Every now and again, I come across a film that makes me ask, "Why in the heck did I not hear about this movie before?" And such was the case with Sunshine, which I discovered years after its release in 2007.
From the director of 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle, Sunshine is a sci-fi thriller that got its inspiration from Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey, except there are no aliens or homicidal AI computers. Sunshine is about our sun dying, and to save Earth's inhabitants, there's a space mission to "restart" the sun by detonating a bomb inside it.
Sunshine is a UK film, but the fantastic international cast comprises Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cliff Curtis, Benedict Wong, and Rose Byrne. Coincidentally, three of them would later be in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. I'm a fan of these actors, and that's partly why I was mystified by not hearing about the film earlier.
Sunshine was released a little over a year before Slumdog Millionaire came out. Slumdog Millionaire ended up winning Best Picture, but in contrast, Sunshine didn't make any money. In fact, it lost over $10 million, yet it still earned accolades. It's another good example of how box office sales do not always represent a film's quality. Sunshine is a sci-fi movie gem and is another independent film that apparently fell victim to not getting all the distribution and marketing it deserved.
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