Sunshine

Good science-fiction uses the future as a means to ask hard questions and help us investigate ourselves and the world without the normal constraints. Sunshine does this excellently. Brit Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions) tries his hand at yet another genre and succeeds. The film centers around a crew of eight who is sent to the surface of the sun. Why? Because the sun is a dying star; it is burning out. Without the sun, our planet will die. So we as humanity have made a bomb the size of Manhattan, and we need to get that bomb to the center of the sun. Thus, the bomb will create a new star in the dying one. The crew (including Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeow, Chris Evans and Cliff Curtis) has been in space for a long time. Their ship is attached to the back of the bomb. They have a shield on the front of the ship that blocks the uber-intense heat of the sun. Their plan is to get close enough to the surface of the dying star to jettison the bomb, turn around, and head back to earth. The ship is aptly called the Icarus. Humankind has tried this before, and the first attempt failed seven years ago. This Icarus is earth's last hope; the earth has been depleted of bomb resources. If this mission fails, all humanity dies.

There is a dichotomy here. Our strongest desire is to survive. The death of nearly 7 billion people would be a horrible thing. We should do everything in our power to save our planet. God entrusted this planet to us, and we are called to be its steward. Yet there is this nagging feeling that we are playing God. We are putting the future of the universe in our own hands and manipulating everything for our own benefit. Do we have the right? Most people would say yes without question. But one man in the film has a different view of this. Is he crazy? He claims to

talk directly to God. What does God want? God loves his people, He would want the best for them. He created the world and said that it was good. Why would God allow the world to be destroyed then? Is this a test? God gave us the scientific ability to save the world, so why shouldn't we? Or is the dying of the sun God's plan, His judgment? The underlying questions of Sunshine are fundamental. Science and God are not opposing ideas. God created everything, and science is how we understand what God created. Yet how should we use science?

Sunshine looks stunningly beautiful. The pictures of the sun, its incredible heat, the vacuum of space, and the surface of Mercury all put us there. We are truly reminded of God's infinite power and creativity. And we are dwarfed by God's creation. Who is man, why do we think we are so great in the face of all this grandeur and majesty? If the sun-shield is turned just 1.1%, disaster could occur. Anything outside of the shield is immediately engulfed in flames. The temperature in the shadow, even that close to the sun, is -273 degrees celcius. Just imagine.

This film brings us face to face with eternal questions. It makes us investigate not only ourselves and our motives, but humanity as a whole. What is our place in the universe. To what extent would we go to save ourselves? Should we be allowed to save ourselves? Let us remember that God's creation is great, awe-inspiring, and powerful. And let us remember that we have a place in it. After He created man, God said it was "very good." God does take particular interest in us, He created us in our image. He also sent His son in our form to save us. We are very special to Him. So what does all of that mean in terms of the possible end of the world?