Movie Review: Source Code

The other night we watched Source Code. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a military helicopter pilot who finds himself in the middle of a secret government experiment.

Let me start out by saying I am not a big fan of action movies or anything to do with government or war. I didn't even know how this movie ended up on our Netflix list until we saw that the director was Duncan Jones. He had directed Moon, one of our favorite mind-bending science fiction thrillers. This movie was right in the same vein. It is a serious mind screw. It's sort of like Groundhog Day meets Inception.

Captain Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) wakes up on a train surrounded by strangers who seem to know him, but as someone else. After trying to explain he isn't who they think he is, he plays along. A few minutes later the train explodes and suddenly he is in a dark chamber full of electronic equipment and monitors. He is told he is part of an experiment that will allow him to enter the mind of someone on that exploded train and discover the identity of the bomber. He has the power to prevent a worse attack that is about to take place. The team will send him back to relive the same 8 minutes over and over until he finds out what they need to know. What the inventor of the "source code" doesn't realize is that there is more going on than what they intended.

I loved this movie! My whole family loved this movie. It had us gasping, laughing, crying, shouting at the screen and cheering at the ending. This is the sort of movie that has you questioning your very existence.