SOURCE CODE
4 out of 5 stars

“this isn’t time travel. it’s time reassignment.” – prof. rutledge

a very VERY interesting concept re: time and space continuums and going back in time i.e. the past in order to prevent something from happening to the present and/or future… netflix categorized this movie as a sci-fi thriller, and i guess technically it is a sci-fi because it does deal with science, but i enjoyed this one as more of a thriller, actually… ;)

jake gyllenhaal stars as capt. colter stevens, who suddenly awakes in the body of a guy named sean fentress, a teacher from some little illinois town. he’s on a chicago-bound train, and a woman named christina (michelle monaghan) starts talking to him, as if she’s known him for a while… capt. stevens is immediately freaked out by his surroundings, and goes to the bathroom to figure out what’s going on. while he’s trying to figure it all out, the train suddenly EXPLODES a la michael bay style, and then capt. stevens wakes up in some weird space capsule with screens and stuff. capt. goodwin (vera famiga) comes on one of the screens, telling him that he’s at beleagured castle…whatever that means, right? she conducts a memory test with playing cards and verbal dictation, then she explains to him that he’s been participating in a project called source code, where he is sent back in time (so to speak) in the body of a man, who died in a train explosion a couple days ago. (!) he is given 8 min. to figure out who the bomber is, where the bomb is located, and most importantly of all: help prevent a second attack. all that within 8 MINUTES. time is definitely of the essence here, but capt. stevens wants to know why he’s involved with this lucrative govt project? you’ll see why, and why everyone is hestitate towards telling him outright… ;)

it was definitely not what i had expected! in fact, the reason why capt. stevens was involved in source code really gave this one a good plot twist, thus the extra star… the producers and director really made this one interesting by exploring the idea of alternate realities and asking the question of “what would happen if you did X differently?” i mean, at times, you wonder if this train was meant to explode and these ppl on it were suppose to die? it’s a very interesting concept, and i really liked the flow/story structure. the acting has depth to it, and of course, jake gyllehaal whose played army dude many times really gets into his conflicted and confused character. i thought the “villain” and his rationale for destruction/chaos was a little bit weak, but leading up to figuring out who it is was rewarding enough… ;)