A burning question

[kaliszewski]

Just occurred to me: How is it that Pinbacker is burned but not burned up-- like his crew? Searle notes, when he and the boarding party from the Icarus II enter the observation lounge of the Icarus I, that the controls for the view port are fried: the only thing keeping him and Capa and the others from cooking is the fact that the shield from the Icarus II is currently blocking the port. And when the others return to the Icarus II, and the ships drift apart, Searle burns up when the window is again exposed to the full glare of the sun. Pretermitting the question of what kind of glassine material those view ports would be made of in the first place, why didn't Pinbacker burn to death all those years back? How'd he end up merely-- if extremely and evenly-- crisped? It's not mentioned that the filter control looks only recently disabled. (Off the top, too, a suggestion for the guys designing these ships: not only should "Full sunlight" NOT be a filter option, but if we really must let ALL the light in, then there ought to be a filter-status display OUTSIDE THE LOUNGE. Just, y'know, for those who might harbor qualms about being burned alive without warning. Thank you.

[chero]

My guess is that, since Sunshine is science fiction, Pinbacker simply had an unprecedented reaction to the extreme environment he was contained in for so long. Cosmic and solar radiation turned him into a monster. Also, I (if not the filmmakers as well) consider Pinbacker as more of an idea than anything physically real. That's a perk of film.

[troopercooper]

Couldn't Pinbacker have just overrided Icarus and killed everyone from the safety of the control room?

[kagmi]

My guess would be that Pinbacker hid in a sheltered area of the ship. It seemed to me from the way the Icarus I crew, when their mission was sabotaged, sort of assumed they were going to die and sat down on the observation deck (much as Searle did with the knowledge that he was stranded there). I'm not real familiar with the design of Icarus I, but I recall that Icarus II had pretty extensive areas that were out of view of the observation deck. Pinbacker, determined to stay alive for whatever demented reason, might very well have been able to skulk around the dark sections and remain alive for all those years.

[jorant]

What I want to know, and am sure has come up here before (sorry, I'm new) is did he make his crew kill themselves? Clearly he... um... enjoys the sun. Or, did he get them to do it on their own, and he survived to stay on the ship for the next 7 years?

[hongi]

Jan 31, 2009 8:19:41 GMT -5 kaliszewski said:

It's not mentioned that the filter control looks only recently disabled.

That's certainly a possibility, although it begs the question of why Pinbacker disabled the filter recently.

This question of why Pinbacker is so burned has a lot to do with how the crew of Icarus I died. I assumed at first that Pinbacker killed them by luring them to the observation deck ("hey guys, we're nearing our goal, want to have one last look at the Sun?") and then disabling the filter controls, but it's also possible that they decided to kill themselves voluntarily. Less likely sure, but we shouldn't discount the notion. It's possible that Pinbacker and the crew decided to kill themselves but Pinbacker somehow got away at the last second, leaving him toast but not...crispy toast.

And there's the question of just how long ago this whole mass suicide, if that's what it really was, happened. Would the bodies really remain upright for 7 years? Maybe the murder/suicide/whatever it was happened just a couple of years before.

That explains how Pinbacker got his burns, but why they weren't totally healed over.