Source Code Decoded

Your mission, whether or not you choose to accept it, is to find the bomb and identify the bomber. Simple, right? Only challenge is you are strapped into what appears to be a simulator in a place you are unfamiliar with, being time warped for 8 minutes at a time like you're living in Groundhog's Day.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Colter Stevens, a disoriented soldier who wakes to find he's submersed in a government project called "Beleaguered Castle", of which he knows nothing about, being held against his will, with no phone-a-friend opportunity.

With the press of a button, the team on the other end of the screen sends him reeling into a moment 8 minutes before a commuter train is bombed, not with the intention of stopping the bomber and/or subsequently disarming his masterpiece, but simply to identify him so that they can prevent a second bombing.

The source code is described by the project leader, Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) and his subject communicator (Vera Farmiga) as extremely complicated. A science they have identified that takes advantage of the time a brain is still running posthumously (like a TV still glowing after it's turned off) and the short term memory that still exists in the brain, which is no more than 8 minutes. This time reassignment gives the subject access to a parallel reality. Combining quantum physics and parabolic calculus, this strategy is fascinating to watch because the people the subject interacts with don't realize Gyllenhaal is controlling the body of their friend, because it still looks and sounds like their friend.

As is typical of sci-fi action flicks, Gyllenhaal, ever the hero, wants to save the girl (Monaghan) and disarm the bomb if possible. Is it possible within the realm of source code, and if so, will he have enough time to figure out how?

"Source Code" leaves some things unanswered and seems to channel a little déjà vu for those of us old enough to remember sci-fi shows of the past such as Quantum Leap. Gyllenhaal thrives as the charming action hero out to save the world. Vera Farmiga does a decent job playing the robotic government crony with a heart. Monaghan, though cute as a button (as per the usual), adds little more than female aesthetic value to the film. Overall, "Source Code" is engaging and suspenseful, just not very original.

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