"There are three titans that tower over you when you start thinking about doing a film like this: Alien, 2001, and the original Solaris," says Boyle of his science-fiction thriller Sunshine, written by his 28 Days Later collaborator Alex Garland. Set 50 years in the future, the film revolves around a joint U.S.-Chinese space mission to reignite the sun. The fate of the earth rests with the eight-man crew of the Icarus II — a physicist (Murphy), a biologist (Yeoh), and an engineer (Evans) among them — who must contend with the psychological effects of spending almost 18 months in deep space, as well as disturbing discoveries (like finding the remains of the first Icarus mission) that threaten to undermine their task.