SOURCE CODE

“SOURCE CODE” (Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga & Jeffrey Wright)

Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) wakes up and finds himself on a commuter train in Chicago sitting across from the lovely Christina Warren (Monaghan)
Christina speaks as though they know one another when Colter has no idea who she is. Then she calls him Sean. He tells her she’s mistaken him for somebody else – Christina looks at him as though he’s lost his mind. Colter excuses himself and enters the men’s room only to find an unfamiliar face staring back at him in the mirror. Colter freaks out; the obligatory ‘This can’t be happening’ line is uttered and he goes back to Christina hoping she can shed some light on this nightmarish situation. 8 minutes after Colter awakens on the train a bomb explodes killing everyone on board.
Colter Stevens then finds himself inside an enclosed metal bunker with a female voice asking him if he discovered the identity of the bomber. The last thing Colter remembers prior to the experience on the train was flying his helicopter in Afghanistan.
The voice belongs to Colleen Goodwin (Farmiga) who heaves a frustrated sigh and runs Colter through a series of memory tests. She tells Colter he’s being sent back to the train and that he has 8 minutes to find out who planted the bomb.
This is the premise of ‘Source Code’ – the name of the secret project headed by Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) - Colter Stevens, it turns out, is the perfect guinea pig for the Source Code experiment as he is able to ‘quantum leap’ in Sean’s body for the last 8 minutes of his life repeatedly, each time uncovering more information about the bomb and the possible suspects onboard that planted it. Each ‘leap’ opens with Colter sitting across from Christina; the same soda pop can being opened, the same comments being made by those sitting nearby and the ticket taker asking Colter to produce his ticket stub.
But each leap is altered as Colter gathers information and at one point leaves the train with two incentives in mind; follow a suspicious passenger and get Christina off of the doomed freight.
Each explosion is followed by a trip back to the bunker and Goodwin’s voice asking if he discovered the identity of the bomber. When Colter excitedly tells Goodwin & Rutledge that he saved the girl, they look at one another with 'should we tell him the truth?' expressions.
Colter is told his only mission is to give them the name of the person that planted the bomb as the terrorist has already taken credit for the deed and claims that a bigger explosion with many more casualties is coming later that day. Colter focuses on the task at hand, but is dismayed when he leaps back into Sean’s body and there’s Christina – back on the train, sitting across from him.
‘Source Code’ is far-fetched, but it’s the kind of far-fetchiness I can enjoy – the set up, the chemistry between the actors and the eventual out come are all well done, even if it leaves the audience scratching their heads when recalling some earlier scenes.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Jake Gyllenhaal just knows how to pick good projects.
This is a combo of the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ (without the humor) and the TV series ‘Quantum Leap’ and oddly enough it works. I’m not one to leave reality behind when I enter a movie theatre but I was able to for ‘Source Code’ and I credit all of the actors and a good character-driven storyline for making that happen. Good popcorn flick. Even if you don’t like popcorn...