DVD Reviews

Source Code – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 25, 2011, 15:47 GMT

A helicopter pilot (Gyllenhaal) recruited for a top-secret military operation finds himself on a startlingly different kind of mission in Source Code, a smart, fast-paced action thriller that challenges our assumptions about time and space. Filled with mind-boggling twists and heart-pounding suspense, Source Code is directed by Duncan Jones (Moon). ...more

Duncan Jones confirms that his fledgling effort Moon wasn’t a flash in the pan with this thought provoking, uplifting sci-fi film.

Chopper pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) awakens very confused on a commuter train. His last memory has him piloting his chopper in Afghanistan so he doesn’t know how he got on the train. He is sitting across from Christina (Michelle Monaghan) who he doesn’t know but she seems to know him. When he catches his reflection it is of a face that he does not recognize.

He spends a confused and bewildered eight minutes running around the train when it suddenly explodes, killing everyone aboard. An even more confused Stevens reawakens in a cockpit of a strange craft to be confronted with Capt. Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) who eventually explains the reason for Stevens’ confusion.

He is in an experimental program, created by the high strung Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), which relives the “source code” last eight minutes of life of a teacher named Sean Fentress (Frederick De Grandpre), the reflection that Stevens sees in the mirror.

Stevens’ mission is to find out who planted the bomb on the train since it was a precursor to a dirty bomb that threatens to kill thousands in Chicago, set to go off unless Stevens can find worthwhile clues during those repeated eight minutes.

Moon put all eyes upon Duncan Jones. It was a surprise film that certainly has “cult” status written all over it. It also featured a great performance from Sam Rockwell and did well with its small budget. Well, now Jones has moved on to bigger names and budgets and again scores. He proves that he is a director to be watched.

Source Code takes a science fiction concept and adds humanity to it. We really feel for Gyllenhaal as he finds out that he is stuck in this loop and cannot help those he sees and that his superiors may just be using him as a disposable commodity. We feel even more when he starts to fall for Monaghan or starts to contact his father to hear his voice.

Not that it wouldn’t be hard to fall for Monaghan, fetching as she is. It’s a great performance that in other actor or director’s hands might’ve been more of an action spectacular than a thoughtful, emotional treatise.

Farmiga as his counterpart soon comes to like her charge and thinks that the coldly scientific Wright doesn’t seem to connect that the source code reader is still a human being and not just a cog in his wheel. We are also subject to many suspenseful moments as we discover who exactly is behind the train explosion and dirty bomb as well as to the final fate of Stevens.

If I did have one niggle, it was that I would’ve ended the film at a particular point. Jones instead continues on and adds a time travel/dimensional angle to things. It was a nice thought provoker, so I can’t fault it too badly.

Source Code is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.78:1). Special features include “Access: Source Code” that pops up cast/crew interviews and other goodies during the film and a commentary with Director Jones, writer Ben Ripley, and Gyllenhaal.

Source Code is an intelligent thriller that proves that Duncan Jones has quite the career ahead of him. The film may have gone such a wrong direction in less thoughtful hands. However, it shows a level of humanity and emotion not found in your usual action thriller, not that there isn’t plenty of action and there is an explosion… about every eight minutes.