Having seen many of the tentpole blockbusters this summer, I feel confident in remarking that the spirit of sacrifice is MIA. Bruce Willis lives free (Live Free or Die Hard), all is well for Harry Potter (HP 5, 6, 7), and Will Turner is predictably resurrected into a more pleasurable career as sea captain (Pirates 3). If narrative fictions permit humans to contend with fantastic, monumental scenarios, and fight against overwhelming odds, much of that tension is lost with the recent assuring trend that the protagonist survives without fail in the third act. Strangely, this new story standard doesn’t bother many viewers. I would even argue that for most people, the satisfying resolution of today’s Western cinema is to see how a character’s actions of survival unfold. If we witness Orlando Bloom’s head submerge violently underwater, the new pleasure is to see how (NOT IF) his head finds its way back to the surface. Is the image of a purposeful death no longer fashionable, post 9/11?

So it’s a big fucking thrill for me to see that in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, everyone dies. Some die in heroic fashion, some die in acts of extraordinary violence, but all the deaths belong to a collective cause. Even more thrilling was to see characters approach death actively, in advance of the plot’s action. There’s a scene in which the crew hold a symbolic vote for killing off an inoperative member in order to ensure that there is enough oxygen to complete their mission. Cillian Murphy swiftly says, “Kill him.” The viewer never feels that Murphy’s brevity implies a coldness or an absence of compassion; this is just how one should act. As a twist, the crew soon discover that the inoperative member has already slit his wrists and bled to death. Chris Evans remarks, “He took responsibility,” understanding just as well that a consciousness for self sacrifice is as necessary as a consciousness for performing violence on another.

Even if we cannot yet locate a place for the spirit of sacrifice in our contemporary times, it is very positive to see a film that portrays a future in which sacrifice is our only ethical option. Thumbs up!