10 Awful Endings That Screwed Great Movies (And What Should Have Happened Instead)

7. Sunshine

How did Sunshine tackle the ending to a gripping sci-fi mystery; the disappearance of the ship Icarus I on its way to re-ignite the sun and save the Earth? By throwing out everything that had happened so far and turn it into a slasher-move in space for the final act. The general view of Danny Boyle's slice of sci-fi is it goes so far off the deep end you feel like you're watching another film altogether. But perhaps Sunshine is not as bad as all that. The battle between Cillian Murphy's protagonist Robert Capa and the deranged Captain Pinbacker, played ominously by Mark Strong, is actually quite thrilling; the 'villain' is never fully revealed and I've even read some theories that suggest he wasn't actually there; he might be a figment of Capa's crumbling mind, which makes for a far more interesting conclusion. Truth be told, Sunshine gets more of a bad rap then it deserves. It is beautifully shot and subtly engaging throughout but the ending is still a rather jarring jolt of direction, exciting as it may be. How It Should Have Ended: Make it more explicit that Capa has lost his mind; you don't need the appearance of the lost Captain Pinbacker. Have Capa in a self-fulfilling prophecy scenario where his paranoia threatens to destroy the mission, only for him to be stopped at the last moment by his crew mates, enabling the Icarus II to succeed in reigniting the sun. Because isn't our hero succumbing to madness in the depths of space a far more interesting tale?