Source Code: Plot Summary
Military pilot (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds himself on a train to Chicago, sitting across a beautiful woman named Christina (Michelle Monaghan) who keeps calling him Sean. And the reflection in the mirror is someone else’s… He has no clue how he has got there, and before he can figure out, a huge explosion occurs, killing everyone on the train.
Only, Stevens isn’t dead. He wakes up in a strange capsule, where female military officer Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who keeps asking him about a bomb. Instead of answering his questions, she seems to stick to an urgent schedule and sends him back to the train. He only has 8 minutes to find the bomb and the bomber.
As almost the same things happen over and over during those 8 minutes, and something goes wrong each time, they keep sending him back, only reluctantly giving bits of details about the mission, and why the hell Sean is involved in the first place.
We root for Stevens as he tries to solve two “cases” at once, and learning shocking things about himself in the process. To the annoyance of Dr. Ruthledge (Jeffrey Wright), developer of Source Code, Stevens develops an agenda of his own.
Is the source code only able to help them prevent future disasters? Or can Stevens actually use to alter the past? Oh yeah, and we are still trying to find the bomber…
**
Worth Seeing? : Definitely!
I hadn’t been that impressed with Source Code’s trailer. But then again, while trailers typically show the parts with most action, they tend to leave the whys/hows/whos out. It is a risky way, because the trailer had let me to think that this movie would be very typical, apart from the “8-minutes-only”, hence my not-so-hopeful preview post on the movie.
But the movie, apart from some scenes, is anything but typical. It is (quite) original (apart from the parts when my mind went back to a “Supernatural” episode, fast but with enough emotional moments and character development, a romantic sub-plot that feels quite natural. And the whys/hows/whos make the movie.
Source Code is creative and engaging. And it is a sci-fi movie that will even appeal to the non fans. Sure, some things will definitely feel like a stretch, even by sci-world standards. Still, the movie offers a good time with a very likable protagonist. And it offers all this in a little over than 90 minutes.
Written by Ben Ripley. Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon). And finally, a cool story that wasn’t adapted from a book!
Currently rated at 7.6 on IMDB.
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Great review, Pinar! Yes, the storyline was quite original… even though, it was clear he was living in some sort of ‘suspended animation’ and therefore his own existence was only ‘make believe’…
Brilliant Jake Gyllenhaal… he always exceed himself !!! 🙂
Thanks:)
I hadn’t thought of suspended animation, but I was suspecting he was one of the dead men whose memories could be used for 8 minutes. In a way, we were both wrong and right:):)
I love Jake. There aren’t many actors who pull off indie and mainstream equally well. ::):)