Movie · 2007 · Science Fiction, Thriller · 1h 48m · R · English
Curator score: 5.8/10 (533.8K ratings)
Dark days are coming.
Overview
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.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.8/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.72/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Metacritic: 64
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Danny Boyle
Production
Ingenious Media, Moving Picture Company, UK Film Council, DNA Films
Cast
Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Troy Garity, Benedict Wong, Mark Strong, Paloma Baeza, Archie Macdonald, Sylvie Macdonald, Chipo Chung, Kevin Hudson
Curator Review
Verdict
A visually striking, high-concept sci-fi thriller that blends hard-pressed mission drama with cosmic awe and a genuinely unsettling descent into horror. Its third act is divisive, but the atmosphere, sound design, and emotional intensity make it a memorable watch.
Best for
fans of bleak but beautiful science fiction
viewers who like tense ensemble survival stories
people drawn to philosophical or spiritual sci-fi
audiences who appreciate bold tonal shifts
Skip if
you want strictly hard science fiction without genre detours
you dislike horror elements in space movies
you prefer clean, tidy endings
you need constant character warmth or levity
Overview
Sunshine starts as a disciplined, high-stakes mission movie and gradually opens into something stranger, more spiritual, and more unnerving. The premise is simple and primal: save the sun or die with the Earth. That clarity gives the film real momentum, while the production design and sound work make the ship feel like a fragile human outpost against an indifferent universe.
Worth noting
What lingers most is the movie’s sense of scale. It treats space not as adventure but as exposure, a place where technical competence, faith, and willpower all start to fail under pressure. The cast is strong across the board, and the film keeps finding new ways to make the mission feel both heroic and doomed.
Bottom line
The final stretch is where opinions split. Some viewers will find it overcooked or abrupt, but the escalation also gives the film its identity: a sci-fi thriller that becomes a nightmare about obsession, sacrifice, and staring too long into the void. Even when it misfires, it does so ambitiously.
Top Letterboxd reviews
sophie (4★) · 3942 likes
even with his shitty 2000s emo hair, i am still cillian murphy’s bitch
David Sims (5★) · 3641 likes
the distress signal of Icarus 1 is one of the most plaintive little pieces of sound design ever
davidehrlich (4★) · 2860 likes
me watching this in 2007: "what a hypnotically transportive meditation on god, death, and the inexhaustible flame of humanity."
me watching this in 2023: "the sun is quiet quitting lol"
matt lynch (3.5★) · 2549 likes
I don't entirely disagree with the common complaint that the climax is unnecessarily muddling; who needs a serial killer bad guy when outer space itself is already so hostile? But the villain's Sun God madness is also an example of the competing threads here of pragmatism and spirituality, and there are numerous other instances of the fallible astronauts being simply unable to rationalize or adapt to the inevitable, beautiful, dreadful power confronting them. Typically for Alex Garland these surface ideas… more I don't entirely disagree with the common complaint that the climax is unnecessarily muddling; who needs a serial killer bad guy when outer space itself is already so hostile? But the villain's Sun God madness is also an example of the competing threads here of pragmatism and spirituality, and there are numerous other instances of the fallible astronauts being simply unable to rationalize or adapt to the inevitable, beautiful, dreadful power confronting them. Typically for Alex Garland these surface ideas… more
🦇rosie🦇 (3★) · 2299 likes
have yet to see a space film where everyone just has a nice time
edit: yes i have now seen project hail mary