The Source Code, 2011

The Source Code, 2011
Director: Duncan Jones
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga


Stage: Home theatre


Source Code in short: Colter Stevens, a US Army helicopter pilot whose last memory is flying in Afghanistan, wakes up on a commuter train. However, he discovers that he has assumed the identity of another man. 8 minutes later, the train explodes and Stevens finds himself in some kind of pod. He then talks to someone named Goodwin, who tells him he has to go back and find out who the bomber is. He is sent back to go through the whole thing again and attempts to find who the bomber is but fails. The bomb goes off and Stevens finds himself in the pod again. He is sent back another time, yet still cannot find out anything. When he returns, he asks what is going on. Goodwin and Rutledge, the scientist in charge, tell him that he is part of a project that can put someone in another person's consciousness during the last 8 minutes of their life. Stevens then asks why he cannot just stop the bomb.


Preps: some recommendations + a hot thing at the theatres a while ago


Reality: What would you do if you only had one minute left? Made it count? Burn a bridge you left behind, or build it?
Waking up in the "groundhog day" - in this case, groundhog eight minutes, just before a big explosion of a train, trying to figure out where the bomb is and who the assassin is, this is the reality of a soldier, that keeps going back to this train, searching for the villain. To imagine that he's a sort of an avatar that can have as many lives as possible, is the first obstacle in trying to get into this piece. After all, we aren't meant to be a leading actor in a video game. Furthermore, does he play himself or the character he obviously has overtaken in physical sense? The idea you linger quite a long upon, before you see him changing his mind constantly.

The game is simple - retreave the enemy and let us know who he is. In the mean time, get killed as many times as you like, but get us the information. The governmental programme Source code is abusing leftovers from a soldier, whose mind is still functioning, although he's missing more than a half of his body. With the use of technology, they drive him back again and again to that train that only has eight minutes before the explosion takes its place. And every time he's back in the train, he is making a completely new story. Somehow very similar to the Groundhog day guy - it is so obvious to make parallel assumptions, although the topic of the movie is quite different. This, being an action movie, tries to play mind trick with the audience, because even though he is a soldier, the body of the man he possesses, isn't or hasn't been in a combat before. So the question is, if you possess one's body, does this include also the upgrade/downsize of the skills that are in this mind? In this sense, the cute guy, he now is, doesn't know how to be a soldier, yet alone to fight. And there are many fights in this movie. In some sense, when you are playing your avatar, you can also influence his skills, whereas we aren't really in the avatar world here, nothing is played on the computer and noone but the people in the train can see the actions.

The fact, that the government abuses people's trust in order to receive their service (and hide it behind the "do it for the country, son" phrases), isn't something extra new. What is one guy if there are millions of lives at stake? Nothing to the country. In this piece, they try to give him the background so you could develop emotions to him. But fail, because this side story isn't strong enough to survive. The last time he's on the train, he calls his father and speaks with him. And kisses the girl, he continously sees across his seat, whenever he wakes up. And makes people in the train laugh. Because the last minutes should obviously count.
In some strange fiction, this parallel world is continuing without the accident. Now just think how many duplicates could you have with the usage of such a device and how many parallel worlds would exist?

My personal rate: 7,0 (a good way to think about your time and things you care about. And an anti-commercial pointed to the country and its deeds).


The Source code on IMDB