Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine" - io9 Comments

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

cabooyah — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:02:25 PST

try to think what makes a good film - characters, plot, story, music, moments that remind of us our humanity

sunshine is not the greatest film ever made, and it annoys me that they even had to have a villain, some stranded burnt out captain waiting for the divine, but when capa makes that jump, when he literally sees his greatest nightmare before him, what can he do? what can YOU do? man is a symbol using animal - in the end we are a darwinian equation - we are dust, as they say in the film - so when you have the choice to die or live, what will you do?

some of your standards for making science fiction films: monsters, nudity, explosions... you guys are the reason why science fiction sucks these days - and then you whine and complain when hollywood pumps out sci-fi crap year after year

again, sunshine is not the greatest film ever made - but it has moments, it has has our greatest antagonist, ourselves - and we are standing at the door of the only thing in the universe capable of destroying a planet other than us... the sun - when capa makes that jump, he makes it for all of us - remember that

cabooyah

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Pope John Peeps II — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:31:56 PST

@ceriphim: this is not actually true, and is an extremely silly statement. The difference between our atmosphere and a vacuum is 1 atmosphere of pressure.

If we can hold our breath against the squeezing power of great amounts of water (way, way more than a single atmosphere in pressure) then we can easily hold it against a vacuum.

Pope John Peeps II

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Pope John Peeps II — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:29:57 PST

Charliejane,

Not to nitpick. But you are writing an article nitpicking other people's science.

Anyhow, air escaping from your lungs is not "the bends". The bends is when gases in your blood that are dissolved because of start to un-dissolve too quickly because of a pressure differential, and form bubbles in your bloodstream.

Pope John Peeps II

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Selcouth14: Add 28 for the answer — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:09:06 PST

@ceriphim: As else mentioned above, speculative science is fine, just because something hasn't been proven to exist (or not exist) doesn't make it so. This is a fucking Sci-Fi blog so suspension of reality shouldn't be a huge step for us readers...the same applies for movies. Besides, why would string theorists be concerned with Q-Balls? Oh wait...because one is a theory of how atoms and sub-atomic particles work together to form the known universe and the other is left over from the beginning of the universe and could quite possibly be comprised of the same particles/strings from said string theory.

Selcouth14: Add 28 for the answer

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

else — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:32:19 PST

In general, i think that speculative science is fine, fake science is not. It might be my pedantic side showing but making things up wrong just looks like poor fact checking.

I loved the storyline of Sunshine, but i really hated that they chose to rely on big effects and used them instead of shoring up some of the weaker points of the film.

I also disliked the main nerdy character (in the space suit in the clip above). I thought his acting was pretty weak. That and the poor choice to throw money at CGI where it wasn't needed detracted from the experience and made me want my $10 back from the box office.

else

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Cuprohastes — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:38:42 PST

I just watched Sunshine. This was not the best of anything. This film was crap. If it was any worse, I'd assume Uwe Boll had directed it.
If you haven't seen this film... don't bother. If you did, you lost 90 minutes of your life.

Cuprohastes

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

spudzill — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 02:50:54 PST

Rodneyoscopy. Yeah. I agree. And a good sci-fi movie should have a truly massive doses of all those elements. Continuously.

spudzill

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

ceriphim — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:31:05 PST

@selcouth14: Higher understanding? RTFA. Q-Balls were pretty much pulled right out of the physics consultant's PhD ass. He even says as much in the article. It's pure conjecture, even string theorists wouldn't touch the "Q-Ball" theory, and they're mostly full of ... hot air.

ceriphim

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

FrankenPC — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:49:47 PST

@dmoisan:

Saturn 3 was pretty decent. The beginning scene was because Harvey Keitel's evil character wanted to take the ship to Saturns moon. But he had been deemed psychologically unsound (in short, he was a homicidal maniac). So, he killed the real pilot and took his place.

Anyway, Wiki it. One of the BEST sci-fi robots of the day was in that movie, Hector. FREAKY as hell.

FrankenPC

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

monkeemike — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:06:20 PST

I have not had a chance to see this movie yet but the entire idea to go to the sun in a suicide style mission has been done before in this B ( or even C) type sci-fi movie from the late 80s or early 90s. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the film but in that movie the sun got too hot so earth was turning into a desert , so they sent a last effort mission to regulate the sun ( or whatever nonsense like that) and it was a suicide run they knew they cannot comeback and all . The plot also featured a sabotage onboard the ship , as one of corporations wanted the sun hot so they can make money with water they had - they got one of the female member of the crew ( insert a nude shower scene) hypnotized or programmed via implanting some thing in her retina ( her my memory is fuzzier the ever) to do their bidding . Off course in the end the crew sacrifices themselves and save the world the end.

Anyhow anybody knows that film or am I on drugs and mad it all up ?

monkeemike

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Selcouth14: Add 28 for the answer — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 08:41:15 PST

Minus the whole sound in space thing...and the flash freezing...and the ghost issues this movie was still light years (see what I did?) ahead of most space movies. I remember reading on the film fansite that the reasoning behind the sun's demise was due to a Q-Ball tearing through it but they didn't want to put that in the film because of the higher understanding needed to appreciate it. [www.sunshinedna.com]

The ending was truly touching though, seriously it was beautiful.

Selcouth14: Add 28 for the answer

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

dmoisan — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:39:40 PST

I remember the low-budget "Saturn 5" with Farrah Fawcett; the opening scene has two people in a compartment, and one guy hits an "emergency" button that dumps the contents to space (why???) The other guy goes screaming out into the void and explodes into pieces like a side of meat.

dmoisan

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:32:41 PST

Yes, FredicvsMaximvs, I was wrong. Sorry, I haven't seen nearly enough SF as I thought I had. Someone up there already corrected me with a lil bit more leniency.

aspiringexpatriate

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Rodneyoscopy — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:52:50 PST

Look. I hated this film.

I am all about the science fiction film as an adult form. '2001,' Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' and 'Solyaris,' 'THX1138,' and even the gloriously campy but jammed-with-ideas 'Zardoz.'

But unless a director can rise to that ideal, it's just embarrasing. Sunshine's awkward attempts to convey a kind of heavy poetic bleakness made me cringe.

Sunshine is a film which would have really benefitted from 1.) a cool monster, 2.) some badass robots, 3.) rayguns, 4.) nudity 5.) some more huge explosions in space-- Ones that made sound.

Rodneyoscopy

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Dekker — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:33:12 PST

I'm not advocating this (out loud) but has a space agency ever actually put small animals in the vacuum, unprotected to see what the effects would be on a living specimen? Keep in mind that this is coming from the guy who voted the Laika Graphic Novel as best of 2007... so I'm not without compassion in regards to animal testing. I'm just interested in if had ever been done and if so what the results were.

Dekker

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

FredicvsMaximvs — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:48:29 PST

@aspiringexpatriate: I think (and I'll have to check it momentarily on my DVDs) that Space 1999>/i> treated space as being silent.

FredicvsMaximvs

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

ceriphim — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:20:14 PST

@cde: Popped eyes, no. Asphyxiation and death? Yes.

Mars atmospheric pressure is between 1/150 and 1/100 of Earth's (Or .6 to 1 kPa, if you prefer).

ceriphim

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

abqhalsey — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:56:13 PST

@aspiringexpatriate:

"freeze-dried Popsicle"? AKA "a stick"?

(and a small amount of powdered coloring and flavoring)

abqhalsey

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:44:58 PST

Yeah, Dasid, was only realeased in the US limited this summer. Makes you hate big conglomerate studios, no? We didn't get Children of Men until six months after London.

aspiringexpatriate

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:44:06 PST

@SinisterRouge: Aye, he was. I was defending the use of 'flyboy' not insulting his performance.

aspiringexpatriate

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

da5id_nz — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:42:59 PST

I haven't seen Sunshine yet, but the movie has been out on DVD here in NZ since mid-October last year. And you guys are only getting it now?

da5id_nz

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

shudderstep — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:32:42 PST

I thought Sunshine was resoundingly...meh. I've loved prety much everything Danny Boyle's done and Cillian Murphy is simply wonderful, but a movie that essentially consists of every possible way for someone to die in space (in almost checklist form) that turns into "haunted house...in SPACE!" at the end can't be saved even by Boyle's hyperactive style.

Or Murphy's beautiful bone structure.

shudderstep

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

cde — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:27:31 PST

@CMG: The devil made it happen.

@FrankenPC: Thats different. In mars, there is still air (not human breathable) and air pressure, so popped eyes are possible.

cde

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

ceriphim — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:16:17 PST

@collinxvii: You don't want to hold your breath if exposed to a vacuum. You want to exhale as much as possible and get all the air out of your lungs. Otherwise your lungs will rupture and you'll die suffocating on your own bloody froth.

ceriphim

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

comp_wiz101 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:13:53 PST

@Falconfire: You have to give them credit though... most of the space sound effects in Serenity were during the big battle at the end, the rest of the movie tended to have very muted effects, as if it were rattling through your spacesuit or something. Visually, I always liked how you could see a ship enter the atmosphere and watch contrails appear.
I am a hopeless Firefly fanboy.

comp_wiz101

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

FrankenPC — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:12:26 PST

HEY! I thought everyones eyes popped out like in Total Recall and Outland! This is a real let down!

FrankenPC

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

SinisterRouge — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:10:18 PST

@Falconfire: Apparently the mass market didn't get any of it. Fools.

SinisterRouge

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

k.leigh — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:03:10 PST

@j0hnnyb: Ugh. I was so geeking happy through the first, like, two thirds of the movie. It was really, really good.

And then the freakin' zombie sunburn guy had to show up and ruin everything. Seriously, why?

k.leigh

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Falconfire — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:59:39 PST

@aspiringexpatriate: A few more than two have done it, those are the only ones who have done it that people will know what your talking about.

And funny enough when Firefly jumped to the big screen, they added sound too, because they felt that the mass market wouldnt get the no sound thing.

Falconfire

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

SinisterRouge — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:30:02 PST

@HeyThereKiller: Well, my bad, I honestly thought you were being sarcastic...Apologies.

@aspiringexpatriate: Whatever, he was fucking GOOD in Sunshine .

SinisterRouge

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

HeyThereKiller — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:23:52 PST

@SinisterRouge: this blog is making me regret not bringing my star wars encyclopedia... and tales from jabba's palace to my apartment...

HeyThereKiller

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:19:08 PST

Oh.

Also, Chris Evans plays a flyboy, in all senses of the stereotype.

aspiringexpatriate

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

SinisterRouge — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:19:03 PST

@CMG: Yeah..I just liked the mind-fuck of it.

SinisterRouge

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

SinisterRouge — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:18:44 PST

@HeyThereKiller: You're totally a better geek than me! :eyeroll: Hilarious. And now I remember what I hate about fellow sci-fi fans.

SinisterRouge

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

SuperUnison — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:07:32 PST

Hey, keep in mind, one character does address another as "flyboy" in this clusterfuck. Let's not forget that it's that far from being good, huh?

SuperUnison

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

HeyThereKiller — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:06:23 PST

@aspiringexpatriate: Actually I was being completely sincere... i think the movie had incredible sound design, and i really loved the sound that the sun made

HeyThereKiller

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

cmg — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:01:47 PST

@SinisterRouge: See, I was all set for a good psychological thriller. The beginning fulfilled that, but in my opinion, the second half was a bit of a schlock-fest. I will admit that I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to the horror flick.

cmg

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:01:06 PST

@HeyThereKiller:
ouch. That's sarcasm with bite. Only two space movies/tv shows have refused to put sound in space, 2001 and Firefly. It's just convention now.

aspiringexpatriate

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

j0hnnyb — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:58:33 PST

@Acemarauder: Agreed. The cool part of the movie was the voyage, the weird things that happens to people's minds, and the jury rigging, not the zombie with the bad sun burn.

Charlie, "a bit iffy" is the understatement of the year (so far... it's early yet.)

j0hnnyb

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

HeyThereKiller — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:54:05 PST

@SinisterRouge: I never realized how loud and awesome sounding the sun was

HeyThereKiller

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

ExtensionOfBob — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:49:57 PST

@CMG: Event Horizon? That movie was pretty scary. Maybe b\c I was all of...really young. But again, what it lacked in scientific logic, it made up for in suspense and action (IMHO).

ExtensionOfBob

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

SinisterRouge — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:48:54 PST

@CMG: I remember the awesome-ness that was Event Horizon . That movie is severely under-appreciated.

And I loved Sunshine . The scene where they were fixing the shield was a-mazing.

SinisterRouge

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

ExtensionOfBob — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:48:24 PST

The question is: did he know this? When is it ok to bend the rules for dramatic effect? Because let's be honest, the freezing was much more interesting to the non-scientifically minded, than, you know, a simple loss of consciousness.

That being said, I thought the movie was great until the end. We did not need a personified antagonist. There was already enough conflict.

ExtensionOfBob

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:46:28 PST

That's fair. The first half of the film was brilliant. I didn't mind the ending, because they still pulled off some interesting things. However, my big problem with the science was the nonsensical rotating sections. The antenna rotated, but not the greenhouse, which had gravity, and it didn't look like the bridge rotated, but had gravity. And then the payload had really cool gravity system, cause it was just that big.

aspiringexpatriate

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

ElijahDProphet — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:45:44 PST

But would his eyes pop out do to the pressure behind them?

ElijahDProphet

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

WickedGlee — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:45:36 PST

In 2001: A Space Odyssey that is how Dave gets back into the mothership, going around HAL's blockade of the doors.

WickedGlee

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

mattnyc99 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:45:31 PST

Yet the flick's resident scientist (from CERN, no less), claims you could, in fact, blow up the sun: [www.popularmechanics.com]

mattnyc99

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

cmg — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:44:53 PST

Who remembers that horror-in-space crapfest "Event Horizon"? There was a character that was sucked out an airlock (can't for the life of me remember why) and he basically ruptured along the seams. Fairly gross.

cmg

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

papercup mixmaster — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:41:36 PST

This gets me thinking that it might be interesting to feature an expanded look at different SF works' depictions of what happens to the unprotected human in a vacuum. So, here we see the freeze-drying effect in action; whereas Ford and Arthur are safe simply by holding their breath (albeit for an incredibly short time).

papercup mixmaster

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

Acemarauder — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:38:01 PST

The speculative science in the film was interesting, but overall the film was quite a dud - eventually focusing too little on the engaging idea of man's first trip to the Sun and too much on the ghost-in-outer-space crap.

Acemarauder

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

tetracycloide — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:36:03 PST

@tetracycloide: *no mass

i cannot believe i just did that... wait yes i can

tetracycloide

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

tetracycloide — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:35:33 PST

Yeah it actually takes quite a while for the 'coldness' of space to freeze something because vacuum has little to know mass in it and therefor nothing to suck the heat away from you.

tetracycloide

Bad Science Looks Killer In "Sunshine"

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:35:16 PST

Holy crap. Farscape was semi-kinda-flimsily accurate? That's bigger news than anything else I'd heard of. I thought the freeze-dried popsicle thing was accurate cause of that B5 story Franklin told. Cause JMS made a big fuss about how he tried to be accurate. Crazy.

aspiringexpatriate