Sunshine (2007)
SBS 2, Wednesday, 10.25pm
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
"Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun
Whoa mama, that's where the fun is…"
Indeed it is, Bruce!
In last week's movie, Knowing, despite the best efforts of Nicholas Cage, the Earth was spifflicated by a massive burst of solar radiation.
Our life-sustaining sun suffered a hissy fit, disgorging deadly gamma rays across the galactic vastness to precipitate an extinction level event.
Toodle-ooh humanity with this promising and verdant planet incinerated in a welter of SFX.
The time frame for those events was 2009 so we know, despite the scientific plausibility underscoring such a scenario, it was a figment of the imagination.
Phew!
So, gentle flakes of dust, let us ponder other unpleasant possibilities threatening our fair and cheerful future.
Set your watches for the year 2057 and start biting your nails as scientists reveal our beloved G2V ball of plasma is about to snuff out.
What?! The benign yellow dwarf, 3000 degrees on the surface, 20 million at its core, cranking out 38 billion megawatts of energy, is running out of juice? Geddadavit!
Countless docos insist the sun is roughly halfway through it's stable phase and we're good for another 4.5 billion years before the hydrogen eventually runs out.
It will in fact become hotter before it begins to cool so what the devil is going on?
It seems theoretical particles known as Q Balls are the culprit. Q Balls are, apparently, nuclear remnants of the Big Bang.
Step forward Professor Brian Cox and a bunch of earnest men in lab coats to jabber on about non-linear and non-topological solitons – theoretic entities being sought by the team at CERN's celebrated Hadron Collider and described as "particles with a certain balance of non-linear dispersive effects".
Righto! Gotcha!
Looks like we need to send a specially equipped spacecraft out into the cosmos, armed with a colossal noocular device to re-ignite the sun's ailing fission process and keep the sunscreen industry buoyant for another few centuries.
Failure means an endless nuclear winter of discontent.
So all aboard the 16-month, one-way Icarus Mission with a magnificent seven crew of international kamikaze astronauts mounting the bombing run on behalf of mankind.
Cillan Murphy is Mission Commander Robert Cappa, ably assisted by Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne – who was fatally hit by a truck in last week's sci-fi film – Hiroyuki Sanada and Cliff Curtis.
With its $20 million budget, Danny Boyle's film shows you don't have to spend like the blessed Jerry Bruckheimer to get a reasonable result.
The Independence Day movies cost $165 million apiece and Armageddon $140 million (with a box-office return over half a bill) – easily enough to fund this entertaining mission. The yarn sags a little when it should be tightening, but let's face it – it's not a perfect world.
Still worth saving though.
