he presspack says that the claustrophobic environment in the film was inspired by Wolfgang

Petersen's Das Boot (1981).[30] Boyle also cited inevitable visual influences from science fiction
films in space by Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris in 1972), Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey in
1968), and Ridley Scott (Alien in 1979).[54] Influences from other science fiction films also
included Paul W. S. Anderson's Event Horizon (1997), John Carpenter's Dark Star (1974),
and Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running (1971).[20]

The 'Kenny' Suit – The spacesuit's colour scheme was chosen to deflect heat and radiation in the film, and the
helmet was purposely designed to be a claustrophobic experience for the actors.

Filmmakers consulted NASA in designing the scientific aspects of the film. Technical specifications
for the ship were provided in order to make it more realistic. An oxygen garden was also
recommended to provide oxygen for the ship and to enable the crew to grow their own food rather
than rely completely on pre-packaged sustenance.[36] Boyle met with a department within NASA that
was focused on the psychology of deep-space travel, and they advised the director that regular
Earth routines like preparing one's own food, enjoying its consumption and cleaning up afterwards
are activities crucial to an astronaut's sanity.[55]
The gold-leaf shielding in Sunshine was influenced by NASA satellite designs for deflecting heat and
other forms of radiant energy. Boyle designed the gold-coloured space suits along these lines
despite persistent encouragement to model them after the NASA template. The helmets were
designed to have cameras mounted in them. This further enhanced a sense of claustrophobia useful
to the actors in delivering more heartfelt performances.[32] The helmets were also limited to a
horizontal slit for visibility instead of a full-face visor as further consideration toward protecting the
characters from the ambient radiation of outer space.[40] According to Boyle, the funnel shape of the
helmet was influenced by the character Kenny from South Park.[32]
Boyle included "Icarus" in the name of the ship to continue a theme of bleakness, opining that no
American would give their craft such an ill-fated name. According to the director, "They'd call it Spirit
of Hope or Ship of Destiny. They'd call it something optimistic... in America they would sacrifice all
plausibility, because there would be hope."[56] The ship's exterior was designed to look like an oil
tanker.[21] The ship's interior was influenced by the design of a nuclear submarine that filmmakers
had visited in Scotland, though the space was larger due to NASA's advice that smaller quarters
would adversely affect the crewmembers' sanity.[16] The corpses of burn victims in the film were
modelled on the Pompeii victims from the Mount Vesuvius eruption.[21]
Cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler provided an idea to render the interior of the ship in the colours of
grey, blue, and green, with no reference to orange, red, or yellow. Scenes were intended to be shot
inside the ship at long intervals, and when the shot changed to the outside, yellow-starved
audiences would be "penetrated" by sunlight.[18] The visual effects of the sunlight were based on
photographs from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory project.[57] Boyle also sought to pursue
inexpensive methods in filming sequences involving actors and visual effects. In a scene where
Cillian Murphy's character dreams of falling into the Sun, the actor was placed in a gantry around
which 20 assistants rotated an assembly of bright lights.
In another scene in which a character dies from solar exposure among the ashes from cremated
bodies, massive wind turbines propelled biodegradable dust at the actor in the director's attempt to
have the computer-generated effects follow the actor instead of vice versa.[46] Boyle commented on
his approach to using effects, "There is part of our brain where we admire the effect, but we put it in
a side compartment of our experience because you know there's no way an actor can live through
that, or be there in that moment."[2] During the post-production process, Boyle hired one visual
effects company, London's Moving Picture Company, to work on the film's 750 visual effects. The
assignment of a single company was contrary to the industry trend of hiring multiple vendors to work
on a film's effects. Boyle chose one company for ease of quality control, though the decision resulted
in a prolonged post-production process.[21