Everybody wishes they had a chance to go back and correct a mistake they made at some point in life. Maybe it was striking out in that big Little League game, striking out with that girl at the bar or striking that bigger kid and then getting your butt kicked. We all have those moments we wish we could go back and do over. But alas, it’s all just an embarrassing memory.
Not in Source Code, in which Jake Gyllenhaal’s character gets that chance we all wish we had. The difference is he didn’t ask for it, didn’t want it and has no idea how to fix it. And unfortunately, at the end, this sometimes-fascinating movie ends up striking out.
Gyllenhaal stars as Colter Stevens, who wakes up on a train inbound to Chicago not knowing who he is or why he is there. After a few minutes of fumbling around and befriending a beautiful stranger (Michelle Monaghan), the train blows up and Colter is transported inside a mysterious chamber.
Debriefed on his situation by a woman named Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) on a computer screen, Colter learns he’s in a military program that has transported him into the body of Sean Fentress, a man who died in the explosion earlier that morning. Colter, a former military pilot, will have eight minutes to find the bomb and bomber to prevent future attacks. If he fails, he’s sent back in for a new eight minutes.
It’s understandable if all that sounds very confusing. A two-paragraph summary can’t do this plot any justice. The thing to know is that, for the most part, Ben Ripley’s script does add up.
Source Code is director Duncan Jones’ first feature since Moon, and the two movies are a lot alike. Like Sam Rockwell’s character, Colter is an isolated character taking his orders from cryptic authority figures and struggling to discover the truth behind his situation.
Importantly, Source Code is impeccably cast. After a few missteps, it’s good to see Gylenhaal back in a juicy role, perhaps his best since Brokeback Mountain, while Monaghan carries her weight albeit in a rather one-note role. Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright are also pretty near dead-on in their supporting roles.
The factor that holds Source Code back is the ending. No matter how many times you go over it in your head, or how many times your buddy tries to explain it, the last 10-15 minutes just don’t make sense. Call it Ocean’s Twelve disease: while movies that make us think are great, movies that make our heads hurt almost never are.
But even with the overly complex and confusing ending, Source Code is still worth a see. It’s a fun mix between Groundhog Day and The Matrix, two movies that are almost always worth a view on cable, but still this movie maintains a lot of originality. While never fully developed or explained, the thought of a source code is engaging and fun enough to help overcome some plot holes.
And at the very least, Source Code makes Jones one of the hottest young sci-fi directors out there, comforting for a genre that has largely lost its luster and imagination lately. Jones, no longer just David Bowie’s kid, will be under pressure to deliver us another space oddity next time. Hopefully, that one will just make a little more sense.
— Cameron Dunbar is a sophomore studying journalism. Be a source of clarity and explain the ending of this movie to him at cd211209@ohiou.edu.
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