Source Code Movie Review

Original Publication date: April 1, 2011

***Movie Spoilers***

The Source Code is a sci-fi thriller that opened ahead of the box Office weekend pack. Only a few dozen moviegoers showed up to watch an early midnight screening. The leading stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan light up the screen with perfect chemistry. Duncan Jones' Source Code takes the audience on a journey within the mind of Colter Stevens, a Captain in U.S. Armed Forces serving a mission in Afghanistan. The Source Code is a cross between Inception and Passengers.

The Source Code is a sci-fi thriller that opened ahead of the Box Office Weekend pack. Only a few dozen moviegoers showed up to watch an early midnight screening. The leading stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan light up the screen with perfect chemistry. Duncan Jones' Source Code takes the audience on a journey within the mind of Colter Stevens, a Captain in the U.S. Armed Forces serving a mission in Afghanistan. The Source Code is a cross between Inception and Passengers. 

A top-secret government experiment, the Source Code, enables the military and scientists to send Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) into the last 8 minutes before a train explodes. Colter wakes up as a disoriented passenger in a Chicago train, without having a clue of his whereabouts. Christina is a beautiful woman who supposedly is on her last train ride. She is concerned about Colter's agitated behavior, addressing Colter by another name. At this point of the movie, the audience is just as confused as Colter.

The Chicago train heads down a path to destruction. Christina constantly follows Colter to make sure he is fine. She has a secret crush on Colter, but her feelings are not revealed until toward the end of the movie. In the mind and imaginary body of a schoolteacher, Colter can move around with the same functionality as a living human.    

Once the first 8 minutes expire, the bomb explodes on the train and kills every passenger onboard. Colter wakes up as Captain Stevens, strapped into tight space in the middle of nowhere. Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) is an enlisted Air Force enlisted member assigned to keep the mission on track. She addresses Colter as Captain Stevens, but refuses to brief him on the mission in hand.  

Colter is sent back to the train again and again, albeit each time he fails to find the bomber. After the 8-minute mission expires, the train explodes again. Colter demands answers from Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), the acting chief scientist of the Source Code program. As complicated as the answer seems, Dr. Rutledge and Goodwin leave out the real mystery of Captain Stevens' status as a soldier.  

The astral travel experience sends the audience into another man’s mind to piece together the events leading up to a train explosion. Source Code delivers another Déjà vu storyline with a goal to prevent another terrorist disaster within another dimension of time. Colter’s affection for Christina reminds many dreamers of meeting the perfect soulmate in a dream, only for such an experience to vanish into thin air. Once Colter discovers that he is also deceased, he fights to save Christina and the passengers from dying in the train explosion.

Source Code is a movie about showing the moral value of serving others, doing for the greater of good and not asking for anything in return. One question continues to surface in the movie; what would one do if they knew there was only one minute of time remaining in their life? Life is too short to whine and complain about shortcomings. Will Colter and Christina be given a chance to experience love in a fantasy? Will their time together end once the mission is accomplished?

The recurring astral projection theme represents a mission to save a train full of passengers who are already dead in real time, but have a real opportunity to live a life within the Source Code (imaginary world). Duncan Jones’ Source Code will make moviegoers think about the value of life and how one moment can change their fate. I left the movie realizing we must enjoy every moment and appreciate our family, friends, and even strangers to live a healthy life.