Empire Magazine Greatest Movies List

Empire Magazine Greatest Movies List - #355: Sunshine

The proof that there are no movie genres British filmmaker Danny Boyle will not tackle, his science-fiction thriller “Sunshine” aims to go where no sci-fi movie has gone before: the inside of the sun. Impossible? Most likely, but then again that is why they attach the word “fiction” to science.

This is a movie to watch on a cold winter afternoon, which is exactly what I ended up doing when I first saw it. I missed out on this film when it first came out in 2007, so I had to make-do and rent the DVD. This was back when I was living off campus at the university of Sherbrooke, in Québec. No roommates, so this was just me in my tiny apartment during one of my days off, unless I would go to the campus’ film club that specialized in cult movies. Seeing “Sunshine” for the first time, I thought it could eventually end up on a cult film list.

Like most outer space adventures, “Sunshine” is set on a single ship with crewmembers who have to learn to live with each other for months. Their ship is the Icarus II and their mission is to succeed where Icarus I failed: reigniting the sun. Sometime in the future the sun is dying, plunging the Earth into a new ice age. The solution is of course to build a ship with a shield powerful enough to penetrate the sun and detonate a bomb inside its core in the hope of heating up the Earth once again. Obviously, this is a one-way ticket.

This being in the near future when humanity has combined all of its resources for a common mission, the crew of the Icarus II is made up of scientists and astronauts from all over the globe. Irishman Cillian Murphy is Robert Capa, the physicist in charge of detonating a bomb with the power to reignite the sun. American Chris Evans is Mace, an engineer, Australian Rose Byrne is Cassie, a pilot, Malaysian Michelle Yeoh is Corazon, a biologist, New Zealander Cliff Curtis is Searle, the ship’s doctor/psychological officer, American Troy Garrity is Harvey, a communications officer, Japanese Hiroyuki Sanada is Kaneda, the ship’s captain, and British born Benedict Wong is Trey, the navigator. Here are seven characters of international backgrounds who each have a specific job on a ship heading towards the warmest place in the solar system.

Like many science-fiction films, the ship itself has a voice, provided by Chipo Chung, making it a full-fledged character. In fact, “Sunshine” has a lot in common with many classics of the genre. “Alien” comes to mind, since the crew eventually has to deal with an unwelcome guest, played by a British actor who specializes in villains. There are also evocations of “Solaris,” “Silent Running” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” as they all feature skeleton crews confined to a ship that has very little chances of landing back on Earth one day.

Yet “Sunshine” manages to stand on its own two feet. For one thing, in this age of green screens it is admirable to see a production crew willing to build giant stages and sets for the ship’s interiors. Michelle Yeoh’s biologist is in charge of providing the ship with enough oxygen to make it to its far-away destination, and in order to do so; she has her own garden filled with oxygen producing plants. Just about each character has his own special room for his or her job on the ship.

Of all of these characters, Searle, the psychological officer is initially the most disturbing. He may be in charge of the crew’s sanity, but he has the unusual habit of sitting in a room with a pair of sunglasses and staring at the sun while constantly lowering the window’s solar shield. It is as though he is a moth staring at the world’s biggest flame, and is wondering what is the burning point.

The film goes into action mode in the third act with the introduction of a character whose survival is very improbable, but until then, this is a very psychological tale. Imagine having to live in a metal box for months, with only six other people, and knowing you will die if your mission succeeds. On the flip side, if your mission fails, everyone you know on Earth will eventually die of cold. Now, how do these crewmembers sleep at night? This may be inaccurate science fiction, but it is very compelling fiction.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #147: Notorious

Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) has many of the master director’s signature elements: spies, lies, a handsome leading man, a domineering mother, and of course a MacGuffin. As it is set after World War II the villains are logically former Nazis, but the plot is so tense in many scenes that it remains an effective thriller to this day. It also bears a huge influence on John Woo’s Mission Impossible 2 , which retains plot elements and similar dialogue, but of course has more explosions than all of Hitchcock’s films put together. Notorious is so well-made it can be studies in film classes, which is exactly what I did while taking a course on Hollywood Cinema 1930-1960 during the summer of 2009 at the University of British Columbia. As this is Hitchcock we are talking about here, there are subtler things to analyze than explosions in Notorious , no offense to the skills of Mr. John Woo. Famously there is a kissing scene between stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman that seemingly las...

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #91: Return of the Jedi

If you want someone to give you death stares, tell a die-hard Star Wars fan the original trilogy is not perfect. I am however going to take a risk and write that if there is one major flaw with Return of the Jedi (1983) is a lack of imagination when it comes to the central plot. After the good guys blow up the Death Star in the first movie, the bad guys are almost done building a brand new one, which of course needs to be destroyed again in more or less the same way. Richard Marquand may be directing this time, but it was still George Lucas writing. Plot hole aside, as a kid you can’t help but have fun as the good guys join forces with a tribe of living teddy bears to get the job done. Like many people in their early 30s, I was introduced to the first Star Wars trilogy by my parents who had recorded the movies, commercials included, when they were showing one night on TV. Upon first viewing, a few things stick out in the mind of a young boy watching Return of the Jedi such as:...

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #85: Blue Velvet

Exactly how do you describe a David Lynch movie? He is one of the few directors whose style is so distinctive that his last name has become an adjective. According to Urban Dictionary, the definition of Lynchian is: “having the same balance between the macabre and the mundane found in the works of filmmaker David Lynch.” To see a prime example of that adjective film lovers need look no further than Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), which does indeed begin in the mundane before slowly sinking in macabre violence. My first introduction to the world of David Lynch was through his ground breaking, but unfortunately interrupted, early 1990s TV series Twin Peaks . This was one of the first television shows to grab viewers with a series-long mystery: who killed Laura Palmer? A mix of soap opera, police procedural, and the supernatural, it is a unique show that showed the darkness hidden in suburbia and remains influential to this day. Featuring Kyle MacLachlan as an FBI investigator with a l...

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