Corrected entry: The first ship would not be called "Icarus 1", but simply "Icarus". It makes sense to call the second ship "Icarus 2", but when the Earthlings had all faith in the original "Icarus" being successful, why tempt fate by adding the numerator "1"?
Tailkinker
15th Jun 2011
Sunshine (2007)
19th Dec 2010
Sunshine (2007)
Corrected entry: As they approach Mercury the planet moves from the right to the left in front of them. Given the angle, direction towards the sun, and the counterclockwise rotation of all planets this is entirely impossible. The planet would move from left to right in front of them.
Correction: Unless they were upside-down in relation to what's generally considered "up" in solar system terms, in which case everything would be reversed.
25th Aug 2010
Sunshine (2007)
Corrected entry: Cappa's last message to his family is seen to arrive directly before the sunshine brightens and the end credits roll, a long time after it was sent. Although sound waves travel at a low speed (about 340 m/s), all electromagnetic radiation (including radio transmissions) travels at the speed of light (300 000 000 m/s). Thus the eight minute travel time specified for light emanating from the sun would also apply to radio communications.
Correction: It's not seen specifically to arrive - it's seen being watched. When a message like that arrives, it would be unthinkable for his family not to save it and watch it multiple times. Capa's sister is simply watching it again while her kids are busy playing.
11th May 2010
Sunshine (2007)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Capa is the only man in the spacesuit and two other crew members have to jump with him through space, the two other crew members would not survive. The difference in pressure between space (0kg/cm^2)) and Earth (1kg/cm^2) would surely cause the astronauts' bodies to leak or explode. Therefore Harvey would not even have time to become frozen: he would sooner begin to leak and be torn apart by the pressure inside of him. The same goes for the other guy (the one who makes it without the suit).
Correction: Yet another one who's fallen for the whole "humans explode in space" myth. Sorry to break it to you, but it's completely untrue; the human skin is way tougher than that. NASA estimates that a human being could survive without protection in space for at least thirty seconds without serious long-term effects. What we see in the film is entirely plausible.
29th Sep 2008
Sunshine (2007)
Corrected entry: The crew are ongoing with the repairs to the payload shield, and the oxygen garden catches fire by reflected sunlight from the damaged com towers. The big plot hole here would be: why design such a critical area with pointless windows, which only expose the very critical area needed for the human crew to survive, to possible but unlikely destruction? There is no reason to have windows, as the sunlight would be destructive. It did, in fact, cause the destruction of the oxygen garden in the first place.
Correction: Why put windows in the garden area? For the same reason as they put windows everywhere else, including cutting one in the very shield that protects them - to look out of. It's a human psychological thing, the need to look around them, to see what's there, directly, with the naked eye. The whole thing is a freak chain of events, starting with the discovery of the believed-destroyed Icarus I and the resulting change of course from the mission profile (something that could not possibly have been foreseen), that leads directly to the accident. Failure to anticipate something as phenomenally unlikely as that does not constitute a plot hole in the slightest.
7th Oct 2007
Sunshine (2007)
Corrected entry: There's something a bit unfortunate about the name "Icarus". Why would they give the spaceship a name of a Mythological character who died because he approached too close to the Sun?
Correction: By what stretch of the imagination is this a movie mistake? Just because you think something's "a bit unfortunate"? So the choice is slightly ironic - it's still entirely appropriate. The ship is going way too close to the sun for comfort, exactly as the mythological Icarus did.
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Correction: Historically, space programs have almost invariably numbered their first mission as number one, even though it's technically unnecessary. Naming the ship Icarus I is simply following space-flight tradition.
Tailkinker ★