DVD review: Source Code ***

Source Code ***

Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi

Rating: PG-13

Director: Duncan Jones

Actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga

Some of us believe that everything in life is predetermined, that we only live out that which we are destined to do.

Others believe that we control our destinies making our own path in life through our actions and interactions with others.  Source Code, written by Ben Ripley, challenges the idea that many of us hold on what life really is and what happens ‘next’.

Director Duncan Jones takes us on a thought provoking, fast paced ride in this hybrid action movie.

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a helicopter pilot stationed in Iraq, awakes to find himself on a train, heading to Chicago with a woman completely unknown to him. 

To make matters worse, he is in a body that isn’t his. 

He soon discovers that he is part of a secret
government programme on a mission to find the bomber of the train he just woke up on. Think Groundhog Day meets The Matrix starring Jason Bourne.

Captain Stevens finds himself being thrown back in to the same eight-minute scenario time and time again trying to find clues as to whom the bomber is so they can stop the much larger imminent attack on downtown Chicago.

As Captain Stevens learns the fate of his “real” body the question of mortality and life comes into play. What the government believes is a “window” into the past Captain Stevens believes is something far more complex than anyone has even begun to imagine. Will he be able to save the day, save himself and if so, which one of himself, if any is he going to save?

Source Code can be called the intellectual man’s action movie. There’s just enough twist and turns to class it as a thriller but enough explosions to be an action movie. The repetition of the script is offset by the decisions of Captain Stevens, where it’s one man vs. fate…Or is it?