Ah, there always has to be one polarizing movie on a list, right?
Directed by the beloved Danny Boyle, Sunshine is the fuel for many science fiction arguments, with some saying it is starts off as a sci-fi film, but quickly derails into a horror thriller in the last 45 minutes. While that very well may be the case, I don’t understand how that makes it any less sci-fi? Someone explain that to me please?
Sunshine is about a crew, handpicked to go reignite the sun using a nuclear bomb, and save all of mankind of the verge of the sun’s death, which will wipe out all of humanity if they don’t pull this off. And while it does go from pure science fiction to horror towards the end of the film, the film loses no momentum or any of its credibility because of that.
The idea that being alone in space can drive even the most sane man crazy is a completely reasonable concept to breach when you make movies like this, and Sunshine touches on that. Moon, mentioned above, deals with the same issues, but does it in far less visceral manner, so no one had any issues with its darker themes. In my opinion, as gory as Sunshine may get at the end, it is still a staggeringly beautiful movie to look at, and one helluva ride to take.
So, I can confidently tell you that we are, in pop culture, experiencing a complete science fiction resurgence. And I didn’t even need to talk about the most recent (awesome) Star Trek movies, or the forthcoming Star Wars movies to prove that. I haven’t even spoken of science fiction TV like Under the Dome or Defiance. And I don’t need to. It is pretty clear science fiction is finally getting its much deserved props. And hopefully with movies like Elysium coming out, the trend of great science fiction will only continue to “live long and prosper.”
Bam. Nailed it.