Source Code (2011)

A race against time, as Jake Gyllenhaal attempts to prevent a major terrorist attack on Chicago by entering a machine called the Source Code and living the last eight minutes of a man who was blown up in a previous attack.

After a train is blown up en route to Chicago city centre, the American military believe that this is a pre-warning for a bigger, more catastrophic attack that will take place later that day, and therefore need to find the culprit before they strike again. Gyllenhaal plays the unwitting soldier who has been chosen to enter the Source Code, and constantly relive a man’s last eight minutes on the train that was blown up, in order to find clues about the terrorist. The Source Code manages to utilize a newly killed body, and use the synapses in the brain to create a startlingly realistic template for that body’s last minutes on earth.

Gyllenhaal attempts to figure out, not only who this terrorist is and what they have planned next, but also how he ended up in the Source Code, as he has no prior knowledge of the last two months of his life. He endures countless journeys on this same train, getting to grips with the bomb, learning about the passengers, and trying to make sense out of this chaotic “reality”.

It is a marvellous film to have emerged this year, one which went largely unnoticed at cinemas, but it is definitely worth a watch. It takes many aspects of time-oriented films like Vantage Point (2008) and Groundhog Day (1993), as well as ferocious action movies like Mission Impossible (1996) and Unstoppable (2010). Gyllenhaal has a history of providing excellent performances, and this film is no exception: he has a gift at portraying vulnerable yet heroic characters. His two supporting actresses Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga are a well chosen duo, who give talented displays in very different ways.

If you like action adrenaline films, plenty of revelations, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, then this is a brilliant choice. It delivered far more than previously predicted, and is a film to revisit.