Whitsbrain

5/10

I got invested in the characters right from the start while viewing "Source Code". Jake Gyllenhaal is Captain Stevens and Michelle Monaghan plays Christina both passengers on a commuter train headed to Chicago. The train explodes during its route and Captain Stevens "wakes up" in a dark capsule is told a minimal amount of information and is then sent back to the exact moment in time that we first saw him on the train. We learn that Stevens is on a military mission to find a bomb that killed everyone on board and that he must also find the person who planted the bomb because they are likely responsible for threatening to explode a dirty bomb in the middle of the city. I really sunk myself into the plight of Stevens and fell for the cute Christina not really thinking at all about the improbability of what was happening. Earlier in the movie we learn that the 'Source Code' project allows one person to assume another person's mind for 8 minutes. So Stevens takes over the consciousness of a teacher Sean that was killed during the explosion. Turns out Sean and Christina had a budding relationship and Stevens' mind has now replaced that of Sean. The whole idea is a lot like "Groundhog Day" with Stevens dying every 8 minutes and then going back to the same point to try and save the train and also thwart the upcoming bombing of Chicago. He searches for clues and mistakenly follows a couple of characters both on and off the train. Suspending disbelief is a really subjective thing for me. Sometimes I'll allow myself to accept the most ridiculous premise and other times I'll question everything going on with a roll of the eyes and an accompanying groan. But in this case I got myself caught up in the building relationship between the two main characters and I actually enjoyed myself. Then things started to fall apart. I first got miffed about what is now a growing Hollywood cliche. The terrorist who planted the bombs is a white male who is trying to "reduce the world to rubble". He's obviously an anti-Government wacko in fact a patriotic wacko because when Stevens finds the terrorist's dirty bomb it's in a red white and blue trunk. Stevens remarks "very patriotic". Ugh...could they have presented a safer more politically correct bad guy? This snapped me into a more critical mindset and I started wondering if Stevens has 'become' Sean he would only be able to know what information Sean's experienced about the train. Sean was a teacher a simple passenger yet somehow Stevens knows damned near everything about the train. He also leaves the train to follow a passenger he first suspects. Could he do that if Sean hadn't done it previously? Where is all of this information coming from? We've also learned that Captain Stevens actually died in a mission in Afghanistan but he's in a sort of coma that is allowing his mind to be used for the Source Code project. Stevens also learns of his condition and struggles with it while still acting as Sean the teacher and trying to find the bomber. Stevens eventually figures out who the bomber is saves Chicago but loses the train to the first bomb. Heartbroken Stevens pleads with Source Code's controller Goodwin to allow him to go back one more time to save the train...and Christina. After 8 minutes he instructs Goodwin to basically 'pull the plug' and allow him to die. She complies and Stevens successfully saves the train and has a few last moments with Christina. He asks her what she would do with her last minute. As final seconds of his last 8 minutes ticks away he kisses her the Source Code clock expires and everything on the train is frozen in time. Stevens' last moment shows him kissing Christina. He has died but has saved the train and her life. It's a touching way for our hero to enter eternity and a very good but bittersweet ending. Then a terrible thing happens...the movie continues and breaks all of the rules its worked so hard to establish. I'm not going to explain what occurs in the last 10 minutes other than to say it's either to give us an entirely happy ending or to set up a sequel. I can almost excuse the possibility of a lead in to a sequel business is business. But I think this travesty of a tacked on ending is due to Hollywood and it's mostly thick-headed customers needing a totally happy ending.

dfle3

0/10

Brilliant concept. Great execution. A sci-fi classic. Another in a longish line of high-concept mainstream movies. In many of those movies it's fashionable to have a confusing story which people will interpret as being brilliant/genius and which has an in-built "repeat" viewing factor due to the baffling nature of the story which has just been told. Think movies like "Inception". "Source code" is a far superior film to "Inception" but will probably lack the kudos of the latter. Briefly, the story concerns a commuter ("Colter Stevens", played by Jake Gyllenhaal) on a train who has an identity crisis. Before he can resolve it, he dies with all the other passengers in a massive explosion. Afterwards (!), the man awakes in a weird chamber where he is questioned by military (or some such) personnel about who caused the explosion. Don't worry, this is not a 'spoiler'...it's established very early on in the movie that this is what has happened. Of course, you get questions along the lines of "Which reality is real?". Going with the sci-fi explanation (involving secret military experiments) you have a plausibility to the scenario which is very nicely unambitious and may in fact have some science (perhaps speculative) to it...involving information retained in the brain post-death...some 8 minutes...which gives rise to another gimmick of the movie...the character reliving those 8 minutes in order to solve the mystery of the train explosion. The latter part of the scenario may be hard to rationalise as remotely plausible, but I just ran with the premise...perhaps it might have been a more plausible story if the movie didn't go down that path...a more 'realistic' science fiction, perhaps. This is a great story which seems to have no loose ends to it, at least on one level...the film makers provide you with clues as to what is happening and you aren't left high and dry like similarly themed movies can do. P.S. on reflection, the part of the movie dealing with 'reliving' the 8 minutes of memory in the way that they did, did strike me as being a loose-end/plot-hole...but you just enjoy the ride at the time. A lovely, dark, morbid fantasy. If you like this film, some others and a video game with similar themes include: 12 Monkeys The matrix Dark city Groundhog day Assassin's Creed (video game...personally I don't find the first game in the series to be fun to play...the sequel is much more playable). [Originally posted on another site on 17 May 2011 according to their dating.]

artlawless

0/10

Source Code is a “repeating loop” Science Fiction film directed by Duncan Jones whose prior film was Moon. Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, and Vera Farmiga play the lead characters. It even has Russell Peters in a guest role. Unlike Moon, Source Code is a fast-paced thriller. The film follows a man who is made to go through an 8-minute window repeatedly to locate the person responsible for a train bombing. As the loop repeats, the plot thickens. It's a pretty good film which keeps you at the edge of the seat and reveals to you in stages as to what is going on. The cast has done a good job portraying their roles. It's a Sci-Fi that deserves one watch at least (but you might do two to get it)