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Jake Gyllenhaal leads this sci-fi thriller as Captain Colter Stevens, a soldier who mysteriously wakes up on a train near Chicago, even though his last recollection is of flying a fighter plane over Afghanistan.  As you marvel at the beautiful cinematography and shift listlessly in your seat looking straight down on the buildings and streets, you start to question what has this guy gotten into, and what is going on?  Seemingly forced to live an 8 minute window of time on the train which is destined to explode via a terrorist incident, he meets Christina (Michelle Monaghan) and forms a bond.  Unknown to Colter, he’s part of a computer simulation program created by a self absorbed scientist Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright).  This program is rooted in a fantastic ideology about the future but in the bounds of this movie, it’s limited to government intervention into a covert operation to stop a bomb.

Source Code is an explosive, weird, sci fi-action love story – and that’s not an easy group of categories to sling together and make enjoyable.  The cast of names you know helps this thriller along.  Michelle Monaghan (Trucker) is Christina, a train acquaintance who becomes intimately attached to the story as Stevens re-lives repeated catastrophes on the train.  Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) is the embattled Captain who discovers his true fate and is forced to ponder his last few minutes both for himself and for Christina.  Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale)is the idealistic scientist at the edge of the discovery of our time.  Even Vera Farmiga (The Departed) turn as Colter’s officer and confidant Captain Goodwin, provides enjoyment. 

The explosions and train-vs-human scenes are graphical and jolting.   After each incident, Colter finds himself in a large container with Captain Goodwin on a video monitor and she always seems to be hurriedly coaching him back into the train to find to find the bomber and of course be blown apart again and again.   It turns out Colter was blown up in Afghanistan and a portion of his body remained viable.   Dr. Rutledge, who has this crazy quantum physics and parabolic calculus formula that can use a minute amount of living brain cells (which Colter’s blown up body still has), chooses to inject his personae into a graphical computer program.  The concept is genius; the larger ramifications of a such a system is mind boggling and probably too scary for a PG-13 film. 

The movie is Groundhog Day meets the Matrix, but Gyllenhaal, Monaghan and Farmiga portray engaging and likeable characters whose relationship grows to a surprising peak by the end of the movie.  The sets and locations support the story both visually and believably only serving to enhance the action that takes place. 

Don’t take the movie too seriously or you will be disappointed.  Enjoy the Matrix style ride and it’ll be megaplex bucks spent well. 

4 Stars out of 5.

Source Code is rated PG-13 for some violence including disturbing images, and for language.  Running Time: 93 minutes.

Contributor: Fred Gardner