Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the first great movie of 2011. “Source Code” is a top-notch science fiction thriller about a secret government program that allows a person to relive the last eight minutes of another person’s life. This is possible because each person has an eight-minute track of short-term memory that theoretically can be preserved after death. The government sends a soldier back into the memory of a teacher named Sean Fennersten. Once he is in the Source Code, he inhabits Fennersten’s body for eight minutes before a bomb explodes onboard the train he is riding in, killing Fennersten and all the other passengers. The soldier has free will and can control Fennersten’s body, even going so far as to change events within the memory, but he won’t be able to save anybody because the bomb already went off in the past. The soldier’s mission is to identify the bomber in order to prevent another impending terrorist attack. This theoretical technology is completely absurd. I was expecting to see a flux capacitor somewhere but instead the scientist in charge merely invoked quantum mechanics and parabolic calculus. Obviously, he’s counting on my ignorance of the subject so I won't know exactly why his explanation is ridiculous. Well played, sir. But still the story works extremely well because the director, Duncan Jones, and the writer, Ben Ripley, instinctively know that the power in any science fiction story is not how the technology works but how it enables the characters to fulfill some universal need or desire that normally would be impossible to achieve. Why would anyone want to relive the past? Is it because if you knew then what you know now, you wouldn’t have said what you said or done what you did? Let’s be honest. Time travel, at least to the recent past, is about regret. The soldier, Captain Colter Stevens, being the first test subject of this technology doesn’t really know what he is doing. And so he consistently fails in one way or another before the eight minutes runs out and he dies a fiery death, again. Unlike the rest of us, he can reset the clock and start all over. Perhaps, if given enough tries, he can find a way to use his time wisely.
This conceit should be most familiar to anyone who has seen the great movies “Groundhog Day” and “Run Lola Run.” Stevens, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, starts each Source Code at the same place right before the woman across from him, his girlfriend, played by Michelle Monaghan, thanks him for his advice. Nobody else in the train remembers the last train ride. This means two things: One, Stevens can act as impulsively and rashly as he wants and not fear any reprisal because the world ends in eight minutes. And Two: Since nobody remembers, nobody can really help him. It’s a good that Stevens spends much more time acting rashly than trying to convince anybody of the situation. He’s not wasting any time, and besides, they’re all dead anyway. Give credit to the Ben Ripley because Stevens’ actions have a persistent logical thread to them. He never repeats himself and no other passenger ever changes his or her personality. (Monaghan, in particular, does a pretty good job of being somebody one could logically fall for in eight minutes). This is a movie you can pay close attention to and get a kick out of how they don’t cheat. Everything is considered and taken into account. I especially liked how the writer put a professional comedian, played by Russell Peters, just two rows behind Stevens as this gives the movie several excuses for witty quips once Stevens’ behavior starts getting more and more irregular. I also got a kick out of when Stevens automatically resorts to racial profiling during one of his first runs because, let’s be honest, if you knew there was a ticking time bomb and nothing else, wouldn’t you suspect the only middle-eastern guy on the train. This movie isn’t afraid to admit that undesirable tendency. Stevens follows him off the train at the next stop, confronts him, and assaults him. And as he is beating him up, to the horror and shock of his girlfriend and everybody else at the station, somebody else activates the bomb and the train in the distance blows up anyway. Back to the drawing board, buddy. No, it’s not going to be that easy.
I won’t go too much more into the plot because following where it twists and turns is a natural pleasure of the movie. Except for one more thing: Why doesn’t Captain Colter Stevens remember training for this mission? The last thing he remembers is being in Afghanistan with his unit. Then one day he wakes up to find himself as Fennersten. At the end of each eight minutes he finds himself in a type of isolated chamber speaking over a video intercom to a soldier named Goodwin, played by Vera Farmiga, and a scientist, played by Jeffrey Wright. Where is he? I won’t tell you but if you ever saw Duncan Jones’ first movie, Moon, the discovery that Colter Stevens eventually makes is not unlike astronaut Sam Rockwell’s discovery that he is living in a cloned body that has a contractual expiration date. Duncan Jones has only two movies under his belt but he is already developing a personal style and motif. His movies are low budget but look like they cost quite a bit. They are sleek, clean, and tightly wound. He is especially interested in science, technology, and bureaucracy’s disregard of the sanctity of human consciousness. If Jones ever wanted to make a period piece, Frankenstein would be the perfect story to adapt. He has a keen understanding of the topic.
For my money, this movie is about two minutes two long. There’s a nice moment near the end with a still frame pause. They should have just held that for a few more seconds and then went straight to the credits. But hey, that’s just me.
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