I personally find the third act odd, however for me it works. Here's why: We get to see a dramatic collision of parallel ideas which take on almost biblical appearances. Capa, the Icarus II physicist, unafraid of death and willing to sacrifice himself to save everyone else and Pinpacker, the Icarus I captain, willing to sacrifice everyone for his own twisted comfort of belief. Capa represents humanity's most honorable side, light itself. And for it and his bravery, he is rewarded by the Sun's welcoming touch. Pinbacker represents humanity's absolute worst, the abyss itself. Not only his "home" is a pitch-black ghost ship, whenever he is on screen, the image is blurred and twisted, culminating in a sequence of Capa looking down at Pinbacker, as if the manifestation of that abyss. Interestingly enough, the moment Pinbacker looks at the camera and claims it was not our place to challenge god, his eyes turn from normal to completely black, signifying it. Lastly, when both meet each other, Pinbacker at first mistakes Capa to be an angel. While Pinbacker by all means is a complete opposite, a corrupted, charred, melted, disfigured evil demon. That demon from the abyss is what accounts for many of humanity's failures. Selfishness over selflessness. If that wins, then indeed there will be nothing to ever show we were ever here.

Quentin should attempt sci-fi. Seriously and as a major project. Like a homage to this phenomenal genre.

I'm such a Tarantino fan I started using cocaine to keep up with his director's cut commentaries. It really helps.

The flashes of the icarus 1 crews faces as they board their dark empty ship still haunt me. And I thought the thing that saved what would have been a standard 'monster on the ship' ending was the fact that trying to conceive of pinbackers headstate, and what he spent the last 7 years doing on a ghost ship in the vast emptiness of space gave more of a chill than any alien or monster could have. Though I would be interested to see what Quentin would have done instead that would have reached the same dramatic heights. Hard to imagine what could replace that finally

I really don't know what he means about the aesthetic of the third act being completely detached from the rest of the film. Which is ironic considering his favorite character, Cliff's character is the exact same as the antagonist Mark Strong's character. Like literally. Both of them are deeply deeply obsessed with the sun - both recognize their finiteness as humans in the exact same way; Strong's character, "We are dust - nothing more." Cliff's character, "Hey Cappa, we're only stardust." And thirdly, both spent much time in their observation rooms burning themselves with sunlight. They both share a spiritual attitude towards the sun, with Strong's character becoming a religious fanatic, while Cliff's character retains his humility. Also, every moment Strong's character is on screen, the soundtrack is screeched and the camera blurred - as if painfully staring into the sun itself. The channel Like Stories of Old has an incredible video analysis of this film that I think puts into perspective why the final act fits just fine. Sorry to say but on this one, Tarantino doesn't know what he's talking about, or at least, missed some of the depth of the film's themes.

I genuinely loved the 3rd act of Sunshine, and no one can stop me from loving it.😈

I think that the introduction of Pinbaker was to me something great .He was a person that his initial ideals were to save humanity but through his journey probably realised that he disliked human existence and thought that nature itself wanted to annihilate us .It is like he felt that all the suffering in the world caused by human evil would seize to exist by destroying the mission that went against the will of nature or God if you will .That is how I see it

I gotta admit, quentins description of the feeling betrayed during the third act and yet overall quality based on the previous two is perfect. He should look at being the next siskel an Ebert style mainstream reviewer, he is on point and Never holds back but doesn't try and grandstand to be provocative.

Pinbacker wasn't a slasher killer. He was the personification of faith vs the personification of science and reason in Capa.

I watched Sunshine at a screening on Lowestoft beach in 2019, introduced by Danny Boyle himself. He was inspiring.

I think the third act works. I HATE movies having to be formulaic or appealing to expectations. I think people go with SOOO many expectations around how a story should be told.........that they don't truly surrender to whatever the director is carrying you through. I thought it was quirky, added a bit of different emotional tone for a bit.......as something unexpected..........and is in line with the rollercoaster of emotions Boyle usually takes us in with his movies.

I really like the third act of Sunshine, and I don't think it betrays the writing of the first two acts at all. It feels appropriate, at least to me. Then again, I knew it was coming before I watched it, so maybe that's why I liked it.

Quentin pulling no punches while praising the many virtues of this movie. And he mirror my opinion from when I saw it in the theater way back in the day. Pity that Quentin does not mention Danny Boyle's musical choices, as both directors have a similar approach to soundtracks in their works. Fun fact: this film was released in Mexico six months before the United States. Usually it's the other way around for English-speaking movies, so that was very, very weird.

Yah i loved the final scene.. no matter how many times i have watched it, still a great ending to me! It's about savouring your mission, the dream uv had all your life and its beauty! And the sun giving Capa its warmest embrace as its thank you for saving it. It may not have happened physically, if u say it's scientifically impossible. Emotionally and mentally, that's probably what Capa was experiencing that very moment. It's the artistic genius of it, we gotta stop being so literal and just experience it.👌🏻

Weird, I loved the ending. The whole movie was just "there will always be one more thing that will go wrong", and no one on the ship expected the insane captain of the first mission to start running around trying to kill all of them and sabotage the ship while they had so much else to worry about. When Michelle Yeoh was in the destroyed oxygen room and was feeling hopeful about seeing that plant that survived, she was definitely not expecting to get stabbed through the chest. Wish they went a little further with the whole "God wants us to die" thing, but the end still really worked for me

I love this. The synopsis. The commentary. The thing about Roger Cormack.

I think if we contemplate what this film showed us rather than what we expected, it is an easy 11 out of 10. It is reaching for such a level of transcendence that a bit of wiggle room should be given it. No work of art is perfect. The visuals, soundtrack, ambition, performances, sound design... they earn, for me, a huge amount of latitude for me to LISTEN to the film instead of TELL IT what I think. I find most analyses of Pinbacker (the burned captain) fall very flat - including Boyle's own, that he "obviously represents fundamentalism." I don't feel like that does any sort of justice. Instead I think it requires an act of imagination from the viewer (as all the best stories do). HOW could the captain/leader of humanity's most desperate mission be transformed into its destroyer? But it's really not that hard to follow that thread in your mind. To become the most important starship captain in history, one must have a strong ego and personality already. Then to hold all of humanity in your palms, completely removed from all contact with home for years on end... cooped up in deep space, with only the massive, all-consuming, godlike fire of the sun burning constantly in front of your eyes as you fall endlessly towards it... These are pressures and experiences that can and would permanently change anyone who experienced them first-hand. The film realistically represents the enormous psychological pressures on the crew of the Icarus II. It's really not hard for me to imagine Pinbacker's strong ego, under this relentless pressure, freed of contact from other humans for any points of reference, burned by first-hand contact with the godlike sun... just... metamorphosizing into a super-human self-regard, like a pure human ego separated from any sense of humanity he's very clear about his goal, in my mind. I see most people focusing on "god wants humanity to end" but, although he does say that, there's something more PERSONAL that he reveals: He wants to be the last human alive It's like the greatest trophy in history "I was the final human living in the entire universe" Doesn't that fit his narrative as a former human who has become nothing but burned, raw ego - disconnected from humanity - staring into the sun? Yet all the other characters have elements of this same story, they go in different directions. All the characters have their own strong egos and personalities. All face unyielding pressure. Each develops through that pressure in their own way, like different plants growing in the same garden. It's not about fundamentalism or religion to me, it's about the human ego, and how it responds to intense, unyielding pressure, and how small differences in character are magnified by this microscope of pressure, and when the pressure is so extreme and the isolation so great, there is almost no limit to what the ego might seek to do or to become in order to fully express itself and that thought circles like a snake eating its own tail, because the evolution of the individual ego is parallel with the evolution of the human race we all have the qualities of these characters, good and bad, in differing measures. But we all have them. We are all human. But honestly this is too many words, the film speaks for itself, just watch it (again) and let it wash over you like sunlight

I'll always pick Sunshine over Interstellar, and by far

I want a version of "The Surface of the Sun" where its played over Quentin reading the phone book.

I love this movie !!!

He's right!! The end doesn't live up to the first half ish.

Just watched it for the first time, and I've found this review... I often don't agree with Tarantino's takes, but I think he nailed it here. The third act makes it a smarter, better crafted Event Horizon, but it could've been more subtle. Well, in my opinion 28 Days Later falls on its face in the third act too, so it must be a Garland thing.

Couldn’t agree more with QT here - the third act of the movie did seem hamhanded and didn’t quite fit the insanely good first two acts of the movie, but the first two acts were so good that they carried the film over the line along with Jon Murphy’s soundtrack - it’s a British movie that doesn’t feel British at all with the ensemble cast, but it does have a wonderful indie feel about it with Danny Boyle’s direction - very engaging movie, ALMOST ruined by its third act, but not quite - I highly recommend it

Royal Warriors is my favorite!!! I totally looked past this reunion! Once he started talking about Michelle Yeoh, I started thinking no way he’s gonna say royal Warriors. The movie has amazing fight scenes. Thank you Quentin.

In the film Solar Crisis, they also went to the sun, to divert a solar flare with a bomb. Good effects, good score, a couple of really good scenes (including a crew member sacrificing themselves to fix something in a highly irradiated part of the ship), good cinematography, horrible dialogue, clunky clunky "look ma! we've been badly recut" editing, cheap looking sets, a villain with incoherent motives, and a hodge-podge script that manages to waste the acting skills of Peter Boyle, Jack Palance, and Charlton Heston. Its one that I can say: is occasionally fun, holds no candle Sunshine, and is kinda surprising that Tarantino hasn't heard of. He's an obscure movie madman.

I agree with QT that it went tits-up in the third act (a bit like 28 days later) but still lots to recommend it, including the score and VFX. One small correction; the ship is called the Icarus 2 - that’s quite important as what happened to the Icarus 1 is a major plot point.

I know we won't ever get it most likely but I'd still have loved to see QT do a scifi/futurist movie.

Just watched Sunshine tonight. It was pretty fricken good. It is strange, though, that the movie explicitly makes fun of the monster killing the crew one by one trope and then just... Has a monster kill the crew one by one. Granted he doesn't directly kill Mace but still

The cast of this film is umbelieve

The third act was a stroke of genius, but also widely misunderstood by most viewers, which is a fault in the filmmaking.

Everything Tarantino criticizes about this third act is exactly why I love it. The incongruity of it, the sharp turn to pulp instead of intellect, the genre-switch. Genuinely didn't mind it that much, happy to be able to disagree with Quentin on this

Sunshine and Fight Club both use a certain technique and I absolutely love it

Sunshine is my comfort film.

Quentin Tarantino should make a film about a billion people working together to repair a Dyson Sphere.

I have a theory regarding the shakey camera in the third act, would pinbacker work as a scary villain if the camera was steady and you could see his burnt appearance fully? The camera is only steady with pinbacker is in frame when you can't really see him too well. I have a funny feeling that Danny Boyle and co did this intentionally and it worked for me but it obviously pulled a few people out.

Couldn't agree more with this review. That 3rd act completely took me out of the film. It was almost like watching a different movie.

I just watched the movie for the first time, strange considering I've always liked both Boyle and Garland, but I really liked the third act too. The build up to what happened to Icarus I sets up something like it. The only thing I'm not so keen on is that it was suggested that there was something supernatural with Pinbacker, but it is never made clear, or did he just go insane?

I completely agree. The third act derails the movie for me, it loses all that intrigue, the feeling of desperation and the empty void of the space you feel watching the first 2 acts. It felt as if I was suddenly watching a totally different movie. What they achieved with a budget of $40m is incredible. It's still a good film, especially the first 2 acts but had they nailed the final act, Sunshine would've gone down as one of the best sci-fi films of all time.

If Tarantino actually knew his films, he’d note that this was technically the third Boyle/ Garland movie at this point, as the novel of the Beach was written by Garland and subsequent turned into a movie by Boyle. 😉

Amazing sci fi..... Ok on the horror thriller side of it but still one of my top 10 movies loved it

The trick to good scifi is audience sensation of what they're experience: It ties all the great scifi's together: Sensation. Kubrick, Interstella, sunshine, Alien. All had wicked texture, all gave the audience a deep taste of the environment.

Just watch the Damn. Movie. Words cannot describe...only time Capt. America fights Scarecrow.

I loved the film from start to finish.

Where is this from?

S U N S H I N E is very underrated as fuck great movie one of my favorites :)

Pinbacker wasn't a monster though, he was a man

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and have seen it many times 👍

it's a tragic irony that 'Sunshine' itself flies to close to the sun

Space odyssey, Sunshine or Interstellar?

My favorite Science Fiction movie.

HAD I written this i would have kept the sister ship on board for the mission, and then had a realization they did not have enough explosives in the first place and it was a hopeless vanity mission without the combined explosives it would have never worked in the first place, they all go down in a blaze of glory as i was attached to all the crew members trials and tribulations, no survivors.

3rd Collab including The Beach not 2nd.

I do not know if Pinnacle even is real. The lack of oxygen, the stream of consciousness editing, and the genersl themes of humanity vs nature makes me think otherwise. Regardless, it was one of the most intense movies I've seen.

Reminds me somewhat of Forbidden Planet since the monster, in both, is humanity.

One of those movies I feel isn’t talked about when people mention great sci-fi movies.

i thought the beach was a garland/boyle thing… so how come it‘s the second… i count 3…

what is this commentary from?

I love this whole movie, including the 3rd act. And the scene where he touches to sun. I don’t care if it’s not scientifically accurate, the movie has a lot of emotion in it.

The third act would have worked if the dude wasn't a monster and instead had just lost his mind from cabin fever

Star Trek 4 used the Sun.

This is one of the few known incidences where Tarantino isn't shouting

Forget sunshines, tarrsntono is a treasure trove of friggin knowledge. Like data from star trek. It's scary.

That last trivia.. god, he’s such a nerd. Amazing. I totally agree with his criticism though. The final act is almost a betrayal. I wanted cosmic horror, and got a slasher. So disappointed. I imagine this story would do well as a book.

So where is this audio taken from?

I agree with many of the comments here, about the end. I think it was perfect, because, the whole movie up to this point was like, scientific overload. And then suddenly psycho steps up and shows how none of that matters in the face of insanity.

The third act does feel a bit bizarre and detached from the rest of the film. If you isolate the third act and look at it as it’s own thing, it’s really well done. It has some good suspenseful moments. It just sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to the rest of the film. It felt like the film had a plot twist for the sake of having a plot twist.

this is a 2007 movie

0:10 Tarantino that's not true. The Beach is the second collaboration of Boyle and Garland

Get tae!!! All three acts are superb just as they are.

Have to disagree with Tarantino on Garland being the pulpy guy, if you watch Ex-Machina, Annihilation and Devs you can see Garland loves grounded sc-fi material. Also, Danny Boyle dissed on George A Romero? Saw 28 Days Later, that final act was pure Romero.

Galaxy of Terror > Sunshine’s 3rd Act???

Eventually, in the end, the last obstacle they faced was humanity itself. The worst kind even! The passionately religious kind.

Tarantino should work with Murohy

I love the first 2 acts of this movie but the slasher ending doesn't work for me.

Sunshine will always baffle me. Loved the first two-thirds. But then you have the terrible shaky-cam, unintelligible scenes and you can't understand what is happening. I wouldn't even have minded the monster guy if it wasn't for the way it was visually presented.

‘Get out of my brain!’

Just saw it for the first time. Never saw reviews for it, I hated the third act. Took me out of the movie so hard. It was so over the top and ridiculous and the visuals and editing were too experimental and nauseating. Could barely even see what was happening. It basically ruined the movie in my eyes. You can have a crazy captain show up at the 11th hour to sabotage, but it was terrible execution.

The cast is a bunch of MARVEL characters now, lol

this movie has too many logical issues

He talks like hes in a tarantino film.

Ouch.

if pinbacker wasnt real how he kill cora

It's a scam, this is not Tarantino. Nice try.

A film on the verge of greatness only to be ruined by that pedestrian slasher movie third act. What were the creators thinking, I wonder. Did they fear that the cerebral story would be too boring for general audiences? Perhaps. But the solution to shoe horn this poorly executed horror sequence reminds me of Alien Covenant. So much promise yetp tragically disappointing.

Even if you accept the premise of the final act, an outer space version of the "mad captain" character we've seen in so many other films from Moby Dick to Apocalypse Now, its poor execution is what makes it a betrayal. Not only is it a poorly conceived idea but they couldn't even make it work on a stylistic level, resorting to cheap camera distortion effects and gore.

Haha I love Tarantino but the sun isn't even close 2 "the most powerful object in our known existence" 🤣

Great film except for the ending which is a straight rip off of another well known SF film.

The third act really is terrible. I’ve never been so... blindsided and pulled out of a movie before. It almost feels like having some amazing appetizers for a feast, then someone brings out a plate with small turd on it and says, “this is the end of the meal, enjoy”

Tarantino should stick to reviewing cuz he sure can't make anything good himself

He's right!! The end doesn't live up to the first half ish.