begins. The crew is stressed but performing their duties, the oxygen garden is over producing, and the ship is functioning normally. One day they have the surprise of getting to see Mercury orbit past the sun. This begins a series of events that affects the rest of the mission. The distress signal from the Icarus I is boosted by Mercury and the crew realize they have the possibility of a second bomb to restart the sun. They choose to go off-mission and to rendezvous with the Icarus I and that ultimately leads the entire crew’s deaths but also the jump-starting of the sun.
The characters in Sunshine are fascinating. They each serve a very specific purpose on the ship but they need each other to ensure their mission’s success and their own (plus the human race’s) survival. Though each crew member has their own clear motivations and priorities they are at their core scientists and they recognize the dire importance of their mission. Mace, the engineer, is the most mission focused of all the crew. His character is consistent throughout the film of being completely dedicated to the mission. Mace is the one person who is a hard ‘no’ vote against rendezvousing with Icarus I, nothing would convince him to go off-mission.
The pressure and length of their mission combined with events that happened when they go off mission means they deal with a great deal of conflict between the crew members. Early in the film, when the crew loses communication with Earth sooner than expected, Mace and Capa get into a fight. Searle prescribes Mace time in the “earth room” a room the shows 3D scenes from Earth to the astronauts to help them on their mission. Mace and Capa fight again after Trey is found dead, Corazon (the botanist) annoyed and resigned to their imminent death tells them to conserve their oxygen. When Trey makes the mistakes of not adjusting the shields for their new approach to the sun after they decide to change course and as a result the captain dies he becomes a suicide risk and they are forced to sedate him. He is a genius but he made one costly mistake and he can’t live with the guilt. Each crew member shows how the pressure gets to them throughout the film. For some it is simple like Cassie, the pilot, always dreaming about the sun but for others is more intense like Seale, the psychologist, who becomes obsessed with light to the point that he exposes himself so much that his skin starts to peel off.
The crew are obviously faced with some really difficult decisions along their journey. When the Icarus I and II become decoupled, Mace chooses Capa to get the space suit to survive. Then the crew realizes one person must remain on the Icarus I to activate the airlock and that person would be left to die. Harvey the first mate and acting captain is paranoid and assumes it will be him that is sacrificed but Searle volunteers to stay behind. Even though Harvey also dies in the attempt to re-board Icarus II, the crew still has too many breathing crew members to make to it to the sun with their oxygen stores. So, they have to choose another crew member to die. They choose Trey because they suspect he blew up the airlock. They take a vote to decide. Mace volunteers to do the deed, Corazon has become hard and cold after the oxygen garden is lost in the fire so she votes for his death, Capa agrees because he weighs the continuation of the human race over one man’s life, but Cassie cannot make that same call. She won’t give her blessing even knowing the odds and logic behind the choice. Pinbacker, the Icarus I captain, actually kills Trey but makes it look like a suicide.
When they learn that Pinbacker is on the ship and that he is sabotaging their chances of saving the sun, they all make their sacrifices to complete the mission. Mace freezes to death trying to restore computer power to the ship, Cassie nearly dies fighting him, and Capa has to blow an airlock and launch himself through space from the living module to the payload/dish section. Capa also has to suicide himself and Cassie in order to get the payload into the sun, but we do see that all their sacrifices mean that the sun is rebooted and Earth will be saved from nuclear winter.
I don’t think I can conclude this article without addressing the character Pinbacker. He was the captain on the Icarus I who went mad and killed his crew. Regardless of what you think about the introduction of Pinbacker to the film, he is an interesting character to consider. He clearly descended into madness alone on the Icarus I for nearly seven years. He exposed himself to the sun so much his body became deformed and he believed he could speak to God. Pinbacker blows the airlock trapping most of the crew on Icarus I, he kills Trey and Corazon, he removes the computer from the coolant and he tries to kill Cassie and Capa. Captain Kanada watches a classified video of Pinbacker early in the film, saying a meteor storm was beautiful. Clearly time and isolation caused him to take that idea and build an insane ideology that he was supposed to end the mission and show man the face of God.
The reality of long-term space travel seems more possible than ever but the reality of trapping a group of humans in tight surroundings in a high-stress scenario is a serious obstacle to consider. If you were tasked with saving humanity by reigniting the sun and had to face a crazy captain, would you place nice?