Source Code

Source Code
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Director: Duncan Jones
Rated: PG-13

A soldier wakes up in the body of a stranger and soon finds out he Is the only hope of finding a bomber on a Chicago commuter train.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Colter Stevens a helicopter pilot who wakes up on a commuter train in the body of a strange man, 8 minutes later he is blown up and finds out that he is being sent by the government into the memory of a man who died on the train. Colter is sent back in numerous times (ala the Bill Murray classic Ground Hogs day) to relive this 8 minute window until he can figure out who the bomber is.

The concept of Source Code is clever and typically a movie that stars Jake Gyllenhaal is going to be a complete waste of time, this isn’t the typical Gyllenhaal role, although he does have the occasional moment of looking like a lumbering mutated hybrid of a human and basset hound, it is kept to a minimum. Slowly as Colter keeps going back into the 8 minute window he begins to make a connection with Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) who is secretly in love with the guy whose body Colter is in. Although Colter is told he is in a memory and not able change what has already happened he refuses to believe it and wants to not only find out who the bomber is but also save everyone from being blown up.

(The paragraph below might contain a bit of a spoiler)

Colter realizes that every time he goes back he isn’t just entering an 8 minute window into a doomed passenger’s life but is in fact entering a parallel version of reality that he can change. Of course his final time in the source code he is able to get everything right, he stops the bomber from blowing up the train saves Chicago from a mad bomber and proves his theory of alternate realities correct, Even though he dies in his initial reality he is able to continue living in his new body and gets the girl, Talks to his estranged father and overall saves the day. The only problem with this is poor Derek Frost the guy whose body has been hijacked. In the original reality the train blows up and Derek dies. In the next few realities he is blown up multiple times and at one point his body is even hit by a train. Every time Colter dies in Dereks body he is sent back to his own reality while Derek continues on his merry go round of death. When Colter goes into the Source Code the final time his physical body dies in his reality but he ends up in an alternate reality living in Dereks body. This is all fine and good, that is if you’re not Derek Foster. No matter which way you look at it Derek gets screwed, He dies in every reality and finally in the reality where everything goes right its Colter not Derek who gets to live in Dereks body. Since I am not Derek I have to recommend this movie.

Grade-92