Source Code

This article is about the film. For the software concept, see Source code. For "source coding", see Data compression.

Source Code
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Duncan Jones
Written by	Ben Ripley
Produced by	Mark Gordon Jordan Wynn Philippe Rousselet
Starring	Jake Gyllenhaal Michelle Monaghan Vera Farmiga Jeffrey Wright
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Edited by	Paul Hirsch
Music by	Chris P. Bacon
Production companies	The Mark Gordon Company Vendôme Pictures
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release date	April 1, 2011 (2011-04-01)
Running time	93 minutes
Countries	Template:Film US Template:Film France
Language	English
Budget	$32 million
Box office	$111,322,000

Source Code is a 2011 American techno-thriller film directed by Duncan Jones, written by Ben Ripley, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright. The film had its world premiere on March 11, 2011 at SXSW, and was released by Summit Entertainment on April 1, in North America and Europe.

Plot

Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a decorated army helicopter pilot who finds himself on a mission to locate the maker of a bomb which exploded and destroyed a train headed into Chicago. After eight minutes, the bomb goes off, and Stevens awakens to find himself strapped inside a small geodesic dome. There, Air Force Capt. Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) explains to him through a computer screen that he is inside the Source Code, a time loop program that allows him to take over someone's body in a reenactment of their last eight minutes of life.

Stevens has no memory of how he became involved in the Source Code project; his last memory is of flying in a recent mission in Afghanistan while taking on enemy gunfire. Stevens' mission in the Source Code is to locate the bomb, discover who detonated it, and report back to Goodwin before the bomber can detonate a second larger bomb, a dirty nuclear device, in downtown Chicago, which could cause the deaths of millions of people. Goodwin and the Source Code's creator, Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), tell him that the Source Code is not a simulation, but a visit into the past in the form of an alternate reality. He's told that he cannot truly alter the past to save any of the passengers, but that he must gather intel that can be used to alter the future and prevent a future attack. Goodwin assures Stevens that "everything will be ok."

Every time he is sent into the train he awakens in the body of Sean Fentress, a teacher, sitting across from a woman named Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), who knows Fentress. A series of events repeat each time, with variations due to Stevens' acts, while he goes on searching for the terrorist and getting to know Christina, until the bomb that destroys the train goes off and Stevens (as Fentress) dies, sending him back to the chamber.

Even though Rutledge and Goodwin constantly direct him to focus on finding the bomber, each time around he learns more, both about the terrorist attack and his real life personal situation. Stevens resolves to complete his mission, now with the added personal goal of saving Christina and the people on the train if at all possible.

Confused and frustrated, Stevens wonders how he got assigned to this project. Using a cellphone while on the train, he eventually discovers that he supposedly died in the war two months ago. He confronts Goodwin with this information, and learns from Goodwin and Rutledge that his severely injured body was appropriated by the Air Force and used by Rutledge to enter the Source Code. Stevens then asks Rutledge and Goodwin to let him die, which they promise they will do once the mission is finished.

He eventually discovers that the bomber is a disturbed American young man named Derek Frost (Michael Arden), which allows authorities to apprehend Frost and save Chicago before the second bomb is detonated.

With the mission accomplished, and despite their promise, Rutledge orders Stevens' memory to be erased and stored for reuse in further missions. However, Stevens persuades Goodwin to send him in one more time and give him one last chance to avert the train disaster. Goodwin agrees that he deserves to be allowed to die in peace afterwards instead of being held alive as a military brain in a vat.

With the information he has uncovered from previous trips into the Source Code, Stevens is able to defuse the bomb and capture Frost before he can destroy the train.

Stevens and Christina kiss in the last seconds before the plug is to be pulled at the eight-minute mark. In that instant, Goodwin turns off his life support per his request, but to Stevens' surprise, his mind remains in Sean Fentress' body. He was able to safely leave the train with Christina and the rest of the passengers. Now in the alternate universe, an alternate version of Goodwin receives an email from Stevens explaining what has happened and that the Source Code works by connecting or creating alternate realities. The movie ends with Stevens taking Fentress' place, and asking Goodwin to help Captain Colter Stevens and tell him that "everything will be ok.", which Goodwin had told Stevens earlier in the film.

Characters

Captain Colter Stevens

A helicopter pilot in Afghanistan, he is killed and the upper half of his body is used for the Source Code, which allows him to experience different realities in order to figure out information about crimes. He is shown to be intelligent and passionate, and though he is at first confused and frustrated with Goodwin's reluctance to tell him anything, he later comes to respect her.

He falls in love with Christina Warren as he experiences the Source Code over and over again, and uses his last eight minutes within the Source Code to save her life and kiss her. When the eight minutes are up, he finds that he is now forever able to stay in that reality with her, and the two go on their first date.

One of his greatest regrets was his fight with his father, which he never reconciled before his "death." In the alternate reality, he calls his father as Sean Fentress and makes peace with him.

Christina Warren

Having just broken up with her boyfriend, Brian, she is heading off to rediscover herself. It is later revealed that she's been waiting for Sean to ask her out for weeks, though she also says she likes the "new" Sean, (a.k.a. Colter Stevens).

Colter calls her beautiful, kind, and painfully honest, and she is shown to be independent and strong-minded as well-- yelling at Colter when he acts "irrationally" in order to find the bomber. She is shown to be annoyed at Brian, commenting that he never called so much when they were together.

This repeating 8-minute version of Christina is perplexing, not quite real. At one point her face turns to computer graphics. She says exactly the same thing at the beginning of every sequence, no matter what facial emotions Colter is expressing (fear, confusion), whereas real human beings react in microseconds. Furthermore, when the bomb goes off ahead, it does not phase her. She still wants to know what the hell is going on beating up a guy on a train bench. All of this may be explainable if it has something of a simulation aspect, which is not perfect.

Captain Goodwin

The one who interacts with Colter the most, she is the first to brief him on his condition in the Source Code. Though she is at first portrayed as a stoic, emotionless character, she is later shown to care very much about people-- evidenced by her frustration at his insistence on having his questions answered despite the lives at risk.

She develops a relationship with Colter Stevens, and despite not believing that there are such things as alternate realities, agrees to respect his wishes and end his life after sending him back to the Source Code one last time. She does this despite her superior's strict orders, most likely ending her career. She is divorced.

Rutledge

The cold, cruel man who invented the Source Code and who is in charge of the operation, he is determined to utilize the Source Code as a weapon and treats Colter like a machine, giving him letters and numbers rather than addressing him by name.

Despite promising to allow him death after he completes his mission, Rutledge orders Goodwin to erase Colter's memory so that they can use him again. In the alternate reality, where the bomber is stopped by Sean, (secretly Colter), he is shown saying that "one day the appropriate circumstances will arise when the Source Code will be able to be tested."

Derek Frost

A Caucasian man who is responsible for the Chicago train bombing, he is shown at first only as a man who forgot his wallet-- which a college student seemingly returned to him. Later, it is revealed that he dropped his wallet on purpose in order for it to seem like he had died with everyone else.

He drives a white van with a license plate that Colter memorizes, and holds his radioactive bombs inside, locked inside a box painted like the American flag. When Colter apprehends him, he's seemingly calm and even proud of his work, but when Colter, distracted by Christina, turns away, Derek pulls out a gun and shoots both him and Christina, seemingly without any qualms.

When Colter asks why, Derek replies simply that, "Our world is hell." He wants the world to rise from the rubble, but declares that for that to happen, there must first be rubble. In the reality in which Colter stops him, he is shown crying and a newspaper reporter later comments that he had an anti-government website.

Cast

• Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens/Sean Fentress
• Michelle Monaghan as Christina Warren
• Vera Farmiga as Colleen Goodwin
• Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Rutledge
• Cas Anvar as Hazmi
• Russell Peters as Max Denoff
• Michael Arden as Derek Frost
• Scott Bakula as Stevens' father (Voice cameo)

Pre-production

David Hahn, the boy depicted in the 2003 made-for-television documentary The Nuclear Boy Scout, was the inspiration for the antagonist Derek Frost.

After seeing Moon, Gyllenhaal lobbied for Jones to direct Source Code; Jones liked the fast-paced script; as he later said, "there were all sorts of challenges and puzzles and I kind of like solving puzzles, so it was kind of fun for me to work out how to achieve all these difficult things that were set up in the script."

Production

Principal photography began on March 1, 2010 in Montreal, Canada and ended on April 29, 2010. Several scenes were shot in Chicago, Illinois, specifically at Millennium Park and the Main Building at the Illinois Institute of Technology, although the sign showing the name of the latter, in the intersection of 31st Street and S LaSalle Street was edited out. In the ending scene, Jake Gyllenhaal's and Michelle Monaghan's characters are seen walking through the park, making their way to the Cloud Gate structure.

Post-production

Editing took place in Los Angeles. In July 2010, the film was in the visual effects stage of post-production. Jones had confirmed that the film's soundtrack would be composed by Clint Mansell, in his second collaboration with the composer. However, it was later announced that Mansell would no longer score the movie's soundtrack due to time constraints, and he was replaced by Chris P. Bacon.

Release

Critical response

Source Code has received widely favorable reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 91% of critics have given the film a positive review (based on 216 reviews), with an average score of 7.5/10. The critical consensus is: "Finding the human story amidst the action, director Duncan Jones and charming Jake Gyllenhaal craft a smart, satisfying sci-fi thriller." Metacritic has awarded the film an average score 74/100 based on 41 reviews. Critics have compared Source Code with the 1993 film Groundhog Day, or called it a "cross between Groundhog Day and Murder on the Orient Express." Arizona Republic film critic Bill Goodykoontz says comparing Source Code to Groundhog Day is doing a disservice to Source Code's enthralling "mind game."

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "Confounding, exhilarating, challenging—and the best movie I've seen so far in 2011." Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, calling it "an ingenious thriller" where "you forgive the preposterous because it takes you to the perplexing." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called Ben Ripley's script "cleverly constructed" and a film "crisply directed by Duncan Jones", while also praising the "cast with the determination and ability to really sell its story." CNN called Ripley's script "ingenious" and the film "as authoritative an exercise in fractured storytelling as Christopher Nolan's Memento"; Gyllenhaal is "more compelling here than he's been in a long time." IGN gave it a 2.5/5, saying "Gyllenhaal brings sincerity and warmth to his role, but his conviction only helps the movie so far before it ultimately buckles under the weight of its plot mechanics."

Box office performance

Source Code was released in theaters on April 1, 2011. In the United States and Canada, Source Code was released theatrically in 2,961 conventional theaters. The film grossed $5,053,494 during its opening day on April 1, 2011, with midnight screenings in 2,961 locations. Overall the film made $14,812,094 and debuted at #2 on its opening weekend.

External links

• Official website
• Source Code at IMDb
• Source Code at AllMovie
• Source Code at Rotten Tomatoes
• Source Code at Metacritic
• Source Code at Box Office Mojo