I’ve never
been a big fan of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY despite its impressive visuals. This is partly due to its fractured vignette
type storyline but also due to its blurring of science and faith. This undercuts the science in science
fiction.
SUNSHINE
is a film that gets the balance right by contrasting the indisputable nature of
science fact through its level of detail of the rigors of space travel, of the
spaceship itself against that of faith represented by the insane captain of a
prior expedition.
The
mission of both the current starship expedition and the prior one was to restart
a dying sun with a giant hydrogen bomb and save the Earth from a fatal ice age.
From
the moment this expedition veers off its course to explore the derelict ship of
the old expedition (this in itself is an act of faith). Disaster strikes. The last 1/3 of the film turns into a horror
movie because of the appearance of Pinbacker the captain of the prior ship who
talks about having conversations with God and God’s will being the death of the
human race.
When
Pinbacker appears, he is blurry or in shade or otherwise distorted, this is
partly to spare the audience the sight of his badly burned body but also because
he’s a man who has become detached from reality, the reality of space, of
physics etc.
Science
wins of course at the end. The mission
is accomplished. The rules of the
natural world apply. Faith only exists
to get in the way of science but is finally triumphed over by rational people.
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