“Source Code” is a pretty ingenious sci-fi thriller. It involves a team of military scientists that can place someone inside the mind of another person eight minutes before they die. The technology is used to try to solve crimes but entering the mind of innocent bystanders who are killed by acts of terrorism.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Captain Colter Stevens. When the movie opens, he is placed in the mind of a person who is killed in the bombing of a civilian train. Through the course of the movie Colter will experience the last eight minutes of this trains existence, each time trying to discover different clues to who is behind the bombing. This is essentially like the experience Bill Murray had in “Groundhog Day” except this is a mainstream thriller.
The director is Duncan Jones, who brought us the great “Moon” a few years ago. With “Moon” and now “Source Code”, he shows us that he is more interested in using the science fiction genre to tell stories about specific people as opposed to wasting our time with non stop special effects.
“Source Code” is a great thriller, with lots of neat twists and turns and an ending that sat with me for a few days after I saw it. Its nice to see a movie that challenges the audience to figure things out for themselves.
