In a film called Sunshine, it's pretty obvious that the focal point is going to revolve around the Sun in some type of way. Sunshine focuses on a crew's mission to reboot the Sun, in order to sustain life on Earth. This represents a common fear of humans I believe; that such a small variable- a star lightyears away, is absolutely neccessary for life on Earth. This film defintely plays on this universal fear of the Sun failing Earth, but it also turns the introspect inwards on humanity, which in my opinion is a major trope of the sci-fi genre.
The sun itself can almost be considered as a character in Sunshine. It appears in many scenes as the focal point of the shot; it is looming and impressive over the ship, or through the viewing screen. It dominants every scene it's pictured in, especially with the help of the vibrant orange color and the fact that you can see its burning surface. Everything else is shot with a much darker color scheme, mostly shades of black and blue. The ship itself is very shaded, with a sterile feeling to every aspect. Even the room filled with plants, the main source of oxygen, is dark compared to shots of the sun. This is also seen when artifical light is viewed- it is blueish and just seems cold compared to the vibrancy and warmth of the actual Sun.
While the sun is a literally a star, that's what it is in Sunshine in a non-literal sense. The characters all react to the sun in different ways, which is partially what brings me to my conclusion of the sun also representing humanity. Their lives all revolve around the sun, but not just in the sense that it is their mission and that they need the Sun to exist. I think that this film also makes the connection that the sun represents the purest form of humanity and morality. These characters will sacrifice anything to save it. The crew of Icharus II struggle to both save the sun and protect their ideals in the face of it, which brings us to an age old question of philosophy- which matters more, the means to the end, or just the end?
We both had a similar approach to understanding the role of the sun in this movie. You talk about how the sun acts as a character in the movie and represents humanity. While I focused on how the sun acted as a character in the sense that it is appealing to look at and draws most of the crew to continuously look at it, but in the end it turns out to kill all of them. The sun has this good and bad attribute about keeping the human race going, but also provides such a power that beyond any human could understand. It has beauty and awe, but a serious and dangerous dark side that will always show itself when need be.
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