10 Great Sci-Fi Films Ruined By Terrible Endings

9. Sunshine - The Icarus 1 Killer

Steadily making their way towards the sun, the crew aboard Icarus II have one mission: to reignite the dying sun. Director Danny Boyle’s first go at the sci-fi genre produced a great concept that felt relatively grounded, hosted some stellar visuals for the time, a brilliant cast and a fill of some off-kilter sci-fi horror.

This slow burner purred on with unease with the crew encountering mechanical issues, moral debates, and their nagging fear of the unknown, as they approach the ship of their mysteriously failed predecessor, Icarus I. It unsettlingly lured audiences in with its dreadful sense of inevitable danger.

Yet so close to the end, all sense of tension is dropped in the form of a skin-burnt maniac – and sole survivor of Icarus I - chasing the crew around like someone accidentally switched channels to a slasher movie. While the crew manage to save the sun, and thereby thaw out Earth, it does so at the expense of the excellent sense of fear and dread that was set up so well in its first two acts.