2007, UK
Adventure, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
One crew, one bomb, one long journey and one chance to get it right. No pressure.
Space lives up to its reputation of being the final frontier when our dying star ensures that finality. When Danny Boyle directs writer Alex Garland’s cinematic future, Earth has frozen over and human life depends on the Sun being reignited by a giant bomb guided by eight astronauts.
Their journey is overshadowed by the failure seven years prior by their scientific predecessors from Icarus I. The original spacecraft holds an ominous reference -- that of the Greek mythic figure who flew too close to the sun with wax wings. Doubly foreboding is the second endeavor, the Icarus II.
The crew remains appropriately somber and focused after traveling 16 months in space and each handles the isolation in different ways. Pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne of Marie Antoinette) takes on the emotional weight of the mission, fighting for humanity when cold calculations are necessary. Her foil lies in engineer Mace (Chris Evans of Fantastic Four), who distances himself and makes robotic decisions unless he holds a grudge against someone who has failed in duty.
Psychologist Searle (Cliff Curtis of Whale Rider) becomes obsessed with the mental energy that results from exposure to the sun and treads a fine line between well-being and obsession. As a fellow crew member faces death from the Sun’s burning rays, Searle implores him for the ultimate answers to this bright curiosity rather than providing him with comforting words.
The most important crew member is physicist Cappa (The Wind that Shakes the Barley’s Cillian Murphy). As the fate of the world relies on his ability to spark a big bang that will produce a new star from a dying one, his life becomes top priority. Cappa is begrudgingly drawn into every decision and is thus the center of the film, though it is not filmed solely from his point of view. The camera is omniscient and travels to each character’s dilemma, but ultimately Cappa affects everyone’s destiny.
Boyle visually references many classic sci-fi films such as 2001 and Alien, but also attempts to create a new look in space with cinematographer Alwin Kuchler. Frames are sometimes frozen or set askew and haunted memories flash within blazes of light. There are many close-ups of characters’ irises, often absorbing the wonder of the Sun or being analyzed to better understand a mental state. The ship itself appears as a giant eye when viewed from the right angle. Are the characters witnessing more than they realize?
When faced with the emptiness of space, there is much time for inner reflection and scrutiny of the mission’s purpose. Characters contemplate whether their experience helps them to communicate with God. When does psychological discussion become madness, and why does Boyle choose to personify madness through a physical being? He falters greatly when the film becomes a slasher countdown and sabotage plagues the mission. By attempting to cover all bases, Boyle adds a fissure in what could have been solid as thoroughly contemplative but is now overwrought with destructive chaos.
However, the heart of the film remains in tact even if the body begins to deteriorate. Ashes to ashes, dust to stardust, should we temper with our own fate? When we play God, must we leave behind the humanity we know? Does the Sun hold the answers that the Earth does not? Only a dark future will tell.