Source Code is a fast paced, tense sci-fi thriller helmed by director Duncan Jones and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghen, Vera Farminga and Jeffrey Wright. It comes as a surprise to me that this pic had a nice focus on action and intensity, while also on it's human characters.
It opens on a train heading to Chicago, where air force pilot Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal), wakes up in the body of Sean Fentress, a history teacher. Sitting in front of him is Fentress' girlfriend, Christina (Monaghen). Confused and dazed, Stevens walks around the train, and then it blows up. Stevens reawakens in a capsule, where a woman officer, Goodwin (Farminga), comes up on the screen and tells Stevens that he is in the 'source code', which allows you to enter the last 8 minutes of a man's life. Stevens has entered Fentress' body, and is told that he must find the bomb to the train and the bomber, as the bomber has another nuke that he will set off in Chicago.
After going back several times, Stevens finds the bomber, and identifies him. However, the bomber shoots and kills Stevens, who is sent back to the capsule. Here, the twist is revealed that 'source code', run by the ruthless Ruthledge (Wright), can only affect the future, and not the past. Therefore, the police are able to stop the bomber, but not the bomb on the train. Stevens also learns that he has been dead for two months, being KIA in Afghanistan, and his body is being used for the 'source code'. In return to die peacefully, Stevens goes back to try to save the people, and discovers something else: that 'source code' can create an entire new world parallel to our own.
At 93 minutes, Source Code thankfully doesn't extend it's length any farther. It's a pretty good popcorn flick that I would pay my money to go see in the theater.
Gyllenhaal does his own part well, and I think he will fast become popular with audiences. What I also liked about Source Code is that it casts it's actors well, and kept the story with the characters balanced with the action and intensity.
I still think it's obvious that Source Code plays out as another popcorn flick very similar to moves like the Matrix, Inception and maybe the Adjustment Bureau. It's no great film, but as an action-thriller it surprisingly plays out quite nice.
*** ½/5
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