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Upon Curious Wings

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Submitted By theravensrequiem
Words 521
Pages 3
Tim O’Donnell

Upon Curious Wings When my good friend, Joe, first showed me the film Sunshine, I was captivated by it. I was originally entertained solely by its epic nature, considering it centered on the immensely powerful force that is our Sun. But recently I began to understand how deep and numerous the screenplay’s intricacies were. One most certainly being that the name of the ships that are sent to the Sun in the film is more than just a novelty. Their designated names, Icarus I and II, assist in reflecting an overall message of power hunger and the danger of curiosity. Icarus is a commonly known character in Greek mythology. King Minos exiled him and his father, Daedalus, after Daedalus gave the king’s daughter, Ariadne, a clue in order to help Theseus, the enemy of Minos, survive the Labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur. In attempt to escape their prison on Crete, Daedalus, a fine craftsman, fashions two sets of wings for himself and Icarus out of wax and feathers. Daedalus warns Icarus that they must fly low and short lived in order to preserve the structural integrity of the wax wings from the Sun’s rays. Once in flight, Icarus becomes engrossed by the thrilling experience. Curiosity begins to take hold of his mind and he tests the Fates by flying higher and higher as he gets more invigorated. But, clearly forgetting his father’s forewarning, Icarus fails to take note of his wax wings melting apart and falls to his death in the sea below. Another take by some Hellenistic writers suggests a more realistic approach to the tail. Daedalus is said by them to be the inventor of sail’s on ships because they were needed for him and his son to escape from Crete by sea. Icarus, in that tale, also dies, this time from falling overboard. The screenplay for Sunshine was written by Alex Garland, and directed by Danny Boyle. Looking back on this film I see clear

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