In 2057 the Sun is dying and Earth is sliding into a global freeze that threatens humanity with extinction. Eight astronauts aboard the starship Icarus II head toward the star on a last-chance mission: carry a colossal stellar bomb and detonate it to reignite the Sun. Along the way the crew picks up a distress signal from an earlier expedition that had vanished years before. The choice to divert and investigate tests the group's cohesion, in a journey where every technical slip carries immediate consequences and the distance from home grows harder to bear. The film builds a survival thriller in which the moral weight of the mission falls on a handful of people.

How it was made

Alex Garland wrote the script and Danny Boyle directed, working with producer Andrew Macdonald. Most of the shoot took place at 3 Mills Studios in London, with cinematography by Alwin H. Küchler. John Murphy composed the score, joined by contributions from the band Underworld. The production consulted scientific advisers, including physicist Brian Cox, who also worked with the cast to make the scientific characters feel credible. Cillian Murphy played Capa, a reserved physicist who alone grasps the true scale of the bomb. The ensemble includes Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh and Cliff Curtis. Boyle aimed for a rigorous visual style, with the ship conceived as a confined space and a treatment of sunlight that makes the star both beautiful and menacing.

Reception and legacy

The film premiered at the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany on 23 March 2007 and was released in the United Kingdom on 6 April by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It received generally positive reviews, although its second half, closer to horror, divided some viewers. It grossed about 35 million dollars against a 40 million budget, which made it far from a commercial hit. Production designer Mark Tildesley won Best Technical Achievement at the British Independent Film Awards. Over time it has been reassessed as one of the more ambitious British science fiction films of its decade, often cited for pairing visual rigour with psychological tension.