Source Code is a crackerjack thriller that sustains tension throughout. Director Duncan Jones manages to make the fact that the audience is repeatedly thrust into the same 8-minute passage of time welcome instead of tiresome. Ben Ripley's screenplay is awesome on a technical level, and the film never once cheats its audience. Jake Gyllenhaal is a perfect choice for the lead, as he is wholly believable and sympathetic (and the fact he's so darn attractive doesn't hurt!). Michelle Monaghan is charming enough to not make it far-fetched Gyllenhaal's character would take a liking to her so quickly, while Vera Farmiga is wonderful in a role that is literally in the background but never feels that way. It's just really nice to see a film that contains your share of explosions and typical action scenes that also makes you think at the same time. Definitely my favorite movie of the year so far. A-

Yeah this movie was awesome. The perfect blend of action, but still a smart sci-fi thriller. I really enjoyed it.

Agree. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this, and not knowing much of the plot going into it was rewarding. The whole concept of alternate universes/realities has been an interest of mine for some time now and I'm liking movies exploring that (I'm thinking of Rabbit Hole's inclusion of characters discussing this same topic--a welcome change from the religiosity of other stuff).

I eagerly await both Duncan Jones and Ben Ripley's next works.

Duncan Jones shows with Source Code that his work in the sci-fi field with Moon was no one-hit wonder. Source Code is an invigorating film from start to finish as the eight-minute intervals of the "source code" become their own great stories as each plays out. The story outside of the "source code" give the film that extra thrill of not only wondering about the train bombing but also about Gyllenhaal's story. The entire cast is superb but Gyllenhaal and Monaghan are the stand outs. The film is a tricky one to end but the ending put out was solid enough and kept the film enjoyable. Duncan Jones has a solid future ahead for him now in film and it'll be interesting to see what projects he'll take on next. Another fantastic original movie that has overtaken The Adjustment Bureau for best of the year so far. ****

Is there a giant mechanical tarantula at the end? Because that would totally make me want to see this.

Boy was I pleasantly surprise to see the big screen reboot of the Star Trek Next Generation TV episode Yesterday's Enterprise today (aka: Source Code) - - though not told with nearly the same level of gravitas, nor logic of storyline, it really was a step up from the usual Hollywood big screen sci-fi action thriller.

What it was a step down from however, was the previous movie of director Zowie Bowie. His debut feature Moon was a far more sophisticated take on a similar idea. This is the dumbed down version for a mass audience. Well, a moderate audience as the BO turned out. But still, I'd be cool with Duncan Jones making an original and challenging sci-fi film one year, then remaking it as a profitable dumb version the next year, to then pay for his next smartie pants film the third year.

But don't get me wrong, I did liked Source Code, it just didn't fully enthral me as the time travel genre are so often wont to do.

Luckily the acting was solid. Of course, I've been a lifetime Jake Gyllenhaal fan ever since his career defining performance in the landmark comedy film Bubble Boy. Plus the two (count 'em, two) leading ladies (Vera Farmiga & Michelle Monaghan) made up a ton of ground for me in the enthrallment department.

Let's hope this is movie is a fortuitous sign of the quality of Hollywood product that awaits us this summer!


4 out of 5.

Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), an Army helicopter pilot stationed in Afghanistan, opens his eyes, startled, as if rousing from a nightmare. He is on a commuter train outside Chicago, and he has no idea how or why he came to be there. Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), an attractive and flirtatious woman sitting across from him, calls him Sean Fentress. The ID in his wallet bears the name and photograph of Sean Fentress, a Chicago schoolteacher. The face Stevens sees in the mirror is Sean Fentress'. Then, the train explodes, obliterating every passenger. Stevens is then transported to a strange, claustrophobic pod where he is addressed by Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) of the Air Force. She tells him he is part of a top-secret new military program which, utilizing technology known as the "Source Code," allows one person to inhabit the mind of another in the last eight minutes of his or her life. Stevens' mission is to find the bomb on the train, as well as the terrorist who planted and detonated it. As almost every critic has pointed out, there are undeniable similarities to Groundhog Day. Agan and again the same eight minutes play out, yet each time they are different.

As directed by the very promising Duncan Jones, whose debut, Moon, was one of the best science fiction films of the last decade, Source Code is a tight, well-crafted suspense tale. It has several central mysteries. One has been heavily featured in the film's advertising: who is responsible for the bombing of the train? But the other is even more compelling and relates to the character of Colter Stevens. Why was he selected? Is what he sees (the uncomfortable, cold pod) real or yet another program? Farmiga's Goodwin and her superior, Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), are evasive, and there is a compelling, dreadful sense nothing is as it seems.

The film is also an unconventional love story. It is clear Fentress and Christina have been circling each other for a while, flirting every morning on the train. Stevens begins to fall for her, too, yet his affection seems doomed. After all, she is dead, and Wright's character insists nothing can be changed from within the Source Code. This leads to a few moments of surprising poignancy. The fact Stevens is interacting with people unaware they are mere moments from a violent, sudden end isn't lost on the film, even if it's first and foremost interested in Hitchcockian thrills and visual effects.

Other than a conclusion which may be a shade too sentimental (you can feel it straining for a studio-approved happy ending), Jones and screenwriter Ben Ripley never let the suspense and mystery deflate. This film tightly holds the viewer's attention for each of its 93 minutes.

B+

Admittedly I only read the final synopsis but I fundamentally disagree gunslinger. It was suspenseful here and there, and I guess there was some mystery, but I don't think Jones really was focused on these elements. This is more a tale of drama and personal triumph than suspense and mystique. The mystery is solved with over half an hour to spare. Moreover it wasn't a very intriguing or complex case anyway. Jones was focused on the humanity, the emotion in this film. Somewhat brilliantly he plays off the entirely mechanical situation he creates, the ultimate modernity. When I first saw the end I thought he pulled back his middle finger to modernity by making everything with the machine so perfect. Then it occured to me it was only through human actions taken in the face of scientific impossibility that the success of modernity is achieved. In other words, it's even more of a middle finger than I thought.

On the surface it's a Nolan clone (3 cups of Inception, a few tablespoons of prestige, a dash of the dark knight, and whatever random bits of memento needed to fill up the rest of the proverbial recipe,) except less complex, enthralling, and ambitious. But from inspection it's almost the antithesis of a Nolan film. While Nolan masters all the elements of suspense and intense thriller storytelling, Jones has a slight hand for it. However where Nolan desperately and increasingly attempts to force characterization and emotion, the humanity, and fails, Jones makes it look so flawless.

This was a lot more interesting then Inception. Where as that film left and unanswered question that caused pointless debate, this caused an interesting question about faith, heaven and science.

I honestly agree about the mystery, I thought it was that guy from the very first 8 minutes. However, I liked his form of deduction was caught up in the characters. Gyllenhall has not been good in a while and this might be one of his best roles. My only real minor complaint logistically is he did a shit load of things within 8 minutes that didn't seem plausable, but I can accept that as everything else was very well done, and I love Scott Bakula's quantam leap cameo that if you don't know it you miss it.

Here is my main question


I agree, best movie of the year so far A+

My impression:

Every time the Source Code was used, an alternate reality/timeline was created. A Sliding Doors-type scenario. So, by the end, there's a reality stem where Gyllenhaal and Monaghan were shot dead by the terrorist, and there's another stem where she survived the train explosion and watched the teacher get run over by another train after harassing a Muslim, etc., etc. And the last time he returns to Sean Fentress' body, he's obviously able to prevent any catasrophe. My impression is he'll continue to exist in this happily-ever-after reality, within Sean, even if he's used again by the government for another mission. (And the teacher is just screwed all around, but we don't care because he's not much of a character. )

Heaven never entered into the equation for me.

Would be a better movie if it ended when everyone on the train freezes.

Would have been a better movie if everyone on the train could act.

(The leads were great, but those passengers - - Yikes!!!)

I, myself, thought it was going to end there.

The movie is hit and miss. The story is strong, Jake puts in a very good performance and certain elements really pull you in, yet it still feels a little disjointed.

Moon, as slow moving and sheltered as it was, still is ultimately a more complete and fulfilling film.

The certain questions and situations this movie brings up though is enough for me to give it a B+. I would have liked more mystery of Jake questioning the characters, because, since the mystery itself is shallow, the movie focuses on characters and you, the audience, knowing that ultimately they all are already dead, gets to see that and their interactions, reactions and etc with each other and Jake.

I completely agree, my girlfriend said the same thing as soon as it ended. That would have just been a magnificient, poignant ending.
I'm not really sure with thegun's point. Cause it seems he is still available for the source code, they specifically note that he will be used. And I don't agree with the sliding doors theory because nothing was altered in the earlier scenarios. When they got off the train and shot by the terrorist it was never mentioned that the reality was changed so that those two people were shot rather than blown up. But then how is it possible he can both be in the other body living life, and still the program for the military?
I really don't know, I guess I need to see it again.

I kind of thought the only other "reality" made was the end one, post-freeze frame. Since Goodwin ended Colter's life in reality A she effectively created a duplicate reality, reality B.

The fact that Colter kept coming back to reality A after failing to stop the train explosion suggested to me that reality A was still the only one and none of the other possible realities were able to sustain on their own, as Colter was the reason they existed in the first place. He was the source code that enabled it to be, and without him they simply ceased to go on, but when Goodwin "killed" him in reality A she enabled the duplicate reality to continue without being reset over and over.

So, while Goodwin and Wright's character (forget his name) thought the source code experiment was simply a window to past events--and pretty much was that in their reality--if they were to open the window and then close it with the being inside the source code still there it made a duplicate world with a different series of events.

...or something

A crackerjack thriller, a clever mystery (where the mystery is a red herring to the real conundrum, natch!) and a wonderfully humanist sci-fi fable, Source Code is the first truly 2011 release to hit all the right notes for me. Okay, it's story isn't entirely air tight (I'd have rather not known the bomber's motivation than get the silly brief explanation we got)

At the end of it all though, the movie provokes a lot of discussion as evidenced by this thread... Personally, cuz it makes me feel warm and fuzzy, I like to believe Malcolm's recent theory. I'm going to totally disagree with the fans of death cinema who'd have preferred the movie stopped on an earlier note. The final moments aren't bad simply because they make the audience feel good - they toss us into the netherworld of alternative realities the whole movie is working around!

A-

That's the Back to the Future Part II paradox of time travel, but in this case, its for the better. As said though, if that is the case, he should not be with the girl at the end, he should have just shot back to the source code and the guy who lived should have been shot back, its a huge gaping whole in that theory.

If it's heaven, all the other people are there as well, and he is the hero in his own world, and will continue to help people. Perhaps they're trying to say Heaven is getting a chance to be the man you never could be on earth.

I enjoyed it, though I don't think the film is nearly as smart as it thinks it is. Much like Moon, Jones is dealing with heavy existential and metaphysical themes rather superficially, and doesn't really grant them their due importance. The hopelessly sappy ending is symptomatic of this superficiality; I agree that the movie should've ended with everyone frozen on the train. The film asks broad questions which it then has the audacity to answer; great sci-fi really doesn't work that way.

But Jake G is a lot more appealing than two Sam Rockwells, Michelle and Vera are easy on the eyes (and the latter, especially, fleshes out her character a lot more than was written), and Jeffrey Wright is always great. I just wish the thing had more subtlety and nuance.

I don't think it answers any questions Trixter, and by ending on the freezing it would have been a much more obvious conclusion.

8/10 -> B

With a couple of tweaks this could've been one of the best sci-fi flicks ever. It had the opportunity to explore the themes of identity, personality, life, death, etc. But as it stands it barely scrapes those themes and concentrates on a more sellable whodunnit blueprint. Which turned out to be pretty good too.

Gyllenhaal was really good in this one. And Farmiga managed to showcase a lot of warmth and concern while being showed mostly on a TV screen.

I agree with people above that movie should've ended with people being frozen in the train. It was a wonderful end picture. I like the ending as it is though, but it's not as poignant or as sad as the frozen picture.

Duncan James is showing some real promise with Moon and Source Code. Hopefully he continues to churns out enjoyable sci-fi flicks like these two. And hopefully he finally gets some balls and really goes into the themes he's only touching and really dives deep into those. Based on these two movies I really think he can handle that and deliver a classic.

This was pretty rubbish. It didn't take him long to find the bomber, and it was more of a story about his body/life/father than the bomber. It was so easily averted, that it didn't build enough suspense or tension. Glad I didn't waste money on this.

Also the story is a bit shit. It's a parallel reality, and now it can contact the real world by using a mobile phone? haha.

C

Source Code

I've just watched this again with my wife and it wasn't as bad as the first time, but the ending is terrible. If they had left it as ending when everybody is in a freeze-frame, I think I would have preferred it, but they've added a tacky ending whereby they've created a universe with parameters throughout the whole film for the main character to completely obliterate those parameters at the end.

I do like Gylenhaal and Farmiga, but it's just not a perfect science-fiction movie. It's a fresh idea, but not fully exploited, instead the idea is raped and therefore no chance of a sequel. More enjoyable this time, perhaps because of lower expectations, but that bad ending still places it in the lower echelons of my grading system.

C+

Looper makes Source Code look brilliant.