Sunshine - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Sunshine or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Sunshine

[leo]

Hiroyuki Sanada's character was originally called Kanada but he asked Danny Boyle to change the name to Kaneda, a more natural Japanese name.

[janice]

The interior of the ship was built entirely on London sound stages. Production designer Mark Tildesley deliberately chose to make the ship messy with lots of exposed wiring to resemble the exposed nerves of the crew.

[jesus]

As of 2013, the last Danny Boyle film to be shot entirely on film.

[frances]

In the original screenplay, the Icarus payload was the same size, but was made of highly compressed dark matter (there is no mention of needing fissile material) and had the same mass as the moon, so it had its own gravity (one-sixth the Earth's normal). The science advisor pointed out problems with using a bomb that massive, so it was reduced to the mass of Manhattan. A take with the original line can be seen on the DVD, in a deleted scene.

[wesley]

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland worked on the script for over a year. They then spent a second year in pre-production, filmed for three months and then spent another year editing and working on the visual effects.

[bessie]

(at around 49 mins) When the crew enters Icarus 1, flash frames appear on screen when the flashlights point into the camera. These frames are pictures of the crew of Icarus 1 taken from the group photo seen later. (at around 1h 13 mins) Another few flash frames are seen later when Capa learns that there is a 5th crew member on board.

[camila]

When boarding the Icarus I, one of the crew members jokes that if they were to split up and search the ship, they "might get picked off one at a time by Aliens". This is undoubtedly a reference to Alien (1979) where this happens to Brett and Dallas as they search their ship. Director Danny Boyle was once in talks to direct the fourth film in the Alien franchise (which ultimately became Alien: Resurrection (1997)), but bowed out due to creative differences with the studio.

[maureen]

This movie was the inspiration for Linkin Park's music video for Leave Out All The Rest, which was released one year later; due to the same concept and imagery from the movie.

[bernice]

Filming took place in the 3 Mills Studios in East London. The film employed 8 stages, 17 sets and numerous detailed models. Three film units worked on the film at any one time over the course of the 15 week filming schedule.

[bessie]

"Favorite Movie" of Weekly Planet host James Clement AKA Mr Sunday Movies

[melinda]

The corpses of burn victims in the film were modeled on the Pompeii victims from the Mount Vesuvius eruption.

[kenzi]

Gia Milinovich wrote in the character background stories that Capa (Cillian Murphy) had been obsessed with the Icarus mission ever since he was a kid and felt like an outsider because he is not an astronaut like the rest of the group. Cassie (Rose Byrne) was an air force pilot before entering the space program. She was also pregnant and had an abortion in order to be able to participate in the mission. Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) felt more strongly about the plants and the oxygen garden than her fellow crew members, in her final recorded message to her husband she did not speak and instead simply looked lovingly at the camera for a full minute - she was also the only member of the group to never use the Earth Room. Harvey (Troy Garity) worked on the Icarus I mission as a junior engineer; out of the whole group he scored the highest in all of the fitness tests- His only weakness is his dependence and attachment to his wife and the fear that he will never see her again, he struggles with this throughout the whole mission. Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) is very protective of Capa because he knows that he feels like an outsider. He is obsessed with Icarus I and what led to its downfall. Mace (Chris Evans) comes from a military family (both of his parents were pilots) and grew up in military bases. He is very clear headed and when he attacked Capa it was the exception, not the rule. He has pride and is honest; unfortunately this comes across as rude or cold to those around him. Mace developed feelings for Cassie at the Icarus II training camp, but stifled and ignored those feelings in order to focus on the mission - as a result he dreams of her every night.

[jeffrey]

Cliff Curtis had to leave filming early for personal reasons, so several shots of him (such as entering the bomb compartment) had to be provided by a double wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap. These were deleted when that part of the "test-firing" scene was given to Rose Byrne's character. You can view his double's work on the deleted scenes included on the DVD.

[scarlett]

Scientists estimate that the sun will indeed run out of fuel in about 4 billion years. As its fuel gets used up, it will only get hotter, as opposed to colder, as this film suggests.

[mathew]

Danny Boyle was so impressed with Michelle Yeoh's audition, that he told her that she could choose any part in the script and he would give it to her - he was even prepared to change the gender if she had chosen a male character. She ultimately decided on Corazon, the biologist.

[ivan]

The role of Searle was originally written as a slightly stuffy British character. Cliff Curtis was really interested in playing the character and was given an audition on the strength of his performances in Training Day (2001) and Whale Rider (2002).

[tammy]

Kaneda, the captain, was originally written as an American, but scientist and space experts persuaded Danny Boyle to change the nationality, to make it more in keeping with the international nature of space missions. Hiroyuki Sanada was recommended to Boyle by Kar-Wai Wong.

[ken]

Danny Boyle had never seen any of Troy Garity's work onscreen but was suitably impressed by the actor's audition to cast him.

[claude]

Gia Milinovich wrote character back stories, which were given to the actors, the set dressing department, and costume department.