The way Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hüller went on about it in "Project Hail Mary", you'd think they were the only people who'd ever had to fix a malfunctioning Sun. But head back 19 years, and Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" was tackling a very similar threat to life on Earth. But although the two films have imminent solar catastrophes at their core, their approaches to saving the world from extreme global cooling are radically different.
While "Project Hail Mary" is uplifting, funny, and home to one of the most endearing (if unlikely) screen bromances of recent years, "Sunshine" is an unashamedly dour affair. It borrows extensively from the "Alien" playbook, as an octet of mismatched astronauts bicker their way through a mission that takes an unplanned detour into psychological horror territory. They also forgot to put aside much room in the cargo bay for jokes — the closest thing to a gag is arguably the sunset in the Fox Searchlight ident morphing into the doomed Sun.
