Came up with better solution?
"Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs..."
The Sun is one bigass fusion "bomb," kept "exploding" by its own mass that generates such a huge pressure that fusion can not be not happening inside.
When the very premise of the movie makes no sense in such an insulting way, your "better solution" may be as simple as walking out of the movie theater.
What wasn't really explained (and should have been) was why the sun was 'dying.' From what I can remember from Roger Ebert's review, there was some 'anomaly' called a Q-ball that was causing some nuclear fuel - burning problem within the sun, which needed taking out in order for it to 'restart.' So a payload the size of Manhatten Island would be as good an idea as any.
It didn't seem to be mentioned in any meaningful way though (unless I blinked and missed it). I was wondering wtf they thought a nuclear bomb was going to do as well, after I first watched it.
Every sun has an expiration date
shareI'm pretty sure it wasn't just simply a nuclear bomb. It was definitely nuclear fissile material, but they were pretty clear the reaction was precise and calculated. Rather than one giant bomb, I imagine it was a bunch in tiny "bombs" that released their payload at precise intervals, while traveling incredibly fast. So maybe it spread apart the explosions by perfect distances to maximize the effect at such a crazy high pressure.
Unfortunately they don't go into this at ALL, but it seems like there was more thought put into this fictional solution than just throwing a big nuke into the sun.
The film was flawed from the start with this premise. Then went on to make things worse with a cast that had no chemistry, terrible cinematography (oh Krueger's back, better start shaking!!!!) and every single thing on that ship was designed for technical failures.
We've met before, haven't we?