Mapping Stephen King’s Maine with Sharon Kitchens [The Losers’ Club Podcast]

Payload.

After heavy discussions of Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin (listen) and Lisa Brühlmann’s Blue My Mind (listen) – with a stop-over to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s Alien (listen) – we’re headed to space with Danny Boyle‘s 2007 collaboration with Alex Garland: Sunshine.

The film features an all-star international cast, including Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Cliff Curtis and Rose Byrne as scientists/astronauts on a mission to restart a dying sun before the Earth freezes.

Sunshine features all of the usual space movie tropes, including dangerous external repair job, a mysterious SOS beacon, and a disastrous previous mission, but the film’s legacy is an unconventional third act that turns the film into a slasher courtesy of mysterious character Pinbacker (Mark Strong).

Will the crew of Icarus II survive to save the world or will they be picked off one by one?

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Episode 285: Sunshine (2007)

Check the payload and stay on mission because we’re flying into the sun with Alex Garland and Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007).

Strap in because not only does Joe have a surprising queer read, but we’re fully defending the film’s controversial Pinbacker/”slasher” last act.

Plus: a deep bench of international actors, Boyle’s incredible visuals, a three year production development, and speculation about why this film was such a flop.

Cross out Sunshine!

Coming up on Wednesday: We’re staying in space with our first ever check-in of the Leprechaun franchise and what better text to start with than Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)?

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 313 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 1 Episode 6, Under Paris, The Exorcism and The Watchers. And our audio commentary for the month will be on David Bruckner’s 2017 film The Ritual!