Cillian Murphy's “Descent Into Madness” Sci-Fi Classic Becomes a Global Streaming Smash

A long-awaited reunion between director Danny Boyle, writer Alex Garland, and star Cillian Murphy may have been robbed from us after the box office underperformance of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The three were supposed to collaborate on the film’s direct follow-up, which would have brought Murphy back as the character he played in the original 28 Days Later over two decades ago. The follow-up movie had even been confirmed ahead of The Bone Temple‘s release. However, in hindsight, this seems like more of a marketing strategy than an actual confirmation. The Bone Temple ended with a tease of where the sequel might have gone creatively, and featured a cameo by Murphy. However, the movie’s poor box office performance has left the franchise in limbo. Perhaps to fill that gap, audiences are returning to the trio’s most underrated movie together.

Boyle and Garland worked together on 28 Years Later as well, but the movie didn’t feature Murphy. It grossed around $150 million worldwide, earned positive reviews, and set the stage for Nia DaCosta‘s The Bone Temple to do even better. However, The Bone Temple wasn’t able to recoup its reported $63 million budget, and remains the lowest-grossing installment of the series despite earning excellent reviews. With no real updates about the status of the third installment of this new trilogy, it makes sense for one of Boyle, Garland, and Murphy’s older films to find new success on streaming. The movie had a spike on the global HBO Max charts recently, according to FlixPatrol.

Cillian Murphy’s Cult Classic Surges on Streaming

The movie in question is Sunshine, which underperformed at the box office in 2007 but has emerged as a major cult classic in the years since. The sci-fi thriller featured a star-studded cast including Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, and Shōgun‘s Hiroyuki Sanada alongside Murphy. Boyle took inspiration not only from Ridley Scott‘s Alien, but also from Wolfgang Petersen‘s landmark World War II submarine classic Das Boot. Despite drawing some criticism for its third act, the movie holds a 76% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The website’s consensus reads, “Danny Boyle continues his descent into mind-twisting sci-fi madness, taking us along for the ride. Sunshine fulfills the dual requisite necessary to become classic sci-fi: dazzling visuals with intelligent action.“