Courtesy - The Sunday Leader By Sumaya SamarasingheCaptain Colter Stevens wakes up in a train with absolutely no idea how he got there. A lovely woman, Christina is seated in front of him, she tells him “I followed your advice; it was good advice, thank you”.
He clearly has no clue what she is talking about and when he catches his reflection in the widow, he cannot recognise his face! This helicopter pilot and Afghanistan vet who is so accustomed to dealing with pressurising situations becomes confused and agitated especially with Christina who continues to address him like he was someone else and obviously someone she is very familiar with! Colter remains puzzled and even aggressive for the next eight minutes until an explosion rips through the train and he wakes up strapped to a chair, unable to move in some sort of capsule.
The situation is set, but is the film dealing with time travel, entering dreams, mind control? Captain Stevens has no idea why he keeps waking up in the body of another man and gets more and more agitated with his memory lapses. Fortunately, he is able to get some answers from Air Force Capt. Colleen Goodwin played by the wonderful Vera Farmiga who explains to him though a video that he is inside the Source Code, a programme which enables one to enter an alternate reality that allows the mind to get into the body of a person who has just eight minutes to live, this time Sean Fentress, a teacher and colleague to Christina.
After Colter/ Fentress is blown to bits in the train explosion, he is ruthlessly quizzed for details by Goodwin who evades answering his questions.
Colter has no recollection signing up to take part in the Source Code mission and his last vivid memory is of him flying a helicopter in Afghanistan.more
Goodwin tells him that his prime mission is to locate the bomb, find the bomber and gather enough information which will prevent future attacks. Every time he is sent back, he wakes up as Sean Fentress and each time his reactions towards Christina and the rest of the passengers’ changes bringing him closer to his mission goals. Source Code is thrilling. Set in two very limited spaces: the carriage of a train and something like a small dark freezing room; the film manages to keep your pulse rate high. The events repeat themselves with slight changes each time which make the film gradually more and more exciting. Jake Gyllenhall who had recently been quite mediocre in Prince Of Persia and Love And Other Drugs is back in form.
He is perfect as this strong and driven Captain on a mission to save innocent lives and who in these alternate realities is gradually falling in love with Christina. Every time he is blown to bits and returns, he is on a double mission; to save the lives of the passengers and to understand what happened to him. The theme of alternate reality also known as parallel universe which describes the idea of separate realities co-existing with one another isn’t new in cinema. Groundhog Day with Bill Murray gave a hilarious and touching perspective to re-living continuously the same day. More recently Inception tackled the often confusing plot of dream levels and different realities. And of course television has flooded us with series’ using this theme.
However with Source Code, there seems to be a perfect mix of darkness, plot clarity which does not attempt to over complicate the so called rational aspect of this experiment and emotional engagement from the actors with a special mention for Gyllenhall and Farmiga. A film to watch, directed by Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie.
