Remember this film that was released a few years back? Personally I believe it to be one of the best sci-fi films in years. It also had a fantastic soundtrack that people have been begging for! Unfortunately, there were legal issues after the films release, and still, more than 2 years later, the score has yet to be released. For those of you who were enchanted and engaged by the incredible music in the film, I am pleased to announce that it will be finally released this fall! From http://www.sunshinefan.proboards60.com/index.cgi?board=soundtrack&action=display&thread=780 You can listen to the announcement here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/wiueiye6mwg/Sunshine Announcement.mp3 hooray!!! Tristan
Really? I mean the FX were good, but I found it just a bit weird that: The Earth's two last efforts to save itself caused them to send a bunch of 20-somethings into space to save the planet and not seasoned, trained, experienced, aged, seasoned vetrans of some sort. That the fracking computer core didn't have quintuple redundancy (something common on Aegis cruisers, supercarriers, submarines, and on the International Space Station today). I mean -- shit! -- it's only the fate of the ENTIRE PLANET and BILLIONS OF HUMANS at stake, so sure, let's just have one computer core. What's the worst that could happen? That the crew didn't do a simple cost/benefit analysis and say, "Gee wiz, we could go find this other ship or -- hhmmmmmm -- we can complete our mission and save humanity... what should we do???" That the computer, which apparently has eyes and sensors in every crevice of the ship didn't bother to note that another human being had come aboard. One would think that the computer would have offered that information in a timely manner and not at the peak of action when it was no longer useful, "OH, by the way, you're all about to die, so I just wanted to say, someone else has been on board for several days now and he's really sunburned." Speaking of sunburn, that was asinine. The guy survived for -- what? -- several years with no skin. How ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, apparently humanity has these highly intelligent computers that are capable of practically having conversations and running geometrically large equations that we could scarcely comprehend today, so tell me again why they needed to send a crew? It's the sun, we can put landers on Mars safely today to excavate dirt and other detritus, but in 65 years with computers that powerful they cannot, however, send a big metal object to the Sun. Yes, the SUN, the BRIGHTEST and LARGEST object in the Solar System, which object just so happens to be conveniently located in the center of the system with a gravitational pull that makes going there utterly convenient and all but inevitable if you don't have the right momentum. That it didn't dawn on someone that while building this 8km nuclear device they should have built in some oxygen scrubbers (available on submarines now) as a back-up to the ONE LONE arboretum that provides all the air and food. Speaking of food, did it not dawn on them to provide at least two (or hell, TEN) years worth of rations for them just in case they needed them (let's be real: The ship was big enough, and the amount of food a person would minimally consume in a year can easily fit in the standard bedroom with room to sleep). That somehow hierarchical structure was missing from THE MOST IMPORTANT MISSION IN ALL OF HISTORY and that the "Dawson Creak-esque" cast all decided things by committee instead of -- oh, I don't know -- by the highly functional and fluid military structure that has worked for the better part of 8 millennia of human history. It's only the fate of humanity, let's give anarchy a try! Who knows, it might work. That the crew were uni-taskers and didn't seem to know or comprehend the jobs of the other crew, which is moronic to the point of comedy. The last opportunity to save every last human being in the universe, and they didn't even bother to do a talent sweep and then train the people on task-redundancy (common place aboard the shuttle, Apollo missions and submarines to this day). "Ah, I'm a botanist, I don't know computers and stuff." That the one douche-bag didn't seem to know that if you turned the ship the wrong way it would get singed by that big burning yellow plasma ball in the center of the solar system. "Duh, what's that bright disk thingie that is making my eyes burn.... nope, they don't burn anymore, but funny... I can't see now." Yeah, it's the fracking Sun, maybe -- oh, I don't know -- the computer could have automatically corrected the error since it was only the mission to save humanity and all. You can't "restart" the sun with a nuclear device, especially one that is a dust mite in comparison to the human body. The amount of energy released by that entire 8km device would be less than the equivalent of 10m cubed on the sun. Bad story. They should have had them going somewhere else. It would have been believable. ~String
I read the plot summary. Seemed pretty stupid.. Uh.. we've been sending probes to the sun.. we never thought that they'd get burnt you know..Like, we never saw the need for solar shielding. Armegedon was so much more believable, like yeah totally. We're just going to bring a russian on board an American spacecraft in a time of dire stress.
That movie was totally lame too. So, let me get this right, the Air Force was just sitting on these twin super-cool space shuttles in secret hangars (and they nifty forward swept cunards too! because that would be useful in the vacuum of space) and was planning on using the investment, when? Or were they going to sit there and rot waiting for a comet to hit the earth. On the plus side, Paris got blown up. That was kind of fun. ~String
I know dude. I just think the plot was marginally better than armagedon.. I'm just going to stick to BSG: Razor, Why ? BSG=gritty, questioning, allegory and so on.
Totally agree. I'm not going to let superstring's list of (probably valid) complaints ruin it either. I quite enjoyed it.
I won't lie: I went to the theater to see it. I walked away liking it. It was upon further thought and a second viewing that I was flummoxed by all the glaring plot oversights. ~String
I am reminded of the story about the Irish attempt to land a man on the sun, since the US had beaten them to the moon. "But the sun is extremely hot. It will destroy your spacecraft." "Ah, to be sure, we've thought of that sir. We're going to go at night."
Agreed. Most of the challenges that the crew face in the movie are caused by the characters behaving in stupid or bizarre ways and doing things that you just can't imagine any real crew of astronauts on that sort of mission doing. It's also hard to believe that many of the issues in the movie would even be possible. How could the ship's computer possibly not warn the crew when they're about to make a course change that will damage the ship? How could they possibly not have a backup supply of oxygen, especially on a ship that huge?
I've read a story once abouth one of the first missions that visited the asteroid belt, but lost it's magnetic sail so altough they had some fuel it wasn't enough to get them home. So slowly the crew gets all depressed and some commit suicide. Then there is a power surge and the ship recieves a message from unknown origen altough it claims to be alien (it might yust as well been a crewmember to keep hope up) with a rescue plan so in a desperate attempt they manouvre themself in position close to a asteroid and use the cable of the magsail and the asteroid lander to chase and land on the comet bolt the now heavely damaged craft to the surface and weild themself in gaining enoug delta v to use their remaining fuel to make one final course correction toward earth. it's a story from sarah zettel named kinds of strangers, and would make a great and believable space movie
Does anyone know the title/author of the short story that "Sunshine" ripped off without crediting? I remember reading it a long long time ago but I can't recall the title or who wrote it. The title was something like "I'll return to you in the sunlight".
You're right. I think I make allowances when it comes to sci fi/fantasy movies because there are so few made and so few good ones.
I'm not entirely clear on what you mean. Was the asteroid moving relative to them when they attached the ship to it? And the "jerk" from the cable didn't damage their ship?
well it's a good story and you chould definitly read it. Okay the ship was on a 4 year mission to a asteroid all went well for 2,5 years but then the main propulsion system it's magnetic sail looses it's superconducting properties leaving behind a 100 km useless metal wire. And a ship in a elliptical orbit around the sun going nowhere. So the main engine is basicly the only damaged part of the ship it also has some chemical engines but not enough to reach earth or mars (where there are permanent bases). So it's still impossible to send a rescue ship because they would have to build it on earth from scratch and send it on a 2 year voyage afther witch the CO2 scrubbers and emergency ransons would be depleded. So 3 months later all systems are still fine (except the obvious one) they can still even contact earth by radio but still the crew know they are going to die eventual through starvation, malfunctions or radiation all they can do is wait to see what kills them first so some go suicidal and 3 of the seven have killed themself and one is incapacitated afther a attempt. So all hope is lost until suddenly the ship recieves data bursts and recieves a unknown message out of open space that ones translated by the ships AI tells them to look for comets that have past their apogee and are moving toward the inner solar system. The message does not say who send it but it's origen suggest it's alien altough it's clearly suggested that it also could be a hoax by the ships commander to motivate the crew into a last rescue attempt (they never explain it in the end). So they look if there are any comets that will be in de neighberhood and use some of their chemical fuel to pass within 750 km of it. They attach a harpoon to the 100 km cable of the magnetic sail and use the (open) asteroid lander together with one of the 4 remaining crew members (the injured one doesn't do much bt he's still alive). So she moves behind the 3 km wide asteroid shoots her harpoon in the comet that was moving 2km/sec relative to them so they use the remaining 250 km of cable to match speed (during witch they withstand quit some g's). And with that delta v bonus they can manage to reach mars saifly where they aerobrake and all 4 remaining get rescued. There are some subplots on the origen of the message and the EVA get's stranded near the comet so that the actual ship has to get itself closer to the comet to safe the crewmember who fired the harpoon. And most importantly how desperation can change your attitude making this familiar crew act like strangers But basicly that's it's a 25 page story. named: kinds of strangers by sarah zettel
Another good story about a trip to the asteroid belt is Asimov's 'The Martian Way'. Kind of a classic.
asimov is a master, It's dificult te equal his works unless you add lot's of explosions (his works are mainly psychological and contain little or no action thus would make bad movies) I've never read the martian way but I might if I ever find the book and the time
It's a novella iirc, probably 30 or 40 pages, something like that. You'll probably have to look for it in a collection or anthology edition.
I understand all your points, but I don't agree with your conclusion. I don't believe a tenant of good science fiction is for it to be 'believable' or 'realistic' in any sense of the two words. The minute you start saying, well they should have done this... and that... ruins the point of science fiction. I'm sure the author could have made up some reason why this was like this, or that like that... Clearly, the author put things like that for a reason. Otherwise, they'd be different, yes? Not to mention, this is a movie. If most of your points were included, they would have made the movie 6+ hours long. You can't explain EVERYTHING in a movie, it would just take forever and being incredibly boring. You can shut down practically any science fiction with the unbelivability of this or the ridiculousness of that. So why do I like it? And why do I consider it a masterpiece of science fiction? When I read or watch Science Fiction, I suspend what I believe to be true and factual. That's the first step! Otherwise, you'll never like what you're watching/reading at all! The striking visuals combined with the incredible musical score, lathered on top with great acting and a complete lack of cheesy one liners, creates a atmosphere where the characters can be examined - where their humanity can be examined. In my opinion, great Science Fiction is defined by extraordinary situations in which humans are placed in order to explore the humanity in each of us. What would you do in that situation? Go crazy, suicide? It's anybody's guess... I suggest reading Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, quite possibly one of the best science fiction books ever written. It is true to good science fiction, exploring the humanity in us through incredible circumstances. The movie was excellent too (the newer version) if taken as a separate artistic text from the movie. Tristan
