The Sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope is a spaceship, a crew of eight men and women and a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, the mission is starting to unravel. Soon the crew are fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.
Alex Garland (born 1970) is a British novelist, screenwriter, and director.
Garland is the son of political cartoonist Nick (Nicholas) Garland. He attended the independent University College School, in Hampstead, London, and the University of Manchester, where he studied art history.
His first novel, The Beach, was published in 1996 and drew on his experiences as a backpacker. The novel quickly became a cult classic and was made into a film by Danny Boyle, with Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Tesseract, Garland's second novel, was published in 1998. This was also made into a film, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers. In 2003, he wrote the screenplay for Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, starring Cillian Murphy. His third novel, The Coma, was published in 2004 and was illustrated with woodcuts by his father.
In 2007 he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine—his second screenplay to be directed by Danny Boyle and star Cillian Murphy as lead. Garland also served as an executive producer on 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later.
Garland also wrote the first screenplay for Halo, the film adaptation of the successful video game franchise by Bungie Studios.
He made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a 2014 feature film based on his own story and screenplay.
I can't remember who it was that said God was dead. Stephen Hawking? Actually, I don't really want to talk about that. I would have to hold inside of me what absolutely everyone everywhere else (and more every second) believed about or in God. What was and what isn't. Do the dead go on living with you after they are gone? I don't know what I really believe in either. It's not a place where there had been something and now isn't, or where there is a lack. If I'm honest there's a lot of fear of being bad. I'm terrified that my crippling self-hatred would be founded within something so big that I'd never be able to escape it. I don't feel enough hope that it'd be like love to want to face it. Can it just not be over? Who is some famous guy that people care about to decide for me who is an ant from outer space (and probably really freaking boring for the government spies). Unless rapper Slug is right that God loves ugly.
The Sun is dying like in the Narnia story The Magician's Nephew. The curious girl takes the boy along with her, at the trickery of the belly sliding fat Uncle Andrew, to the wood between the world's. Waking up from could've been endless summer or endless love or something stupor. The wood of the snap out of it. One of the world's they go to has this dying sun. It's not like our young sun. Someone put the shade over the lamp and someone spoke deplorable words like when you're told you'll be loved forever and forever turns out to not be very long at all. Sleep the pain away those who heard the words. The liar doesn't die like how it hurts more to extract the bullet than when it goes in. She goes with the children and she has apples for all the gardens, there are words of terror or whatever it is you want to hear. It's got some light at the end of the tale that everything is going to be okay if you snap out of the between the worlds stupor. This story does. It has faith. I know that the what you want to hear would be the words of terror, for some. I think it is the I'm doing it right and the others are doing it wrong righteous fury that would make some not be afraid in the way that I am. I come back to hope again, rather than faith.
I agree with complaints that the final act when Pinbacker from Icarus I hunts down the crew of Icarus II is a mess. It wasn't too interesting to read fight scenes in screenplay form, anyway. My twin once said that she listened for Luke Skywalker's "Yeah!" to cue her to when fight scenes were finally over. I'm not that bad but this dragged on. "Look behind you!" "Oh my god, is he behind me?" BUT, I did appreciate that blueprint that Cassie has a smile on her face when she meets the awesome end. I can hope for someone to have that that is not hard at all to "act" it in my mind the way that I would in the old days when I lived for emotional connections in films. I could almost feel it in my own smile lines. Pinbacker is terrified. He is afraid of God unless he knows his place. I envy Cassie her acceptance so much. I don't want Pinbacker's righteousness. This almost makes up for the bloated final act. That said, I can't help but feel that the action forced attention away from the slow burn that just spending the time, not sure of their final outcome, had. Wanting the end, fearing it. I was interested in the questions more than in the answer. I really just wanted them to have it without some asshole coming in and making up the answer with his own.
This is not a film review disguised as a book review. I would never do such a thing! How dare you think such a heinous thing of me... Okay, I would (hi, I break rules that I don't know about on goodreads. There's a place for me in hell for review reposting) but that is neither here nor there as I haven't seen the film Sunshine. I read Alex Garland's screenplay. To make a long story shorter, I have in the past enjoyed reading screenplays for films I have and haven't seen (same goes for stage plays. This is embarrassing so I won't get into the whole learning how to write by seeing how others did it thing. It's ridiculous for me to do that. It's good advice for people, though! It would also give people who hand off sole credit to the director and ignore the screenwriter food thought. Spike Jonze no way no how deserved all the credit for Being John Malkovich. Charlie Kaufman also deserved more than a lot for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Screenwriters are important! End Rant). It's my mental head space of a stage play. It would probably be painfully bad for anyone else to see but this kind of stuff has seen me through avoiding tedious or painful realities times over. It's the mental painting. The strokes were not all done for me by someone else (the filmmakers). I saw a different movie than Danny Boyle's film in my mind. Okay, this isn't to say that I'm not going to watch Sunshine. I very much want to see it. There are feelings between the characters with its own gravitational pull that I want to see how the actors handle it (okay, I kind of really, really dislike Chris Evans. Rational dislike! He sucks. I was dismayed to learn that he plays Mace). That Alex Garland could do it with a screenplay is amazing to me (and why I like to read screenplays). You could call it the spark of the flame. The something there in the dark and the actors are the flesh so that eyes can believe what is there. I feel like I could learn how they do it if I read enough, see enough. There might be enough within and without myself to have what these creators do. If I could do that it would be easier to have faith in what others say where there is no proof. In theory, anyway.
Cillian Murphy plays Capo in Sunshine. When I was younger I admired him a lot in Disco Pigs. There's a moment I wonder how it reads in the script. His never forgot how to play as a kid does character has outgrown his life before he's ready. He exchanged a challenged look with a little kid (his brother?), a rather unfortunate mouth breathing fat boy. The kid seems to know that Murphy doesn't fit. He knows the kid knows he doesn't fit. He's positioned with this one look. I imagined countless times kids staring/judging me just like that. It's exposed. Why did so much with that small moment. I used to live for that kind of stuff! I'm keen to see what he does with Capo who would live outsized in his mind and outlived in the universe. He holds the silver chess piece and can hold the universe with the idea in his hand. This I see in my mind. This I believed when it came to the end. I knew what he was going to take the leap with it before I read it. You'll have to see the film (or read it) to make the earlier connection with the silver chess piece. I really liked the belief in larger than himself set up. In this he had his own proof. I liken it to a composer knowing what music will sound like before they have actually heard it. In Capo's head he had the future as science like possible notes to be played. When he's wrong he is shaken and has to take the leap again.
It's all dramatic and stuff when life and death decisions have to be made. It's like the lifeboat scenario when some can survive if one abandons ship (or is forced off). I know there's a lot of movie type of stuff. Hey, we're going to save the Earth. The mission! Sunshine is special for the in between spaces of time and waiting. The hope, really.
The truth is I have to wait until I can buy the movie and the screenplay was easy for me to get. Long story shorter, my favorite goodreader Canadian has referenced this film a few times over the years and I was intrigued to know what it was that Kaneda could see. Did Kaneda see God? He is consumed in powerful light. He's not voided in darkness. I think it was probably a good cinematic moment when Capo says that he can live without going home again if he gets to see the sun. I don't think many of them there were only there to save the Earth from the Sun's death. Some of the characters I didn't care too much about, though. Trey, Corazon and Harvey were not flesh for me. Why THEM? It didn't have to be them. Kaneda had his eyes open. To me, who is afraid to do that, that was pretty powerful stuff.
Alex Garland's introduction was pretty interesting. Danny Boyle believed that the Sun was God. Garland is an atheist. I agree that it is the same as what any two (or all) people could take from what is around and happening to them. I liked the best about Sunshine, felt the most moved by, that yearning. What story one would see and the something inside of them that chooses a meaning. I can at least feel warmth from Cassie's smile even as I don't have faith in invisible Gods and awesome Suns. When Searle asks again what Kaneda can see. He believes in something as Kaneda believes in what he is seeing. That did something to me when Searle asks Kaneda what he can see. The script says he is intense. In my mind it stretches out into his past that it would have all been worth it. It might be mercy. I loved that he asked him what he saw. That's so much better than some guy saying that God is dead.
The death of a gnat is a star's mouth: its skin, like Mary's or Semele's, thin as the skin of fire: a star fell on her. A sun devoured her.
Alex Garland wrote one of my fave books/movies The Beach. He has brought an amazing perspective in this book. The movie is awesome. I watched it twice in one weekend. The sci-fi is intriguing and not over the top. The psycho-thrillerness kept me at the edge of my seat. Reading this book (which is basically the screenplay) actually helped me with some parts of the movie that I was left wondering what actually happened. Also I read this in a day and a half which made me feel like I can read real fast. :-)
Very interesting. A brilliantly efficient and well structured screenplay from Alex Garland.
Having read this, I find Garland’s dissatisfaction with the final film odd, given that plot wise it’s a fairly faithful representation of his screenplay. Granted some elements have been shifted around here and there, but by in large the changes made for the movie actually enhance the story telling, in particular - slight spoilers - the dropping of the Cassie, Mace, Capa sex triangle and Searle’s obvious insanity.
Like the film though, things go to crazy town in the final act when the script jettisons it’s smarts and essentially becomes Jason X.
Almost bought this book when it first came out. A new Alex Garland novel, I thought, but it turned out it was a screenplay so I waited for the film instead.
Although the film was good, I was curious, so years later I decided to check out the screenplay in book form. Well worth it if you're an Alex Garland fan. In fact, it was better than the film. Plus there are some really interesting storyboards that look like manga comics of scenes from the film.
It was so interesting to see the differences between the film and the screenplay. It’s nice that in this version the characters are a bit more fleshed out with even simple details such as Capa’s dog or knowing that Corazon is married. This is truly a haunting story when you think about it and though it’s not the best screenplay i’ve read, there are certainly amazing moments to it (Corazons body being positioned to hold the one baby plant left for example). Glad I was able to get this as I am a big fan of the film!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Aboard a spacecraft with a suicide mission to reignite the sun, Alex Garland’s screenplay of ‘Sunshine’ proves his writing talent transcends from novelist to screenwriter.
Resuming Garland’s fascination with the decay of communities, he incorporates religious themes into the subtext where the sun is a provider of life; a deity. Considering it’s an early draft, it’s surprising that its original form was somewhat maintained which makes an example of the quality of writing but still offers interesting character studies considering how the moral ethics of some characters developed. Although the story is great, it is just one integer of a sum to create a transcendental film.
Lots of good comes from reading screenplays especially from unreal talent. Simple idea w so many complex themes woven in. I’ve always felt stories w crews/families/important groups are just parts of ur psyche arguing w each other and this is a good example of that. Not overly plotted because by the end it’s abstract enough to be (imagined) eye candy. Been a while since I’ve seen the movie but now I neeeed to rewatch
Super fast read. Perfect for a day at the beach. Not many differences than the finalized movie screenplay, but answered some questions I had about the plot. I've loved Garland's writing since The Beach and loved this flick. Recommend to my science fiction loving friends.
Sunshine was an ok book but just didn't grab me. In a very short nutshell, our sun is dying and a ship and her crew are tasked with taking a device to the sun to reignite it. The crew begin having problems which threaten them, their mission and humanity's future. They start going insane also, which doesn't help manage anything. I found Sunshine to be a decent book, well written but very predictable. It's alright but just didn't thrill me. I soldiered on through and finished it.
Despite devolving into sort of a weird slasher at the end, SUNSHINE remains a cerebral and poignant sci-fi film. It poses big questions and pits humanity against the void of space and the ultimate destruction of the sun.
I've enjoyed Garland's novels — most recently THE COMA — and was curious what an original screenplay by this author would look like. I was not disappointed. The script is neat, the dialogue tidy, and his action and stage directions must have been a joy for the storyboarder and director.
I was hoping for more extras; scenes that had been cut, or added dialogue, kind of like a "director's cut," but in book form. Clearly little was wasted in the production of this film, as the script deviates from it very little. There are a few extra moments, though, and one particularly nice motif that I don't recall from the film.
Overall, if you're interested in reading original screenplays, you could do worse than SUNSHINE.
Sunshine is an excellent Sci-Fi film, the book adds an extra dimension to it and is definately worth reading if you are a fan of the film. There are many aspects of the story in the book which were left out of the film meaning the book explains further some of the unanswered elements from the film.
The only downside to the book is it doesn't cover in any detail what happened to the crew of Icarus one. I had hoped it would be mentioned somewhere as I always felt a bit disappointed it wasn't covered in the film in any detail.
I should make it clear this book isn't a novel, its a screenplay of the film.
Loved it. Haven't seen the film yet, but I will. I haven't gotten around to reading Garland's novels, but as a scriptwriter he's certainly the real deal. He also wrote the script for 28 Days Later. This is a taut, atmospheric story about a ship travelling to the sun to deliver a 'bomb' to remedy its ailment. Garland knows his SF history - he even names a character after one in Dark Star, for chrissakes. Very, very good stuff.
This was a really interesting read...I haven't read a play since I left school! Once I got into the story I found it flowed and I was making myself put the book down to get on with things I needed to do...if I'd have had more spare time I think I'd have read it in one sitting!
When I finished the book I downloaded the film and watched it which was quite fascinating as I was able to compare the images the play had created in my mind with what ended up in the film.
Very nice film, absolutely adored it! Make me love physics more and the Cosmos! OMG, the cosmos was incredibly beautiful)))I even wanted to die in space! That would be the best end to my life))) Capa, my beloved physicist! I want to be like you! Meeting the sun...EPIC! I cant even...
Almost a great movie. Really beautiful but missing something in the end. If it wasn't the ending, it would definitely be one of the top sci-fi ever made.