Done and Dusted: Source Code

When I saw the trailers for this I penned this in as a must see. One thing led to another and I never got round to it.

So I was gad when this hit DVD so I could watch it and enjoy some of the best sci fi and sci fact in a while. Ill get back to the fact bit near the end.

The film starts with Army helicopter pilot Colter Stevens, played by Jake Gyllenhaal of Donnie Darko fame, waking up on a train, being refer too as Shawn, and generally have a very confusing and frightening 8 minutes. He looks different to who he is, he is near Chicago and he is being talked to by a woman who seems to know him. Or at least the person he looks like. Then the world explodes.

When he wakes he finds himself in a cockpit of his aircraft being talked to by an Air Force Captain Colleen Goodwin, Vera Farmiga, who verifies his identity, a strange process. Between her and Dr. Rutledge, Jeffrey Wright, he learns he is part of the source code. This device takes two phenomenons, one of which is the electrical charge that is stored within the human mind after death. The other is a human’s memory of the last 8 minutes of life. Using this, the source code and create an alternate reality where they can find out who bombed the train and stop a further bombing occurring.

During the film he jumps back many times, creating a strong bond with the woman, Christine, and a desire to save the passengers. He also discovers that he actually died, and in questioning the Captain finds out that he is on life support. The Captain empathises with his condition, but Dr Rutledge just sees him as a tool to further his project.

The film pans out quite quickly and tells a great story, you end up wondering if he could affect reality with his actions and really end up cheering him on. Its very groundhog day like that, but the twist at the end if mind blowingly fantastic.

This is where I head to the sci fact part of my initial lead in. Of course, as this is theory and conjecture there will always be those that state that it is sci fi. However, during my adventures into writing I concocted a theory for travelling within different dimension/timelines. If you could find a way of shifting your energy/essence from one reality signature you could jump to another. You could see what the left path was, then shift yourself to a universe where you take the right whilst retaining everything you learnt.

This was all random theory for a sci fi piece that I never wrote, but it was some incredible thinking that was done during my often-extended period of insomnia. Or spells in the bath.

This film, with the twist, almost took this idea word for word and it made me very happy to see this kind of thinking in a film. Most films avoid the high brow for fear of losing audiences, but taking the risk is well worth it.

This is a good film for sci fi fans and anyone who likes sci fi series like slides and quantum leap. The characters are nice, if not too deeply explored, and sometimes quite 2D. The scenery is lovely, and the action scenes push the film forward with necessity rather than explosions just because.