Source Code ****

Source Code is an extremely engaging, entertaining, and ultimately surprisingly moving sci-fi thriller. To try and write a summary of it, however, takes all the fun out of it. Breaking it into its constituent parts makes it sound preposterous: Jake Gyllenhaal wakes up on a train in another man’s body; his reflection is not his own. Eight minutes later the train explodes and he wakes up in a mysterious pod, where he learns that by the power of the American army and quantum physics he is going to live those same eight minutes over and over again until he finds the man that bombed his train, thereby rescuing Chicago from another bomb that will happen later that day. This all happens in about the first ten minutes of the film.

The remarkable thing is that - despite sounding like Speed meets Groundhog Day - none of the above seems ridiculous at the time. (Though Speedhog Day  is an amazing idea for a film, no?  And there's merchandise available already).  Duncan Jones directs Source Code with the lightest of touches, with a massive debt owed to master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. The title sequence really reminded me of North by Northwest somehow, and the tension is wound as tightly as possible as we, along with Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, slowly unravel just what is going on.

This is much more than a genre movie, however. Yes, it's a sci-fi thriller - but, as with the very best sci-fi, it is so much more too. It is a philosophical exploration of the idea of fate, and about making choices; it’s a contemplation of what it truly means to be alive; and it’s a love story.

Source Code is sci-fi as Alfred Hitchcock would have made it - with a little bit of Keanu Reeves thrown in, just for fun.


PS. Tenuously linked pop quiz, hot shot: How great is the Speed trailer?*  

Initial review here.


*The answer is that the Speed trailer is very great.  Though it does basically show the entire film.