PORTFOLIO
case study: sunshine (2007)
Original design of Icarus II - Interpolated from model by GrabCAD user _
In my opinion, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007) is one of the most underrated sci-fi movies in history.
Starring Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh and a ship named Icarus II, the film follows the crew of a gargantuan spacecraft travelling to the centre of the solar system to deposit fissile material into the dying sun’s core, effectively giving it a bump-start and saving humanity.
The visuals of the Icarus II ship are outstanding, clearly having been inspired by real-world space stations ISS and Mir, while keeping a fantastical silhouette similar to Star Wars’ Solar Sailers. However, the design is not perfect, even introducing a plot hole at one point. For this case study, I have created an updated design, drawing the ship slightly closer to realism, and keeping consistent with storyboarding.
Updated design of Icarus II
We can see in the original design of Icarus II that a large cable network which supports the heat shield in tension. Unlike their Earth counterparts, space megastructures do not requires substantial reinforcement since there are few environmental forces acting. You can see this on the aft section of the original design, where structures are spindly and fragile.
My updated design minimises this cable structure, keeping the design more coherent, and potentially saving artists some work.
On top of providing realism, this redesign serves to resolve a storytelling issue with the original screenplay.
One climactic scene in Sunshine involves a spacewalk to repair a damaged element of the heat shield’s surface. In this scene, the ship is tilted away from the sun to provide shadow for the astronauts to work in safely. With the original shape of Icarus II’s heat shield, this isn’t actually possible unless the ship is almost sideways to the sun, leaving a number of viewers confused what the story of this scene was.
The updated design allows this scene’s plot to carry on as portrayed, providing shadow for the astronauts using the ship tilt shown in the scene.
The most iconic feature of the Icarus II is its heat shield, the large dish-shaped structure meant to dissipate solar energy and protect the ship’s payload. While this is where the ship gets its unique look, the forward-facing surface area is unnecessarily high for the rest of the ship’s body and would effectively work as a frying pan to cook the payload. I imagine that artists chose this design to mimic the heat shield of NASA’s Apollo Command Module, but were unaware of the differences between aerodynamic and solar heating.
My redesigned heat shield creates more of a dart-like profile, reducing total surface area facing the sun, and decreasing solar energy striking the shield per unit area. I’ve kept a large internal volume for the shield such that the payload or crew compartments could still believably be stored within. This also provides a more viewer-intuitive location for the ‘observation room’ that much of the film takes place in; the nosecone.