Source Code Review

At one point in this movie the main character asks the lead female character, what would she do if she had less than a minute to live. She responds that she would make those seconds count. Here those final moments really do count as the moments that lie between life and death. The suspense is out in full swing as Jake Gyllenhaal is out to find a bomber in only a certain limited window of time before many people die.

Gyllenhaal portrays Colter Stevens, who is a military pilot that served in Afganistan. He is taking part in this top secret government program called “Source Code”. At this point the program is in its final test phase before it will be initiated and Stevens is the subject who can either make or break the program. “Source Code” is designed to be a weapon, that if proved fully functional, could play an important role in the war on terror. The incident that Stevens is acting in is for a Chicago commuter train that is blown up by a hidden terrorist bomb. Through the source code program Stevens will wake up in the body of one of the passengers. He wakes up apporximately eight minutes before the bomb explodes. His mission is to find the bomb and the bomber. The kick about this program is that by using it to find out who the bomber is so that he can be stopped from carrying out another proposed attack.

This film is probably Jake Gyllenhaal’s best movie in a while. He becomes the character that he portrays and develops a certain degree of sympathy as we find out more about him. He is also aided by a top notch trio of supporters like Michelle Monaghan who portrays the female passenger that he becomes very attached too. Vera Farmiga, who plays the commander in charge of the mission, is equally impressive. She quickly feels for Gyllenhaal’s Stevens in which she is able to make a personal connection with him. Rounding out the trio is Jeffrey Wright who portrays the scientist/creator of the source code program. He is your typical bureaucrat who will let nothing stand in his way of proving that his creation works. But even then he is still impressive at portraying that type of character.

In addition to having a quartet of excellent performances, the film itself is a very good thriller. Essentially it is ninety minutes of pure nonstop suspence. It does not waste any time in getting to the point and fleshing out its characters. It delivers on everything that you would expect to find in a suspense fueled thriller. This film is probably one of the better movies so far this year in terms of thriller. Jake Gyllenhaal is at the top of his game and hopefully he can deliver more stuff like this.

By Adam Miller

Movies Correspondent and Associate Producer, The RPM Show

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